Mirror-Guardian: Second Time Tougher for Toronto Supra

Second time around tougher for Toronto Supra soccer club
Etobicoke

Sam Laskaris
Aug. 28, 2002

So far the Toronto Supra's second season has been a lot tougher than its inaugural one.

A year ago the Supra, which played its home contests at Brockton Stadium, was one of the biggest surprises in the Canadian Professional Soccer League.

The Supra posted a 12-5-5 regular season mark, good for third place in the then 12-team league. It also advanced to the league playoff final, where it was edged 1-0 by the St. Catharines Roma Wolves.

As for this season, the club, which now plays its home games at Etobicoke's Centennial Stadium, has been struggling in its expanded 14-squad league.

The Supra sports a disappointing 2-5-1 record. It sits in last place in the league's seven-team Eastern Conference.

The Supra though can still move up considerably in the standings. While it has played just eight games - all other league entrants have played at least 11 - some other franchises have already had 14 matches.

The Supra had four of its games postponed earlier this summer. One was a rainout while the other three were due to the strike by Toronto's outdoor workers, which prevented them from utilizing Centennial Stadium.

Those games have all been rescheduled for next month.

"September is going to be a very busy month," said Vito Cameira, the Supra general manager.

Cameira said there's a rather valid reason why his side is not performing as well as it did a year ago.

"We've lost five key players from last season," he said. "We brought in some new guys to the team that we thought would help out but that didn't work out. Two of the guys we ended up trading."

And Cameira does not know the status of another player he was counting on for leadership, striker Eddy Berdusco, a former Canadian national team member. Berdusco had incurred a three-game league suspension earlier this year.

"His wife just had a kid, their second kid, and now he's contemplating retirement," Cameira said of Berdusco.

The Supra's next game is scheduled for tomorrow, at home versus the Oshawa-based Durham Flames, at 9 p.m.

While he didn't know whether Berdusco would be playing, Cameira knew one other thing. He said he was giving up the club's coaching duties to concentrate on his managerial responsibilities. Cameira said he had hired a new coach, who was to be introduced sometime this week.


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