Monday July 7, 2003
NEWS
TORONTO CROATIA PICK UP FIRST WIN
Toronto Croatia picked up their first win of the season with a 2-0 victory over North York Astros at Esther Shiner Stadium in North York, the only game played in the Canadian Professional Soccer League on Monday night.
The win caused a sigh of relief in the Croatia team following what is considered to be the worst beginning to a season in the long history of a club that goes back several decades.
It took Croatia 430 minutes of playing time over five games before scoring their first league goal in a 2-1 loss to Brampton on July 4. In addition to five league losses, the Mississauga-based team were also eliminated from the Open Canada Cup, a 4-2 loss to Toronto Supra on June 29.
But Croatia looked strong against a home side bidding to take over at the top of the Western Conference—a win by Astros would have put them there. Peter Curic blasted a shot from 12 yards to open the scoring for Croatia at the 54th minute mark and Hugo Alstitud made it 2-0 at 79 minutes after Astros’goalkeeper Arthur Zaslavski stopped a breakaway by Croatia’s Halburto Harris
North York’s Fernando Flores was given a red card midway through the second half just after Croatia had opened the scoring.
Toronto Croatia are still at the foot of the Western Conference with a 1-4-0 WLT record for three points, while North York stay in second position with a 2-3-2 record and eight points.
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