................
................
Result of the Sunday July 11th, 2004 CPSL game between Metro Lions and Toronto Croatia played at Birchmount Stadium in Scarborough at 6:00pm.
Metro Lions (white socks and shirts, navy shorts, red numbers)
..............................00 Alex Pereski
.............13 Kareem Reynolds...8 Sasha Kosanovic...4 Wessely Gilbert
21 Aaron Benjamin...9 Darryl Gomez...11 Gabriel Salustias...10 Hayden Fitzwilliams...18 Billy Ninopoulos
......................20 Maxim Dorneval...19 Craig Patton
Subs:...25 Gregory Drakes (gk)...22 Marko Janjicek...17 Ibrahim Kalown...12 Mishel Levkov...6 Ainsley Romany...23 Jose Souza...14 Kevin Ricketts
team officials:...manager Lugo Lugomirski...coach Goran Miscevic...assistant coach Blagoya Bratic...officials Ken Mollineau and Andrew Sulkowski
Toronto Croatia (blue socks, white shorts and numbers, red shirts)
...........................1 George Azcurra
.............5 Antonijo Zupan...14 Joseph Cosentino...6 Mario Kulis
10 Leo Laurito...9 Zvjezdan Kresic...8 Hugo Alstitud...15 Joseph Lewe...7 Marko Bedenikovic
...................3 Halburto Harris...16 Edin Kalic
Subs:...2 Ante Pavlovic (def)...4 Rudy Spajic (mid)...22 Sam El-Masri (mid)
team officials:...manager Theo Krajacic...head coach Aldo Krajcar...officials Josip Cvitanovic and Ivan Cuvalo
Game officials:...referee Calin Pintea...referee's assistants Alex William and Justin Tasev...fourth official Alex Mariano...(yellow shirts, black shorts and socks)...match observer Ken Thomas.
1st Half:...game starts 6:04pm...ML defend south warm evening, sun in north west.
2 min...TC Laurito cross from near right corner whistled down in box.
3 min...ML Gomez fed ball on left and cross pushed wide left by diving goalie.
3 min...ML player's cornerkick from left is kicked to left edge of box for cross then pass dropped back and ML Salustius blasts 15 yarder over net from right.
5 min...ML Dorneval races on left has 30 yard shot to goalie while not pressured.
6 min...ML Dorneval gets to through ball on left and cross cleared.
8 min...Lions Gabriel Salustias GOAL...ML Hayden Fitzwilliams shot from right, flying goalie George Azcurra stops shot, ML Salustias in crowd of players in box but unchallenged gets 10 yard blast to left corner of net.
9 min...Toronto Croatia Edin Kalic GOAL...TC Leo Laurito who's already in ML box sends cross from right and leaping TC Kalic on 5 yard header on left to flick in ball to right side of net.
11 min...Toronto Croatia Zvjezdan Kresic GOAL...TC Antonijo Zupan cross from right has TC Halburto Harris nod header from 18 yards back to TC Kresic on right and in open, puts 10 yard blast into left side of net.
14 min...ML Fitzwilliams on left wing run, 15 yard shot is wide left.
16 min...ML Salustius gets two point blank saves on goalie on left of box trying to cross and goalie chases after second rebound and picks it up.
20 min...Lions Hayden Fitzwilliams GOAL...ML Darryl Gomez 30 yard freekick from right, Fitzwilliams flicks 12 yard header that hits underside of crossbar, has ball hit ground and deflect up and hit underside of crossbar again but this time deflect into net. Now that was a hard header!
22 min...ML Fitzwilliams blast deflected off defender from 15 yards hits football crossbar over soccer net.
23 min...ML player's cornerkick from left, ML Gilbert cross into box that goalie palms wide than has cross that he heads away and defender clears.
24 min...ML player cornerkick from right cleared out of box.
28 min...TC Kresic freekick from near right corner is blocked by head of defender in two man wall.
30 min...Lions Maxim Dorneval GOAL...ML Hayden Fitzwilliams rushes through middle, stutter steps by defender even with him and short pass to ML Dorneval for him to jab 5 yarder on right to short side of net.
31 min...TC Kalic injured on ML edge of box.
32 min...TC Zupan cross from right into box and TC Laurito one touch blast from 12 yards on left stopped by flying goalie.
38 min...ML Gilbert gets foot behind himself to clear cross from left into box with TC player waiting on right.
38 min...TC Alstitud charges into crowd in box to blast 15 yard shot well over net.
40 min...ML Gilbert gets ball 30 yards out on left side and looks around to pass but then connects on blast wide left of net.
41 min...TC Kresic rush along 25 yard line running towards center pushed pass too far.
42 min...Toronto Croatia Antonijo Zupan GOAL...TC Leo Laurito cornerkick from left is well over box, TC Mario Kulis blasts ball from right is through players in box and stopped by sprawling goalie Alex Pereski of left post. Zupan slides and pokes 3 yarder into left side of net.
44 min...ML Salustius 25 yard freekick from right is plamed over bar by goalie.
46 min...TC Lewe long throw-in from right, TC Kalic on end line has shot blocked by sliding goalie who pushes ball over end line.
47 min...TC player's cornerkick from right is headed out of box by leaping defender.
47 min...half ends 6:51pm.
2nd Half:...starts 7:05pm.
46 min...ML YELLOW card...Ninopoulos for knocking player down.
49 min...TC Kalic gets to bouncing through ball and 20 yard rushed shot is wide left of net.
50 min...TC goalie dives on edge of box to trap though ball.
51 min...TC Bendenikovic 30 yard freekick from left, ML defender pops up header, goalie palms ball wide left of post.
54 min...ML sub...Janjicek replaces Benjamin.
55 min...ML Gilbert long 40 yard throw-in from left into box that goalie stops.
59 min...ML Patton dribbles into TC box but third defender finally stops him.
61 min..ML Gomez 40 yards shot through crowd just wide left.
63 min...ML Ninopoulos hurt in TC box when he ran into TC Zupan.
66 min...ML Dorneval rush on right low cross through box and defender clears.
67 min...TC goalie makes two saves in a row on close in box action.
68 min...TC Lewe 40 yard blast from left is wide left of goal.
70 min...TC goalie makes point blank save. TC player injured in box until two more shots are taken and finally the referee blows the whistle.
75 min...ML Gilbert injured just outside ML box.
..............TC sub...Pavlovic replaces Lewe.
77 min...TC YELLOW card...Kulis for mouthing off 50 yards away. (actually the PA system mistakenly announced the card was for the goalie).
79 min...ML sub...Romany replaces Patton.
85 min...ML Ninopoulos cornerkick from left is low and cleared.
86 min...TC Laurito rush on right eludes defender and low cross through box missed by everyone.
87 min...TC Kresic injured in own end.
88 min...TC Yellow card...goalie George Azcurra for bumping player on through ball just outside box.
89 min...Lions Darryl Gomez GOAL...ML Gomez chips 20 yard freekick over seven or eight man wall with an ML player on each side charging in as decoys and ball ducks just under bar on right side of net.
90 min...Lions RED card...Billy Ninopoulos picks up his second Yellow card from referee Calin Pintea for a clip of TC player near sideline.
91 min...ML Salustius puts ball into outside left webbing of net after getting short pass in clear.
92 min...ML sub...Ricketts replaces Salustius.
95 min...game ends.
Final Score:.......Metro Lions.......4..........Toronto Croatia........3.......
Attendance was about 100 on this warm evening with the sun in the northwest.
Wow! We don't see seven goals in an evenly matched CPSL game very often. Although it may seem like the goaltending was suspect, both goalies had to come up with some spectacular saves or the score would have been even higher. It was just a day when everything went right with through balls hitting their man and freekicks and crosses just finding their way though. Alex Pereski was filling in for the Lions injured Gregory Drakes in goal.
Toronto Croatia only had three substitutes today and with the game never slowing down in action although the goalscoring did in the second half, the players may have been tiring although the winning game was on a set piece. The play that set up the freekick was goalie George Azcurra having to come out to play a through ball that eluded the Toronto Croatia defense.
With so many through balls and passes, most of the goals were disputed as offsides and many of the offside calls that were given were complained about.
Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca
.
.