July 3, 2007 CSL Toronto Croatia win world title (from CSL media release)
TORONTO CROATIA WINS WORLD TITLE
Tuesday - July 3, 2007
Sain named MVP
Toronto Croatia has won the Croatian World Cup, the inaugural competition that brought together Croatian teams from throughout the world for games in Zagreb and the surrounding cities during the past 10 days.
The CSL team defeated Croatia Canberra of Australia 3-1 in the final on Saturday and the victory followed earlier wins against Croatia San Pedro of the United States - a 2-1 result - and an earlier, a 9-1 romp over Croatia Essen of Germany. The Toronto team got on the right foot with a 1-0 win over Gradiscanski Hrvat Croatia of Austria in the opener.
The 3-1 win over the team from Australia in the final was a rough and tumble affair. Toronto Croatia were down 1-0 at the interval, but came back in the second half with goals from Marko Badenikovic on a penalty at 2 minutes, Robert Grnja at 80 minutes and a third by Robert Fran at 87 minutes. Toronto Croatia missed two penalty kicks in the game.
Domagoj Sain of Toronto Croatia was declared the tournament’s MVP. Sain has been a standout in the CSL with awards that included Defender of the Year in 2003.
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