September 27, 2009 CSL Serbian White Eagles vs TFC Academy (from Toronto FC.ca)
Academy Seniors Down After First Leg
Reds youngsters lost 1-0 in playoffs against Serbian White Eagles
09/28/2009 12:30 PM
TorontoFC.ca
Academy Seniors off to a tough start as second leg awaits. (TorontoFC.ca) Toronto FC's Senior Academy went down 1-0 to Serbian White Eagles at Centennial Stadium in first leg of their first round tie in the Canadian Soccer League Playoffs. The second leg will be played at Lamport Stadium on Saturday (October 3rd) at 3:30 p.m.
Serbia started the match very brightly and threatened TFC Academy on a number of occasions but failed to score. TFC slowly played their way into the match and in the 14th minute had a glorious opportunity to take the lead when Allando Matheson played a clever ball to his strike partner Justin Maheu who shot wide of the near post.
Both teams had a few more half chances in the first half until Sasa Vicikinez changed the match shortly before half time. Serbia were awarded a free kick 30 yards from goal and Vicikinez stepped up to curl a shot around the wall and into the bottom right corner for the 1-0 lead.
The second half started with TFC Academy mounting pressure on Serbia but the former champions were resilient in defence. TFC controlled the majority of the play in the second half but failed to create any clear cut goal scoring opportunities. TFC had legitimate claims for a penalty in injury time at the end of the match when the ball appeared to strike the hand of a Serbia defender, but the referee failed to award the spot kick and the first leg finished 1-0 in favour of the White Eagles.
"Our players performed to a high degree and certainly earned the respect of the opposition players and staff," said Senior Team Head Coach Jason Bent. "Unfortunately we failed to convert some of our first half chances. Defensively I felt our back four was magnificent today and we got strong performances throughout the team. Serbia is a talented, experienced squad and it's not a surprise that their winner came from the boot of Sasa Vicikinez. He is an experienced pro and although he has caused us concern it is great for our young players to compete against someone like him. In the end, the game could have gone either way and our players will take confidence from their performance and go into the second leg with a desire to beat the former champions and give us an opportunity to extend the tie."
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