SERBIAN WHITE EAGLES BIDDING FOR FOURTH CSL FINAL IN AS MANY YEARS........Convincing 3-1 victory over Toronto Croatia in Sunday's semi-final
2009-10-12
Serbian White Eagles looked strong in their bid to reach the CSL Championship Final for the fourth year in succession with a convincing 3-1 victory over Toronto Croatia in a highly entertaining first leg of a 2-game semi-final series played at Centennial Stadium in Etobicoke Sunday afternoon.
The team that won the International Division in the season just ended and which represented its community in Canada so well in years past, played well enough in the early stages of Sunday’s game to suggest that it’s going to be a difficult proposition to prevent Serbian Eagles from successfully defending CSL title win of last October 26.
It took just seven minutes for Jonathan Hurtis to put his team one-up when he connected with a corner kick to put the ball past Toronto Croatia ‘keeper Dan Pelc. It was the first of two goals by the midfielder, while forward Kirik Dimitrov scored the third and it was Toronto Croatia’s Antonio Zupan who scored his team’s only goal in the 3-1 win by the Serbian side.
The return match brings the two teams back to Centennial Stadium next Saturday afternoon, October 17, which provides an opportunity for Croatia to bounce back with a win at 90 minutes that would take the decision into 30 minutes of overtime and penalty kicks, if necessary.
But Sunday’s win by Serbian White Eagles spelled a strong determination to get to the final at Toronto’s BMO Field on October 24 for a repeat of last year’s championship success.
Upcoming games and summary of the CSL playoffs: CSL PLAYOFFS (Semi-finals - 2-game home and away points aggregate series) Sunday’s Result Semi-finals – 1st Leg Serbian White Eagles 3, Toronto Croatia 1 Return Game – Semi-final 2nd. Leg Saturday, October 17, Centennial Stadium 4 pm Serbian White Eagles vs. Toronto Croatia Saturday’s Result Semi-finals – 1st Leg Italia Shooters 3, Trois-Rivieres Attak 3 Return Game – Semi-final 2nd. Leg Sunday, October 18, Trois-Riviers 3 pm Trois-Rivieres Attak vs. Italia Shooters CSL Championship – Final (One game final) Saturday, October 24, 5 pm - BMO Field
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