October 26, 2011 CSL--preview of CSL Final (from CSL website)
Time honoured Toronto Croatia challenged by first year Capital City - IT'S THE CSL CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL SATURDAY It’s Toronto Croatia with a history going back 55 years and with a list of achievements unmatched in the annals of Canadian professional soccer. The opposition is Capital City FC, the team from Ottawa in its inaugural season in the Canadian Soccer League. They meet in the CSL Championship Final on Saturday. Looking back on some of the history, Toronto Croatia won the National Soccer League (NSL) championship four years running (1970 through 1973) – the NSL was a forerunner league of today’s CSL. Toronto Croatia also won the North American championship as Toronto Metros Croatia in 1976 when the team included the now legendary Portuguese superstar Eusebio, recruited from Europe and a master of the attractive short passing game which the team adopted. In recent times, Toronto Croatia won the CSL title in 2000, 2004 and again in 2007, the year they won the inaugural Croatian World Championship. They repeated their Croatian World Championship victory this year against teams NK Croatia Zurich (Switzerland), Dinamo Ottakring from Vienna, Croatia Berlin from Germany and Canberra of Australia. In the 26-game regular season just ended, Toronto Croatia finished second, losing just three games and conceding the least goals (21) in the CSL First Division. But Capital City FC, the team from Ottawa in its inaugural year in professional soccer, is not at all fazed by the impressive credentials. They finished third in the 14-team First Division, one below their Toronto opposition. They conceded just one more – 22. "We are very respectful of our opponent. Toronto Croatia are a good, experienced side and their consistent history speaks for itself." But I do believe we have a young and dynamic group of professionals that are as motivated and committed to winning and on the day a Cup Final will be decided by the team which does it’s job best, therefore we approach this match as any other and confident we can win a trophy in our first year," said Shaun Harris, head coach of Capital City. Capital City FC was launched to kickoff this season by Neil Malhotra, an executive in his family business Claridge Homes, Ottawa’s largest condominum developer and second largest homebuilder. The venue: Toronto Croatia vs. Capital City of Ottawa Centennial Stadium Etobicoke (Rathburn Rd and Renforth Drive) Saturday, October 29, Kickoff 5pm
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