August 18, 2013 CSL--Toronto Croatia vs SC Waterloo (by Rocket Robin)

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Result and details of the Sunday August 18, 2013 CSL game between Toronto Croatia and SC Waterloo held at Centennial Stadium in Etobicoke at 8:00pm.

Toronto Croatia (blue socks, white shorts and numbers, red shirts)

....................12 Antonio Ilic
........4 Sven Arapovic...3 Josip Keran...15 Ainsley Deer
11 Jarek Whiteman...21 Daniel Niksic...18 Boze Poljak...22 Mladen Bajamic...20 Daivd Alva
............9 Kresimir Prgomet...10 Tihomir Maletic (cpt)

Subs:...1 Sergio Moralo (gk)...5 Roberto Galle (mid)...6 Hrvoje Perkovic (def)...7 Halburto Harris (def)...8 Hayden Fitzwilliams (mid)
...19 Nikola Brtan (mid)...25 Joseph Filipic (mid)
team officials:...assistant coach Velimir Crljan...manager Ivan Kulis...physio Amando Liddle

SC Waterloo (white socks and shirts, black shorts, blue numbers)

....................1 Imad Hakura
9 Shawn Brown...4 Predrag Papaz...3 Nemanja Simeunovic...7 Jhon Inglis
..........2 David Muir...6 Vladimir Zelenbaba...8 Mirza Colic
.........14 Adis Hasecic...10 Drazen Vukovic (cpt)...11 Ranko Golijanin

Subs:...12 Zoran Pusica (gk)...5 Dado Hadrovic (def)...15 Terel Christian (fwd)...16 Dale Cudmore (def)...17 Erwin Uzunovic (fwd)
...19 Mohammad-Ali Heydarpour (mid)
team officials:...head coach Laza Dzepina...manager Vojislav Brisevac...director Tony Kecis

Game officials:...referee Armando Pereira...referee's assistants Ramee Arbaji and Brian Butler...fourth official Scott Decker...(all black uniforms, neon yellow trim)

1st Half:...game starts 8:16pm...TC defends south end.
2 min...SCW Hasecic is tapped short pass on right and he rolls 22 yard shot that goalie smothers.
3 min...TC Bajamic injured SCW Colic on tackle at center line.
7 min...SCW player chips cross that's offside on left edge of box.
9 min...TC Whiteman can't beat defender to pass on rigght before it crosses end line.
11 min...SCW Vukovic 25 yard freekick from extreme right is just over head of SCW Papaz on left post and ball bounces out for goalkick.
13 min...SCW Muir gets centering pass insdie box and almost overruns ball but low 10 yard shot that diving goalie smothers at 2 yards preventing it from rolls further left.
16 min...SCW Golijanin wins cornerkick on 1 on 2 rush up left on deflection.
17 min...SCW Hasecic cornerkick from left has TC Maletic as nearest defender head ball away.
18 min...SCW Hasecic 30 yard freekick from left hits outside left mesh of net.
19 min...SCW Vukovic quick freekick chip from 40 yards from right is forward to SCW Muir and his 25 yard shot from right is high and wide right of net.
20 min...SCW Hasecic is threaded pass forward up right wing and 25 yard shot is wide right.
23 min...TC Alva cornerkick from left has defender in box head ball away.
24 min...TC Alva 30 yard shot dowm middle is crowd of players is well over net.
25 min...TC Whiteman rush to ball on right and cross from 25 yards is caught by goalie.
28 min...SCW Hasecic off balance 30 yard shot is high wide right.
30 min...SCW Hacecic is injured on check by TC Poljak at TC 50 yard line.
31 min...SCW Simeunovic is injured kicking clearance at SCW 45 yards.
33 min...TC Alva cornerkick from left is over players in box and bounces wide right for cornerkick.
39 min...SCW Vukovic and TC Poljak are injured in center circle on separate checks.
42 min...SCW Golijanin finishes off six pass play with tap forward to SCW Vukovic shot shoots 18 yarder down middle over net.
43 min...TC Prgomet runs and shoots 35 yard roller just wide left of net.
44 min...TC sub...Fitzwilliams replaces Poljak who was still off injured.
46 min...TC Maletic 25 yard freekick from right is over head and in front of charging TC player at 12 yards on left.
48 min...TC Maletic 40 yard freekick from right has TC Fitzwilliams pop up header on jump at 10 yards on left and goalie catches on jump with TC Niksic at 5 yards.
48 min...half ends 9:04pm.

2nd Half:...starts 9:19pm.
49 min...TC player's 35 yard freekick from left is centered over to TC Alva who shoots 30 yarder up middle and ball deflects to right that has ball tapped back on right end line and TC player's shot is high and wide right from 12 yards.
52 min...SCW Hasecic low corcnerkick from right has defender shank clearance kick and goalie makes catch.
53 min...TC Keran 55 yard freekick chip down middele has TC Fitzwilliams flick header from 20 yards that goalie catches on bounce.
56 min...TC YELLOW card...Keran earns it for tugging on SCW Hasecic on 1 on 2 rush up middle.
57 min...SCW Vukovic 25 yard freekici up middle is lobbed well over net.
58 min...SCW Vukovic cross from right 25 yards is caught by goalie in front of two charging SCW players.
59 min...TC sub...Harris replaces Whiteman.
60 min...SCW Hasecic 30 yard freekick from left has goalie punch away in crowd of players.
62 min...TC Maletic long run up middle and TC Deer wins cornerkick on deflection of 15 yard cross.
63 min...TC Alva cornerkick from left has leaping defender head away at 8 yards in center of box.
65 min...SCW Brown cross from 25 yards on right has SCW Vukovic head 18 yarder that goalie catches.
66 min...TC Niksic cross from 45 yards on right is over box.
69 min...SCW Brown long run up right and cross back to SCW Hasecic and his low 20 yard shot is caught by goalie on right post.
70 min...TC Maletic on 2 on 2 rush is checked from behind at TC 22 yards on left.
71 min...TC Bajamic short forward pass to TC Maletic and his 35 yard shot up middle is just over net.
72 min...SCW player's cross from right has another SCW player shoot 22 yarder over net.
72 min...TC sub...Galle replaces Alva.
74 min...SCW sub...Heydarpour replaces Golijanin.
75 min...TC Galle wins cornerkick after run on left and deflection of cross by sliding defender.
76 min...TC Maletic cornerkick from left has defender head ball away from box.
79 min...SCW Simeunovic long throw-in from right has whistle blown in box for SCW Zelenbaba bashing into goalie who caught ball.
80 min...SCW Bukovic 50 yard chip down middle catches goalie off line but short is just wide right. The goalie suffers a leg injury flying to right to try to catch ball. TC Arapovic takes the goalkick.
82 min...TC Maletic gets to quick 55 yard freekick down middle but is checked off ball at 15 yards and wins cornerkick on right.
83 min...TC Maletic cornerkick from right has defender head ball out left side of box.
85 min...TC Deer cross from 35 yards on left has goalie catch in front of TC Maletic at 8 yards.
86 min...SCW Vukovic bounces cross from 30 yards on left that goalie charges to catch.
87 min...TC Maletic pushes 35 yard pass in from right that goalie beats TC player to pick up.
88 min...SCW Hasecic rush on left and is caught by three defenders but spins to tap centering pass to SCW Vukovic who turns and rolls weak 15 yarder that goalie picks up. SCW Vukovic is injured again.
89 min...SCW sub...Christian replaces injured Vukovic.
90 min...SCW defender heads ball back to goalie to breakup TC players three headers moving ball forward to 20 yards.
91 min...SCW Colic 45 yard freekick down middle has defender head ball away at 22 yards.
92 min...SCW Colic 50 yard freekick dowm middle has defender head ball away at 22 yards on right.
93 min...SCW Colic 40 yard freekick from left bends and goalie catches on right post in front of SCW player.
94 min...TC Maletic is call offside on getting to skyball pass at 10 yards.
95 min...game ends 9:09pm as SCW Christian was running up left wing.

Final Score:.....Toronto Croatia..........0..............SC Waterloo........0.........

Attendance was only about 80 for this game on this warm night. The game was delayed about 15 minutes to give Waterloo a chance for a full warmup as a series of car accidents had clogged the 401 expressway. A pregame ceremony was held for Toronto Croatia superfan Marko Misic marking the first year anniversary of his death at age 20 while piloting a small plane.

I've seen many 0-0 games that were exciting with end-to-end action and plenty of scoring chances with no goals because of spectacular saves---but this was not one of them! The timing for both teams was just off with passes being broken up or sent offside and just poor off-target shooting.

Referee Armando Pereira gave out only one Yellow card that I counted in a game that wasn't tame because there were frequent waves for the trainers for each team to come on to the field to treat injured players.

Antonio Ilic earned the shutout for Croatia who did play strong defence and have only allowed 13 goals in 15 games this season.

Imad Hakura earned the shutout for Waterloo having to make a few routine saves and being helped out by defenders cutting down on Croatia shots and making timely checks.

I was waiting for the home debut of Jarek Whiteman who's been with Toronto Croatia since the beginning of the month. He scored one goal in their 4-0 victory over SC Waterloo on August 4th. I have been following him since he started in this league with Portugal FC/SC Toronto in 2010, 2011 and 2012 (team name change in 2011). Earlier this year I watched him play for K-W United (K-W is Kitchener-Waterloo) of the PDL league. Their season ended at the end of July so he's made his way over to Croatia. He played for the first 59 minutes of tonight's game as a midfielder mostly on one wing or the other but was caught up in the malaise of every player on the field tonight.

Where is everybody? This was the first Toronto Croatia game held at this stadium in eight weeks so perhaps the attendance momentum has been lost. During the time after the flood damage to the turf at Centennial Stadium, the team has played one home game at Lamport Stadium in downtown Toronto, had one home game postponed and had a 'road' game against Serbian White Eagles (who also use this stadium as home) postponed as well. White Eagles are in worse schedule shape as they have to make up three home games before the playoffs start. That will result in quite a few 'two games in a weekend' dates before mid-October.

This game was filmed for showing by Rogers Community channel for showing next weekend. This certainly is not the game to broadcast to show off the excitement of soccer. I may even have trouble watching this game.

Croatia is tied for 3rd place at 9 wins, 2 losses, 4 ties. They are part of a breakaway group that are at least 9 points ahead of the pack and hold a home playoff date for the first round. Waterloo is in 7th place with a record of 5 wins, 5 losses and 4 ties. It's a good result for SCW to reply to a 4-0 loss the last time these teams played. They can build on holding the two-time CSL defending champions to a draw.

Rocket Robin
robing@eol.ca

Toronto Croatia starters