June 1, 2014--League 1 Ontario--First Weekend Thoughts (by Rocket Robin) So that's the first weekend of this new league. I was asked more than a few times by coaches, league execs, game officials what I thought of the league. I like that enough game sheets are printed up that I can get my own personal copy. The calibre was better than I expected. Now all the games this weekend were played at the Ontario Soccer Centre. There was a good scoreboard with a 90 minute clock. The field turf was fine and there were enough seating for everyone. I don't know how each stadium will measure up and I'm sure there won't be so many execs at each venue when games take place in different cities at the same time so I'll hold back unreserved praise at this time. I did see six of the ten teams this weekend and I can't say there is any runaway favourite team that are better than the others. I was expecting Toronto FC Academy would be the best but they are using a young team at this time (although it is their Senior team). They played with ten men for 77 minutes and held back Vaughan Azzurri which I might nickname 'TFC Academy Senior Seniors' or 'TFCA Grads' for the long list of former Academy and TFC Pro players on it. The only thing I've been disappointed with was the early web prescence which has been late and incomplete. League execs said that would improve as there are still some glitches in their web site. They've got some great ideas planned. I'll wait another month and update my opinion. I thought there'd be more mainstream media coverage at least for the first weekend novelty. (I remember past coverage of a GTA area Australian Rules Football league, a Frisbee toss league, and a University League Harry Potter movie inspired game played with broomsticks)--and then these leagues were never covered again! There are no plans for a highlight show on Rogers Community television at this time. So there will be this stuff on their own website but no mainstream coverage. Part of this may be due to the late start in getting this league organized. Rocket Robin robing@eol.ca
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