CNSL Game Sunday Sept 24th, 1995
CNSL Scarborough Astros vs Toronto Italia
Here are my comments on the Canadian National Soccer League (CNSL)
game between the Scarborough Astros and Toronto Italia played Sunday
September 24th, 1995 at 8pm at Birchmount Stadium in Scarborough.
This was considered a LEAGUE game.
Background Italia is tied for 2nd place and a win is necessary to try
to catch first place St Catharines Wolves. Astros have no chance of
reaching the four team playoffs in the League competition.
Scarborough Astros (yellow socks and shirts, blue shorts and numbers)
1 Paulo Silva
4 John DiBuono 18 Michael Marshall 3 Rene Martin 7 Alex Nardi
13 Audley Taffe 5 Leo Lopez 8 Gad Espinosa 21 Rick Titus
9 Laszlo Espinosa 11 Gary DeLeon
subs 19 Kerwin Skeete 20 Alim Rajan 16 Kevin Galindo 14 Ednie
Tavares
Toronto Italia (blue socks and shirts, white shorts and numbers)
1 Roman Harapyn
6 Nick Maxwell 4 Franco Vaiano 5 Ralph Golen 3 Franco Spadafina
2 Mike Mazza 7 Mike Palmitta 10 Lalo Maradona 11 Alfredo Chirillo
9 Igor Cricic 8 Peter Firebrace
subs 12 Jens Kraemer 14 Velomir Koval
eek! thin bench strength, maybe the teams are cutting
back at this time of year!
referee Manuel Orlano linesmen Lucky Booth was one of them.
Italia defend North goal in 1st half. colder night but not as windy
as last week.
1st half
14 min Astro DeLeon breaks through and shoots high from 15 yards but
ridden out by Maxwell resulting in corner.
22 min Astro Titus gets weak shot on net from 15 yards.
26 min Astro Lopez passes to Taffe who from bad angle shoots just
wide. 27 min Astro DeLeon feeds Taffe who shoots wide.
28 min Astro Taffe to Titus who heads it over bar with open net
beckoning.
35 min Astro scramble shot goes wide.
37 min Astro good chip shot that goalie catches.
42 min Italia pass play involving Vaiano, Palmitta and Firebrace ends
with header popped to goalie.
43 min Astro DeLeon takes shot which goalie stops. At least he tried
something different than the one-too-many passes that plagued the
whole first half.
45 min Astro GOAL Titus finds Martonfistreaking through who takes low
shot from right of net to low left hand side of net from 20 yards out.
It was Martonfi's 11th goal of the year.
Astros had dominated the half and deserved the lead. Italia would
never break more than three men forward on a rush and so were easily
picked up. Harapyn had at least three bad goalie's kicks out of
bounds.
2nd half
46 min Astro Taffe breaks in for shot on net by goalie; good thing
there was no rebound as the Astros swooped in.
50 min Astro Taffe chip shot over crowd of defenders and net too.
53 min Italia player slides shot wide of net
55 min Italia player hauled down/ridden off ball by defender in
crease. 56 min Italia Mazza passes to Firebrace who shoots at sprawling
goalie. 59 min Astro DeLeon starts fury of action from corner kick.
Rebound of shot saved by defender on goalline.
60 min Astro Taffe takes banana shot wide to right of net as defenders
close in from 25 yards.
64 min Astro DeLeon chips weak goalie from 25 yards.
65 min Astro Italia sub Kraemer for Chirillo. Kraemer comes in as
defender and Golen moves up to forward.
68 min Italia Cricic from bad angle gets good blast from 3 yards out
but 15 yards to left of net.
74 min Astro GOAL Martonfi (2nd of night, 12th of year). Italia's
Kraemer gives weak pass that Astro steps in front of, a pass to
Martonfi who slides it over goalie from 15 yards.
78 min Astro sub Tavares for DeLeon.
80 min Italia freekick from 40 yards out headed by charging defender
Kraemer whose header saved by goalie.
83 min Astro Titus dribbles a bit and 30 yard shot just goes wide
left. 85 min Italia GOAL actually an Astro own goal by Marshall who
is chasing ball with two other Astro defenders against one Italia
player and in confusion taps it over goalie Silva into own net.
A heckler yells out "turn the music on" as they play a few chords of
"Get ready for This" after each Astro goal.
90 min Italia GOAL Firebrace slides in rebound under sliding Silva
after Silva takes hard shot in chest from Maradona free kick from 20
yards out over very "shaky" 5 man wall. Silva couldn't squeeze his
hands on ball which led to rebound.
Only about 20 seconds of play until final whistle.
Final result
Scarborough Astros 2
Toronto Italia 2
An exciting finish to the game but the tie just means the League
Championship goes to St Catharines Wolves although they were playing
at lowly Hamilton and probably won that game.
Maybe I'll get some League stats and tables on here later in the week.
Channel 47 CFMT had highlights and player interviews which I missed
most of as I had the sitcom "Newsradio" on. Damn that's what vcrs are
for! There's a new guy called Dave just hired by the station and he got
some interviews. He came to ask me for some player names but helped
with some of my commentary as I can't make out the player numbers from
more than 50 yards away. (New glasses in the offseason required!).
Next game for me should be Thursday at Esther Shiner Stadium for the
last CUP game with Toronto Jets against lowly London City. Jets must
win by two goals (?) to jump Wolves for 2nd place and meet 1st place
Astros in the CUP final (or will it be series?). So I showed up one
week early to find there was no game but that was the radio
announcement! My love/hate with the league carries on.
Bye for now
Rocket Robin
robin.glover@canrem.com
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