HIGH FLYING VORKUTA PLAYS RETURN MATCH WITH WATERLOO
Two Mississauga expansion teams will get the CSL First Division weekend schedule underway on Friday, with CSC Mississauga at home at the Iceland Field to play Real Mississauga, a 9 pm kickoff.
CSC Mississauga is a professional club that represents the Croatian community in Mississauga, while Real Mississauga is a community organization with strong coaching programs that introduce very young players to organized soccer and the introduction of advanced youth players to professional soccer in the Canadian Soccer League.
There is one game next day Saturday when league leaders FC Vorkuta travel to Southwestern Ontario for a game with SC Waterloo at RIM Park, a 6.30 pm start and the following day Sunday, Scarborough SC is at home to Brantford Galaxy, an 8 pm kickoff at Birchmount Stadium. This is followed by a late game Sunday night when FC Ukraine United are at home to Serbian White Eagles at Centennial Stadium, a 9 pm start.
FC Vorkuta, which leads the CSL First Division with 10 points and is unbeaten following the first four weeks of play in the new season, is repeating the strong performance of 2017 when the team that bears the name of a Russian community in the northern parts of that country finished on top of the standings in its inaugural CSL year.
Additional signings from that first campaign has further strengthened the squad, the most notable being forward Sergii Ivliev, who arrived in Canada in 2016 to play for FC Ukraine United in the CSL and was the First Division top scorer in his first year with 15 goals. At the end of his contract, Ivliev signed for FC Vorkuta and led his side with a hat-trick in the 6-1 victory over SC Waterloo on June 9, for which he was named Player of the Week in the CSL.
Ivliev, 33, has a long history of professional soccer going back to 2003 in his native Ukraine and later in Poland. He records a very high rate of scoring throughout his career.
Vorkuta GM and head coach Samad Kadirov had high praise for the veteran striker following the Player of the Week announcement: “Sergii is one of the best signings in FC Vorkuta’s history. He was the team’s top scorer last year and is tied (with Serhill Ursulenko) in goals this year. He’s a very humble guy with fantastic ball feeling, has a talent of being in exact spot on the field wherever the ball goes.” he said.
