FC Vorkuta and FC Ukraine will be the first game Waterloo and Brantford Galaxy game will be played at later date.
To accommodate the home team and local scheduling requirements, the game between SC Waterloo and Brantford Galaxy set for this coming Saturday, May 12 at RIM Park, Waterloo, has been postponed to a later date, the Canadian Soccer League announced Monday.
The CSL season opener will, therefore, be the FC Ukraine United vs FC Vorkuta encounter scheduled for Sunday evening, May 13, bringing together FC Ukraine United and visiting FC Vorkuta at Centennial Stadium in Etobicoke, a 7 pm kickoff.
Both clubs are recent in the Canadian Soccer League, this being the third season for Ukraine United and the second campaign for FC Vokuta and both have achieved impressive early success.
Ukraine United, under coach Andrei Malychenkov, a former professional in the Russian First and Second divisions, finished in second position in the club’s inaugural 2016 CSL First Division season. The former Ontario Soccer League Premier Division side then won the CSL Second Division in 2017, going undefeated throughout, including post season playoff victories to capture the CSL Division Two Championship, a 5-2 victory over Burlington B in the final.
Vorkuta, with 32 points, won the competitive CSL First Division in its inaugural 2017 season while under head coach Serhiy Zayets, a former Ukrainian professional with FC Dynamo Kyiv, one of the top clubs in the Soviet Union at the time. The team, named after and dedicated to a Russian town located near the Arctic Circle and representing the Russian speaking community in Canada, won the First Division following a week-by-week ding-dong struggle with long-standing CSL teams Serbian White Eagles (31 points) and York Region Shooters (30 points).
Both teams are highly competitive, have signed players from Europe and are attractive to watch. The opener can be considered one of the highlights of the opening of the new CSL season. Centennial Stadium is located on Renforth Drive just south of Eglinton Ave.in the city’s west end – just west of Highway 27.
Other teams in the CSL First Division are Brantford Galaxy, Hamilton City 1, Scarborough SC, Serbian White Eagles, SC Waterloo, and new clubs CSC Mississauga and SC Real Mississauga.
The current CSL champions, York Region Shooters, are expected to return in 2019, while Milton SC are in the CSL Second Division.