CSL

When the Canadian Soccer League season kicks off its 2012 campaign at the Invista Sports Centre in the picturesque community of Kingston, just east of Toronto on Saturday, May 5, it will set a new record of 16 teams taking part in the First Division of a league that goes back to 1926.

 

This, and a host of other details were revealed at a well-attended press conference held at the BMO Field in Toronto Tuesday.

 

It was on March 23, 1926 that the Montreal Gazette ran a headline: New Soccer Body Being Organized and just a few weeks later, the professional National Soccer League kicked off when Windsor Rovers met Toronto Ulster in the opener on July 19. On July 20, The Telegram published three results from NSL games played in Toronto the previous day.

 

In 1993, The National Soccer League was re-branded to be called the Canadian National Soccer League (CNSL), then in 1998 changed its name to Canadian Professional Soccer League (CPSL) and in 2006 a new-look Canadian Soccer League (CSL) appeared. The NSL, CNSL and CPSL are considered the forerunner leagues of today’s CSL.

 

The 16 teams this year include three in the First Division for the first time. They are Kingston FC, Niagara United and SC Waterloo and all three teams are moved up after entering the CSL in the Second Division in 2011. Kingston FC previously as Prospect FC and SC Waterloo Region were known as KW United FC. The name change to SC Waterloo reflects the club’s increasing involvement with youth soccer in the broader region.

 

One team – Capital City of Ottawa, a city anticipating the launch of a team in the new U.S.-based NASL, failed to return to the CSL for the upcoming season.

 

Each of the 16 teams will play 22 regular season games, a total of 176 from May 5 to October 7 and this will be followed by the playoffs to involve the top eight teams at the end of the regular season for a one-game quarter final, and a one game semi-final leading to the championship game at the end of October.

 

Toronto Croatia are the current CSL champions, having defeated Capital City of Ottawa 1-0 in the 2011 CSL final last October.

 

The present activity with the CSL clubs is considerable as we move closer to kickoff and various announcements have taken place recently, including the appointment of former national team defender Marco Reda as an assistant coach at SC Toronto. Reda’s career took off in earnest following his time with the USL’s Toronto Lynx in 2002, which followed several years with European clubs before moving to Toronto FC, then Vancouver Whitecaps in 2009.

 

SC Toronto recently signed Janer Guaza Lucumi from Colombia, an outstanding 19 year old forward and Colombian U-20 national team player who has played professionally in that country. Guaza is expected to be in the line-up for the SC Toronto home opener against St. Catharines Wolves on May 11.

 

 Recent announcements include the return of Ron Davidson to the CSL as head coach of Brantford Galaxy. Davidson is held in high regard, was the Ontario Soccer League’s coach of the year in 2009 and the CSL coach of the year while with Hamilton Croatia in 2010.  The Galaxy’s home opener is away to York Region Shooters on May 6.

 

Kingston FC will kickoff the season with a home opener against TFC Academy and the home side will have several new signings in the line-up, including  local midfielder Jordan Brooks of Angus, Ontario, who twice earned OUA All-Star selection during an impressive career with the Queen’s Golden Gaels.  Defenders Jacob O’Connor and Ali Albadry and Julien Edwards (with Capital City FC last year) and forwards Antonios Assaad and Mademba Ba are all under contract.

 

No less than six TFC Academy team players have moved up to the Toronto FC first team in recent times, but the roster against Kingston in the opener will be strong, nevertheless. The visiting team will probably include Canadian national team players Justin Maheu (Canada U-20) Jonathan Lao (Canada U-17) and Brennan McNichol (Canada U-17).

 

The CSL Second Division of 12 reserve teams, which is primarily for players U-23, will also kickoff on Saturday, May 5. Rules provide for a maximum four players over age 23 on the game-day roster, and one of the maximum four must be the goalkeeper. Games will be played through to the end of October.

 

One reserve team to be fully prepared is Mississauga Eagles FC B following the announcement by head coach Josef Komlodi that in addition to the season kickoff he is preparing his reserve team for a tournament at Rijeka, Croatia May 25 to June 5.

 

 Opening Games:

 

FIRST DIVISION

Sat May 5 Invista Centre 7:00 pm Kingston FC vs TFC Academy

  Sun May 6 St. Joan of Arc 6:30 pm  York Region Shooters vs Brantford Galaxy

 

Sun May 6 Seagram Stadium 7:00 pm  SC Waterloo vs Windsor Stars

SECOND DIVISION

Sat May 5 Portuguese/Oriental 1:00 pm SC Waterloo B vs Windsor Stars B

Sat May 5 Invista Centre 5:00 pm Kingston FC B vs TFC Academy II

Sun May 6 St. Joan of Arc 8:30 pm York Region Shooters B  vs Mississauga Eagles FC B

The upcoming mid-April weekend  provides an opportunity for young players in southern Ontario to be noticed by high level soccer with the visit of Danny Karbassiyoon, the North American scout for English Premier League side Arsenal, while at the same time, Mario Tot a UEFA- qualified instructor and former coach with top clubs in Europe and the Croatian U-17 national team, together with UEFA-certified Aleksander Jankovic, formerly with the Serbian U-21 team, Red Star Belgrade, RAD Belgrade, FC Vojvodina Novi Sad of Serbia and Litex FC of Bulgaria, will be here to teach local coaches the latest from UEFA.

Karbassiyoon will visit York Region on the look-out for talented young players at the Shooters Scouting ID Camp – he will be there Friday, April 13  (Location: Trio Sportsplex, 601 Cityview Blvd., Woodbridge, Ontario) and  Saturday, April,14 (St. Joan of Arc Field, 1 St. Joan of Arc Avenue, Maple, Ontario) to identify players with promise.

The fee for the two-day camp is $500 and player enquiries should go to Anita Kovacevic, the Shooters’ administrative director at 416-805-9698, or email: info@yorkregionshooters.com

The visit of Mario Tot and Aleksander Jankovic from Europe will take place at the St. David Catholic Secondary School, 4 High Street, Waterloo, Ontario on Saturday and Sunday, April14,15. Online registration is available for the coaching seminar on the CSL website and enquiries can be made by email to info@canadiansoccerleague.com or by calling 905 564-2297.

 

 

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UEFA, with one-quarter of the world’s national associations in membership, has high standards for technical certification, little wonder why local coaches are giving special attention to the visit mid-April of  Mario Tot, who has attended UEFA coaching courses in Denmark, Czech Republic, Croatia, Holland and Russia.

 

The former head coach of Dinamo Zagreb and FC Lokomotiva of Croatia will be at Waterloo, Ontario April 14, 15 to conduct a coaching seminar and he’ll be accompanied by UEFA-certified Aleksander Jankovic, formerly with the Serbian U-21 team, Red Star Belgrade, RAD Belgrade, FC Vojvodina Novi Sad of Serbia and Litex FC of Bulgaria.

 

While UEFA instructors like to teach the development of a player’s creativity, Mario Tot will be putting a lot of emphasis on youth development at the opening session and Jankovic will talk on the first day about development trends of modern football tactics and will continue into day two teaching basic training principles.

 

Reading the game and ball possession will also be given importance on the second day.

 

The seminar will take place at St. David Catholic School, Waterloo and there is a discount for early bird registrations up to March 31.

 

Online registration is available on the CSL website and enquiries can be made by email to info@canadiansoccerleague.com or by calling 905 564-2297.

 

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There was an upbeat mood at the well-attended Canadian Soccer League’s annual meeting Sunday, when the member clubs reflected on the 2011 season and the league’s outlook for the upcoming 2012 campaign and beyond.

Eight teams, about 120 players aged 14 to 18, each played twice in front of coaches, scouts and others interested in seeing who could be in line for the lucrative soccer scholarships awarded by U.S. colleges, or who could be attracted to a Canadian university, or invited to trial for a top flight club in North America.

 

“This event is all about players,” said Phil Ionadi, one of the principal organizers, who believes there is now a large contingent of youth players in the region showing enough promise that with some additional player development could be destined for high level professional soccer. “They deserve to be seen and that’s why this is taking place,” he added.

 

At any given time in recent years as many as 100 players from Canada are playing professionally in other countries, mostly in Europe. In Canada’s game with Armenia at Cyprus on February 28, all of Canada’s players with the exception of Toronto FC’s Julian de Guzman, were based outside North America.

 

Andrew Pilkington, a director with Brantford Galaxy, a club that has both brought players from Europe to strengthen the Galaxy professional side, but has also in recent times created a strong local movement in that community to develop young players, spoke favourably of the all-day event. The Galaxy organization believes exposure of young talent playing in front of the right people, is necessary to go hand in hand with the developmental work being done by clubs and academies in general.. “This is very good and there is a need for more of this,” he said.

 

A Brantford Galaxy Youth Club standout midfielder, Patryk Misik, 17, has already attracted interest from the First Division in Poland.

 

While most of the visiting coaches took in games at the main Hershey SportZone building, teams were also playing at the Hershey Dome nearby. One who covered all the teams was David Hesch, an associate coach at the University of Buffalo and he came up with a list of seven players of interest. “There’s good money available for scholarships and we’re certainly interested in some of the players today,” he said, while mentioning he was particularly impressed by SC Toronto and Mississauga Eagles FC.

 

Hesch explained that defender Shane Satar of SC Toronto is already heading for a scholarship at the University of Buffalo.

 

Anxious parents were also part of the scene, including Nino Petrolo, whose son Anthony, 17, is a forward with York Region Shooters, and Angus Crawford of Etobicoke, whose son, Jack, is a tall 15 year old centre back and one of the youngest players at the competition playing for Mississauga Eagles. Jack Crawford is on his way to the academy of Dinamo Zagreb next month, one of the top clubs in Croatia – and the world.

 

 Petrolo believes Canada is not short of technical resources to assist in the development of the many promising young players now coming through the system. “There are a good number of highly rated former players and coaches from the world’s top leagues now living in the GTA  to assist those already doing this work, so Canadian soccer should do well in the future, “ he said.

 

The youngest player at the showcase could well be striker Dante Brown of Mississauga Eagles FC who scored in his team’s 5-0 defeat of the York Region Shooters White team. While diminutive at 14 and playing  against taller 18 year-olds, Brown was philosophical about any disadvantage, saying “It’s a little intimidating sometimes, but I still try to get on with scoring goals.”

 

One former Canadian national team player who played top soccer in North America before being attracted to clubs in Europe, was Woodbridge, Ontario-born defender Marco Reda. He said he was pleased with the skills of many youth players at the showcase. “It’s great when these young players are recognized and this event provides that opportunity,” said Reda, who is now a coach with the CSL’s SC Toronto and on staff with Power Soccer Academy.

 

 Duncan Wilde of the Toronto Lynx organization with a team in the showcase, had similar sentiments. Wilde, who coached the 2005 CPSL champions Oakville Blue Devils and today has the No. 2 youth team in the North American USL Super-20 League under his wing (Columbus Crew is No. 1). was accompanied by the highly regarded long-time assistant coach, Billy Steele, a former professional in the UK.

 

Toronto FC were represented by recently appointed youth academy director Dutch-born Thomas Rongen, an MLS Cup winning coach who may be best known in wider scope for leading the forever defeated island nation of American Samoa to its first ever FIFA international victory. He was accompanied by TFC Academy  coach Danny Dichio, a former professional in the English Premier League and Serie A in Italy and Jim Brennan, one of the heroes of that memorable CONCACAF Gold Cup victory for Canada in 2000. Dichio liked what he saw in the SC Toronto side.

 

The outstanding theme that emerged from the CSL-staged event was the need for the exceptional players to be seen and recognized following the long period of growth in the number of promising youth players having emerged in Canadian soccer in recent years. It’s clear to most that more players are now benefiting  from the player development programs available, but there are more young standouts that need to be seen.

 

The incidentals:

 

Brantford Galaxy 1, Mississauga Eagles FC 1

SC Waterloo 2, York Region Shooters (White) 1

SC Toronto 1, Brampton City Utd. 0

Toronto Lynx 3, York Region Shooters (Yellow) 0

Mississauga Eagles FC 5, York Region Shooters (White) 0

Brantford Galaxy 2, SC Waterloo 0

Brampton City Utd 1, Toronto Lynx 1

SC Toronto 3, York Region Shooters (Yellow) 0

 

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Are you a player under 19 living in the GTA or a little beyond and you’d like to be seen by Arsenal of the English Premier League ?