The City of Burlington, strategically located in the centre of the Golden Horseshoe and a region of Canada that abounds with soccer, can now for the first time add a professional team to its many attractions.
Burlington SC is one of 12 teams in the Canadian Soccer League’s First Division for the 2013 season which gets underway with a game between London City and SC Waterloo at the BMO Field in London on Friday, May 3, the beginning of a six-month long campaign through to the league championship at the end of October.
“While we are an expansion team in the CSL and will no doubt find it difficult to achieve too many honours in the first year, we do expect to be competitive right from the kickoff,” said Burlington president Dean Milankovic. Burlington will play their home games at Nelson Stadium on New Street in Burlington’s south-east district and their home opener is scheduled for Sunday, May 12 against Serbian White Eages.
The CSL has a Hungarian touch for the upcoming campaign with the introduction of the Toronto Vasas organization, which has merged with North York Astros to form Astros Vasas FC. North York Astros has been one of the high profile clubs since entering the league in 1990, but has struggled to be competitive during the past two seasons while focussed on player development.
That’s all likely to change with the introduction of the Toronto branch of Vasas, an offshoot of one of Hungary’s major sports clubs based in Budapest and which boasts a team that dominated Hungarian football in the 60s. Not surprisingly, the Canadian branch has impressive technical and coaching strength, including Laszlo Kiss, a top coach in Europe and a former Tactical Adviser to the Hungarian National Team..
There are signs the new-look former Astros will continue to grow their player development program and be more competitive in the CSL with the addition of the coaching and technical skills that is Toronto Vasas.
“We very much look forward to working with the Astros and to the new season,”
said Laszlo Deak, president of Toronto Vasas.
Toronto Croatia will be defending their CSL championship in the upcoming campaign and again this season the top eight teams will qualify for the quarterfinals, a one-game decider to advance to the semifinals and the championship final.
Nine teams will compete in the developmental CSL Second Division, which kicks off this coming Sunday, May 5 on the Queen’s University campus in Kingston when the Kingston FC reserve team hosts Brampton City Utd B team.
The Second Division playoffs will also be played in October, leading to the Second Division title game at the end of the month.
Brantford Galaxy, Mississauga Eagles FC, SC Toronto have withdrawn from competition in 2013 in the wake of the earlier CSA de-sanctioning, which has now been re-instated. All three have retained membership in the CSL with the intention of returning in 2014, while TFC Academy and Montreal Impact Academy have not returned to CSL competition – Toronto will play their games at the Ontario senior amateur level, while Montreal Impact Academy have arranged exhibition games in the United States.
