CSL News

Serbian White Eagles, the team which in earlier times had trouble finding the opponent’s net, continued its recent transformation to become the most prolific team in the Canadian Soccer League so far this season with a crushing 10-1 defeat of BGHC 1 Saturday.

In the other two matches played at the Churchill Meadows and Mattamy Sports Park in Mississauga, Scarborough suffered its first defeat in regular season play since the 2020 season, losing 1-0 to Continentals FC, and York Region Shooters beat Toronto Falcons 3-1 in a physical encounter that resulted in three players being shown the red card.

Serbian Eagles’ forward Dusan Kovacevic led his team with four goals in the one-sided opening match, finding the net twice in the first half and twice following the interval. Vladimir Strizovic and  Marko Pavicevic each scored twice while midfielder Nikola Durkovic and Adam Waithe each struck  singles. The score at the break was 4-1.

Tomislav Pinjuh struck for BGHC at the 23^rd minute.\

Three players with Serbian White Eagles now league the league’s goal scoring with Kovacevic on top with seven, Durkovic and Strizovic each have six. Serbian White Eagles move to second in the standings with a 4-1-4 WLT record for 16 points, while BGHC are 0-7-2 for two points.

Forward Mahmoud Mehdi opened the scoring at the 35^th minute for York Region Shooters in the second match for a 1-0 lead and Falcons’defender Vadym Kucherevskyi  beat Shooters’ goalkeeper Gieson Njehia from outside the box to tie the game at the 82nd minute mark.

Jordan Davis Ewan gave Shooters a 2-1 lead at 88 minutes and midfielder Michael Nwobosi increased the lead to 3-1 at 93 minutes, the score at the final whistle.

A physical game overflowed into an altercation resulting in injury during the second half which brought charges of Serious Foul Play and Violent Conduct. There were also Unsporting Behaviour decisions by the referee, one of which resulted in a second yellow card to Gumen Osypenko of Toronto Falcons who was ejected at 63 minutes, to be followed by a Serious Foul Play call against Carlex Mbobda of York Region Shooters at 77 minutes and a Violent Conduct decision against Vallerii Yarmosh of Toronto Falcons, both of whom were also shown the red card.

The victory moves York Region Shooters to a one point lead in the standings with a 5-2=2 record for 17 points, while Toronto Falcons are in fifth position with a 1-4-4 record for seven points.

It was well-played and a result in doubt most the late game between Scarborough and Continentals FC until striker Mykola Temniuk broke the scoreless encounter with a goal at 75 minutes, a strong drive that caught the top left corner out of reach of Scarborough goalkeeper Christan Moraldo.

Continentals FC improve to a 4-2-3 record for 15 points, now third in the standings, while Scarborough with a 3-1-5 record and 14 points drop to fourth following the long, unbeaten streak in regular season games.

There are three games scheduled to end the regular season on Saturday, August 6, to be followed by the CSL Championship playoffs, then the Enio Perruzza Memorial Trophy competition through to October.

Due to vandalism that has resulted in damage to the playing surface at Centennial Stadium, all three matches scheduled to be played at that ground this coming Saturday, July 30 have been relocated to the Churchill Meadows Community Centre and Mattamy Sports Park in Mississauga.

The games scheduled at this location with a re-arrangement of the schedule with changed kickoff times for two of the three games are:

Location of the Churchill Meadows Community Centre is 5320 Ninth Line, Mississauga, and further details can be obtained by accessing:

Churchill Meadows Community Centre and Mattamy Sports Park Direction

Due to the uncertainty  of the timetable for the repairs to be completed to the playing surface at Centennial Stadium, there may be additional  relocation of games in the near future. All changes will be announced.

York Region Shooters struck two late goals to defeat BGHC 4-2 to take a position tied on points with Scarborough at the top of the standings following Saturday’s three games in the Canadian Soccer League. Scarborough tied 1-1 with Serbian White Eagles and it was the same 1-1 score in the Toronto Falcons vs Continentals late game, all three games at Centennial Stadium in Toronto.

It was an attractive opening match with both teams conceding little most of the first half until Scarborough’s Milos Scepanovic took a left wing cross to shoot just wide,  then two minutes later at 42 minutes midfielder Neven Radakovic drove the ball into the net from 20 yards and out of reach of Serbian White Eagles goalkeeper Adrian Ibanez for a 1-0 lead at the break.

Scarborough had three new signings in the game roster with midfielder Maximilian Never in the starting lineup, forward Murillo Gabriel entering the game as a substitute at 18 minutes and defender Joao Emmanuel.

Scarborough had a second goal ruled offside at 49 minutes and Vladimir Zelenbaba shot just wide for Scarborough 10 minutes later, but Serbian White Eagles scored an equalizer at 76 minutes when Vladimir Strizovic headed in a cross from the right wing past Scarborough goalkeeper Christan Moraldo. It was Strizovic’s 4^th goal of the season. It was 1-1 at the final whistle.

York Region Shooters took a 1-0 lead at 27 minutes when defender Yussuf Yussuf found the net past BGHC goalkeeper Janko Milosevic at 27 minutes and Petar Djordjevic equalized for BGHC 10 minutes later. Aleksandar Bozovic struck for a 2-1 BGHC lead at 45 minutes, the score at the interval.

Shooters equalized with a goal by midfielder Osman Hussein at the 70^th minute mark. A 2-2 score, and two late goals, the first at 89 minutes when Faris Abubaker scored, then at 92 minutes when Mahmoud Mehdi completed the scoring for a 4-2 final in favour of York Region Shooters.

Two first half goals within less than three minutes decided the outcome of the late game, an opening goal at 37 minutes by Continentals FC  when forward Mykola Temniuk beat Falcons’ goalkeeper Vasyl Shpuk and the equalizing goal scored by Toronto Falcons’ midfielder Aubrey Mpala. There were two opportunities during the second half when Continentals’ forward Oleksii Boiko drove the ball just wide from 15 yards at the 59^th minute mark and at 88 minutes defender Borys Orlovskiy had a shot saved by Shpuk. The game ended 1-1.

It’s a very close race at the top of the standings with just two points separating the top three which means either of these three could end the day at Centennial Stadium on top, or second or could be the trailing team of the three.

Scarborough is back on top and continues to be the only unbeaten side, but Serbian White Eagles now second in the standings are in fine form defensively and in attack to be unbeaten in the last five games while scoring 14 goals. It’s not surprising that three of the top five in the leading goalscorer chart, Durkovic, Kovacevic and Strizovic, are with Serbian Eagles. Scarborough and Serbian White Eagles tied 2-2 in their game of June 12.

York Region Shooters are favoured to win over winless BGHC 1, the team formed by Brantford Galaxy and Hamilton City on a temporary basis during the restrictions of COVID 19. The Shooters will be out to make amends after running into in-form Serbian White Eagles, losing narrowly on July 16.

Continentals FC and Toronto Falcons clash in the late game Saturday when Falcons will be out to repeat a narrow, but impressive victory on June 12 for the side’s first win in its inaugural CSL season.

A day admission for all three games is $10 and parking at Centennial Stadium is free.

Outstanding sports journalist Morris Dalla Costa once commented about the many complements received from readers with ‘yes, but it’s only sports’.

Yet sports is many things positive, like entertainment, fitness with good health implications and a huge industry that has other benefits often overlooked. It teaches us the meaning of skills and talent.

A war between two countries was once settled over a soccer match. It was called football diplomacy. Soccer and other sports teach us fairness with guidelines and rules that participants must follow. The rules of soccer on the field of play are universal.

Jim Kernaghan, for many years the soccer writer for the Toronto Star and columnist for the London Free Press once said that in his experience soccer people are very loyal. They support each other.

Which brings us to an article in The Athletic, written by Sean Fitz-Gerald. The Athletic is a prestigious subscription-based sports website owned by the New York Times that provides sports coverage in 47 North American cities and elsewhere.

Fitz-Gerald sets the scene for his story in the stands at Centennial Stadium in Etobicoke at Toronto’s west end. Igor Demitchev has a full view of the field below where his team, Continentals FC, is playing York Region Shooters. Continentals FC is the team’s new name, having been known prior to this 2022 campaign as FC Vorkuta, named after a community in northern Russia where Demitchev was born and raised, writes Fitz-Gerald.

Andrei Malychenkov is the team’s Russian-born coach and there are Russian players in the team. But most are from Ukraine on a visa and work permit which allows them to play professional soccer in Canada for income.

Continentals FC won the game by a 3-2 score and that pleases Demitchev in an environment and mood where the camaraderie is obvious at games’ end despite the heavy burden in the minds of just about  everybody on the winning team and on its bench.

Demitchev, a practicing lawyer in Toronto, is frank with his comments when interviewed by Fitz-Gerald. “They call it ‘special military operation’ in Russia and if you say otherwise, you may get charged and be jailed for it, which is very strange, but that’s how it is over there. I’m here, in Canada, and let’s put fish on the plate: This is a war,” he said.

“And unfortunately, we’re sitting here in Canada, and people are dying over there. I don’t know how I can be more supportive than I can be other than a little bit of sponsoring, donating money,” Demitchev added.

FC Vorkuta was successful, winning championships, but world events took the focus off the field this year, writes The Athletic reporter. Players have been scrambling for updates from family in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began in February.

Demitchev said the team’s starting goalkeeper is from Mariupol, a Ukrainian port besieged for nearly three months and ultimately occupied by Russian forces, and went 40 days without any contact with his family. He said the player recently returned from Europe, where relatives were able to escape through humanitarian corridors.

“Pretty much every single guy here has two, three, four — sometimes more than that — people brought in,” said Demitchev. “Obviously, their mindset is not with soccer. It’s hard. It’s not going to be easy.”

The team, he said, has not been able to practise regularly.

“Do I think about the Cup as of right now? No,” said Demitchev. “Do I think about soccer? No. My job is to try to hold all these people together; help them as much as I can to live like human beings. Bring their families over here and help them as much as I can, especially when somebody’s asking for it,” continues Fitz-Gerald in his article.

Andrei Malychenkov, the team’s Russian-born coach, said he has been in Canada for two decades.

“If you talk about the war, nobody would support the war,” he said. “It’s very sad. It’s very painful.”

He said the team tries not to discuss the day’s news in the dressing room.

“When they come to the field, there’s no politics, it’s just the sport,” said Malychenkov. “This is how it brings us together. It’s a good thing.”

 

 

PICTURE: Shooters remain on top following 1-1 tie with Scarborough

York Region Shooters scored a penalty kick equalizer to tie 1-1 with Scarborough in Sunday’s opening game at Centennial Stadium, BGHC 1 tied 2-2 with Toronto Falcons and Serbian White Eagles defeated Continentals FC 2-1.

Scarborough took the lead at six minutes on a goal by forward Gonzalo Matias Cabrera Celis who tipped  a corner kick inside the right post out of reach of York Region Shooters goalkeeper Gieson Njehia. A trip in the box resulted in a penalty kick for the Shooters and Sebastien Lopez drove the ball inside the left post for a 1-1 equalizer at the 24th minute mark, the score at the break.

Scarborough held an edge in the play for most of the second half with good chances to score. There were near misses, including at 70 minutes when Moussa Limane took a pass 18 yards out and the drive was saved by Shooters’ goalkeeper Njehia. Another opportunity came at 83 minutes when substitute forward Kiril Dimitrov collected a pass on the right wing with a cross to Limane closing in but saved again by Niehia. Another winning goal opportunity came at 87 minutes, but the drive by Scarborough defender Odain Omaro Simpson went just wide for a 1-1 draw at the final whistle. York Region Shooters continue to hold top position in the standings with a 3-1-2 WLT record for 11 points.

Petar Djordjevic opened the scoring for BGHC 1 against Toronto Falcons in the second game, a drive from 30 yards to beat Falcons’ goalkeeper Vasyl Shpuk. The Toronto side tied the score immediately following the re-start at 13 minutes with a goal by midfielder Clayton Brown. Diordievic struck a second goal for BGHC for a 2-1 lead at the 44th minute mark, the score at the interval, and defender Vadym Gostiev tied the game for Toronto Falcons at 86 minutes, 2-2 at the final whistle.

Continentals FC had a slight edge in the early stages of the game with Serbian White Eagles, but failed to find the net in a well played late game scoreless first half. Serbian White Eagles eventually scored at 67 minutes when forward Vladimir Strizovic took a pass, then won a one-on-one encounter with Continentals’ goalkeeper Anatolii Starushchenko to slide the ball in for a 1-0 lead. Forward Adam Abouali made it 2-0 for the White Eagles at 80 minutes and Continentals reduced the lead with a goal by Bogdan Borovskyi at 84 minutes for a 2-1 score at the final whistle in favour of Serbian White Eagles, now unbeaten since June 5 and  second in the standings with a 2-1-3  WLT record for nine points.

Despite the comments of Sam Madeiros, head coach of York Region Shooters on June 12 that while the return of his team to the CSL does not forecast a CSL Championship winning performance, the team from just north of Toronto is still on top of the standings despite its recent loss to Continentals FC, a narrow 3-2 score on June 26.

Madeiros is well focused on his roster and particularly those he identifies as promising players that may have a future at high level and which – as one of Canada’s top technicians in the game — he can help along the way. As soccer coach Gerry Gentile once said ‘there’s nothing in the DNA of a Canadian that says he cannot be a great soccer player’.

The Shooters will be tested on Sunday in the opening game against CSL current champions Scarborough SC, now the only team without a loss and anxious to play its next match following an unexpected postponement of its fixture last week. The two teams met in the opening game of this current campaign, the game ending in a 3-3 tie. The Shooters were ahead 2-0 during the first half and led 3-1 at the break before conceding two goals in the second half.

Toronto Falcons held Serbian White Eagles to a 1-1 draw in its last game, an achievement considering the explosive seven goals scored by White Eagles in the 7-3 rout of BGHC 1 on June 18. The Falcons meet BGHC 1 in the second game of Sunday’s triple header at Centennial Stadium. Commenting on the progress of Toronto Falcons as an expansion team, GM Samad Kadirov said “We are building and with the right people are going in the right direction.”

Serbian White Eagles will be attempting to repeat the form demonstrated in the 7-3 victory when on Sunday they meet Continentals FC, an interesting encounter when it appears Continentals form is trending up also.

Individual statistics following Week 5 in the Canadian Soccer League shows Nikola Durkovic of Serbian White Eagles leads the goal scoring with 5, Scarborough SC are undefeated and BGHC 1 are without a victory.

PICTURE: Falcons have launched with a workmanlike roster

While these are early times for drawing any conclusions to the performance of teams in the Canadian Soccer League it’s hard to resist noticing the results of York Region Shooters in the three games played so far.

Top of the standings and undefeated while conceding the lowest number of goals is just one perspective, while who have they played so far, is another. The Shooters have played three teams against established teams Serbian White Eagles, BGHC 1, and the current champions Scarborough SC. The team from just north of Toronto held Scarborough to a 3-3 draw in the opener on May 29, followed up with a 1-0 win over Serbian White Eagles and a 2-0 victory against BGHC 1, the combined team representing Brantford Galaxy and Hamilton City.

It’s worth noting that in the 3-3 tie opener against Scarborough the Shooters, returning from a four-year absence  following 14 highly successful seasons in the CSL, held a 2-0 lead in the first 20 minutes to suggest a sign of things to come. In the two victories that followed, North York did not concede a goal in the 180 minutes of play.

York Region Shooters meet Toronto Falcons in the next three-game day at Centennial Stadium in Toronto’s west end on Saturday and it’s clear the Falcons have launched with a workmanlike roster despite its 7-0  loss to Scarborough on June 5, a match fraught with controversies and which ended with  Falcons a man short following a red card ejection . Perhaps a more objective assessment of Toronto Falcons its survival of the strong late rally by the opposition in the 3-2 victory over Continental FC on June 12. While Continental FC is not quite the impressive FC Vorkuta the league has become accustomed to, the win by Falcons was well-earned after leading 3-0 for most of the match.

Continentals FC meet Scarborough in the opening match Saturday, a particularly interesting encounter, followed by a Serbian White Eagles vs BGHC 1 clash in a revised schedule.

PICTURE – Sam Medeiros – ‘ We are here to create champions’…

The expansion teams fared well in the three-game header at Centennial Stadium Sunday when York Region Shooters defeated BGHC 1, 2-0 and Toronto Falcons resisted a late rally to defeat Continentals FC, 3-2.  In the third match Serbian White Eagles struck twice in the final few minutes to overcome a 2-0 deficit for a 2-2 draw with Scarborough at the final whistle.

Scarborough pressed early in the opening match and the east Toronto side had the best opportunity to score when forward Gonzalo Matias Cabrera Celis drove past the left post from 10 yards at 40 minutes in a scoreless first half.

Scarborough midfielder Neven Radakovic scored with a volley from outside the box for a 1-0 lead at 46 minutes and forward Moussa Limane made it 2-0 six minute later, the score at the break. Serbian White Eagles pressed in the second half to reduce the lead and after having a penalty kick saved by Scarborough goalkeeper Bismark Koff Oppong following a foul in the box at 83 minutes, the away team  eventually scored at 89 minutes with a deflection into the net by defender Adrian Cann and Dusan Kovacevic struck from outside the box for the equalizer at the 90^th minute mark, a 2-2 draw.

York Region Shooters jumped into a 2-0 lead by midfielder Osman Hussein at 27 minutes and forward Gianpiero Sansonetti at 31 minutes against the BGHC 1 combined team from Brantford Galaxy and Hamilton City to win its second game for an unbeaten three games which includes a 3-3 draw that opened  the new season on May 29. With the two goal lead at the interval, the Shooters appeared to have an edge in the second half and the match ended 2-0 at the final whistle.

York Region Shooters’ head coach, the highly regarded Sam Medeiros who is considered one of the top technical members of the Canadian soccer community, was pleased with the result and the team’s impressive start to the new season. “While we don’t expect to win the CSL championship in this first year, we are here to create champions and that is what we intend to do,” he said following the game.

Midfielder Maksym Rohovskyi headed in to put Toronto Falcons into the lead against Continentals FC at the 40^th minute, a 1-0 score at half-time, and Rinat Kasymgereev increased the lead to 2-0 at the 47^th  minute mark. The Falcons scored a third goal eight minutes later when Denys Diachenko took a cross to beat Continentals goalkeeper Andrei Ciurchin at 55 minutes.

Midfielder Sergii Ivliev reduced the lead for Continentals from the penalty spot following a foul in the box at 83 minutes and defender Mykyta Tkachev struck at 90 minutes for a 3-2 score in favour of Toronto Falcons at the final whistle.
Stan Adamson

 

When Serbian White Eagles players walked off the field following the final whistle of their match against York Region Shooters last Sunday, June 5, it was reminiscent of a key semi-final match lost on Sunday, October 17 2021  when with seconds remaining and leading 1-0 their opponents FC Vorkuta tied the game 1-1. Then with almost no time remaining Vorkuta scored from a snap shot just inside the box for a 2-1 victory which took the winner to the ProSound Cup Final on October 24.

Serbian White Eagles did not score in the 1-0 loss to the Shooters last week, it was yet another lost opportunity for a victory following weak finishing during a second half that gave the White Eagles no less than six serious opportunities to score, but failed to find the net.  The poor finishing, a breakdown inside the opponent’s box is a repeat of the 2021 season when the team tallied a dismal approx. one goal per game for a disappointing position in the regular season standings and nowhere to go in the playoffs.

Serbian White Eagles meet Scarborough in the early game this coming Sunday, June 12 and last season’s championship winner looked strong on June 5 with a 7-0 victory over Toronto Falcons.

“We look forward to meeting Scarborough with a side that needs some luck better than last week and  we are improving with new signings,” said SWE president Dragan Bakoc  midweek. Bakoc was referring to defenders Srdjan Simovic and Ivan Cendic, midfielder Nikola Durkovic, also goalkeeper Nikola Timotijevic who steps in for the injured John Trye, out since the Sierra Leone international ‘keeper came crashing down after leaping for a high cross above the six yard line in last year’s ProSound semi final.  Adrian Cann, one of Canada’s top defenders over the years, has also re-signed for this season, but it’s goals that count and whether strengthening the defence will bring form and much needed goals so well demonstrated in the championship years of 2008 and 2016 remains to be seen.

York Region Shooters come off the June 5 victory to meet BGHC 1 at 4 pm on Sunday, the Brantford Galaxy/Hamilton City combined team went down 5-0 to Continentals FC that day. Expansion team Toronto Falcons and Continentals FC clash in the late game at 6 pm.

 Stan Adamson