SC Waterloo won the Canadian Soccer League championship with a 3-1 victory over Kingston FC at the Kalar Sports Park at Niagara Falls, Ontario Sunday afternoon to follow an earlier victory for the club’s reserve team which captured the CSL Second Division championship. It’s the first time a CSL club has won both titles
The two First Division sides produced a fast-paced entertaining encounter which ended the six-month long CSL season and while Kingston were favoured to win following their impressive First Division winning campaign, the team from southwestern Ontario controlled the midfield for much of the game to eventually come through with the victory.
Defender Vladimir Zelenbaba opened the scoring for Waterloo at 30 minutes when he volleyed a knee high hard cross from the left wing to find the net past Kingston goalkeeper Jaroslav Tesar for a 1-0 score at the break.
Kingston midfielder Nathan Klemencic tied the game 1-1 at 60 minutes with a low shot from 18 yards, but Zelanbaba scored his second goal to put Waterloo in the lead 2-1 at the 74th minute mark.
Waterloo went further ahead by a 3-1 score at 81 minutes when a deflection off a Kingston defender struck the cross bar and went straight to Harris Fazlagic who headed into the net and the score held to the final whistle.
It completed the double for Waterloo with an earlier in the day Second Division championship win by the Waterloo reserve team which defeated Toronto Croatia Reserves, 2-0. Waterloo goals were scored by forward Erwin Uzunovic, who found the net from 20 yards from a pass by Mohamed Aborig, and Mohammed-Ali Heydarpour made it 2-0 at 88 minutes – the Waterloo forward found the net after collecting a pass from midfielder Edward Syllie.
Waterloo head coach Lazo Dzepina attributed his side’s championship win to a determination to be successful by strengthening the First Division team and a resolve to be ready for a game with high-scoring Kingston.
“We added two important players and following a regular season loss to Kingston we worked on a number of things to give us a good chance if we were to meet this team in the playoffs and It all came together, ” said Dzepina following the final whistle.
Waterloo finished the regular season fifth in the First Division standings and defeated Brampton City Utd and Toronto Croatia in the playoffs, while Kingston ended the regular season on top as the league winner to follow-up with wins over Serbian White Eagles and London City on their way to the final.
