Serbian White Eagles made yet another addition to its increasing record of triumphs with a 2-1 victory over Scarborough SC in the Royal CSL Cup Final played at Esther Shiner Stadium Sunday. It’s been more than half a century since the team entered Canada’s soccer community in 1968. The long list of achievements include four times in the Canadian Soccer League championship final game, winning twice, winning several CSL league titles and was the first Canadian team to reach the CONCACAF Champions Cup final – the North American championship – losing to Monterrey of Mexico in that final game.
The Royal CSL Cup is a memorial trophy in tribute to Enio Perruzza, the CSL announcer for more than two decades who passed away January 2021 at the age of 54 following heart surgery.
It was an attractive, entertaining encounter in doubt until the final whistle after Serbian White Eagles led 2-0 going into the second half before Scarborough cut the lead to 2-1 and fought for an equalizer through the late stages to the final whistle.
Serbian White Eagles opened the scoring at the 28th minute when forward Marko Pavicevic struck from close in. Pavicevic took a pass from Nikola Timotijevic closing in from the left wing. Pavicevic scored a second at 35 minutes when a drive by Timotijevic was deflected by Scarborough goalkeeper Zemdy Dash before Pavicevic headed into the right corner. It was 2-0 at the break.
Scarborough pressed in the second half to get back on equal terms and the east Toronto side’s Petar Pordenic drove the ball from the edge of the box just inside the post to cut the Serbian Eagles lead to 2-1 at 63 minutes. Both sides had good scoring chances during the late stages, it was 2-1 at the final whistle.
Serbian White Eagles and Scarborough meet again on Friday, June 14 in the regular season opener at Centennial Stadium (renamed recently the Rob Ford Stadium), an 8 pm kickoff. Scarborough won the league title 2023 season by one point over runner-up Serbian White Eagles.
Serbian White Eagles: Obrad Bejatovic, Ivan Cendic, Petar Planic, Srdjan Simovic, Nikola Timotijevic, Nikola Djurkovic, Marko Krasic, Bojan Sisovic, Milos Mijatovic, Marko Pavicevic and Vladimir Strizovic. Substitutes: Marko Orosic, Christopher Gaytan, Stefan Milosevic, Dejan Koraksic, Branislav Vukomanovic ( 59th min.), Adrian Cann 68th min), Robert Boskovic ( 87th min.) and Khubaib Mahboubullah ( 92th min.).
President: Dragan Bakoc
Manager: Predrag Milkovic
Head Coach: Bojan Zoranovic
Assist, Coach: Uros Stamatovic
Goalkeeper Coach: Bojan Vranic
Scarborough SC: Zemoy Dash,Edmond Amadeo, Eduardo Compean, Marko Johansen, Vinicius Junior, Marko Prokic, Vladimir Zelenbaba, Mohamed El Sabahy, Luis Savchez, Gonzalo Matias. Petar Dordevic. Substitutes: Junior Santana (59 Min.) Nemania Golovic, Lookman Oydeve, Amador Torres (78 Min.) Jose Sanchez, Mishel Missieft (59 Min.)
General Manager: Kiril Dimitrov
Head Coach: Zoran Knezevic
Assistant Coach: Vladimir Dragicevic
Assistant Coach: Yordan Kovachev
Venue: Esther Shiner Stadium, Toronto
Match Officials:
Referee – Yuril Ponomarov
Assistant Referee – Carlos Rodriguez
Assistant Referee – Roberto Carlos
4th official – Phil Papanicolau
