Josip Raguz, the newly-appointed head coach for home team CSC Mississauga was gracious in defeat following a 4-0 victory by SC Waterloo in the season opener at the Hershey Centre in Mississauga, just west of Toronto Sunday night.
There were times after visiting Waterloo took an early 1-0 lead that Mississauga played well enough in the first half to get back on even terms in a contest that may go either way, but the visitors, gradually and methodically took charge following the interval to soon add three more and the game was a foregone conclusion with less than 30 minutes remaining to the final whistle.
“They were the better team,” said Raguz following the final whistle. “But we can and will do better as we move into the season,” he said, explaining that his side is not yet up to full strength and with new players it’s going to take a little while to get jt together.”
It was forward Petar Dordevic who opened the scoring for SC Waterloo at just three minutes, heading in off a corner kick by Aleksander Milovanovic for the 1-0 score at halftime. Dordevic struck again at 54 minutes, taking a pass from midfielder Miodrag Kovacevic to tap in from close range just inside the right post and well out of reach of Mississauga goalkeeper Artan Zatifi.
Milovanovic made it 3-0 for the visitors at 60 minutes, a drive from six yards, and five minutes later Ivan Cutura rounded the scoring to 4-0, driving from 25 yards into the corner of the net.
SC Waterloo played with five players that are new arrivals from Serbia, all with high level experience in Eastern and Central Europe.
There are three CSL First Division matches scheduled for the coming weekend:
Saturday, May 25, The Ontario Soccer Centre 6 pm FC Vorkuta vs Kingsman A
Saturday, May 25, Heritage Field 6.30 pm Hamilton City vs SC Waterloo
Saturday, May 25, Heritage Field, 8.30 pm Brantford Galaxy vs Serbian White Eagles
Sunday, May 26, Birchmount Stadium 8 pm, Scarborough SC vs CSC Mississauga
An additional match, FC Ukraine United vs Real Mississauga SC originally scheduled for Sunday, May 26 at Centennial Stadium, a 7.30 pm kickoff, has been postponed.