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HAMILTON, ON, Marina Madzarevic (croat.ca) — The 48th annual H.N.N.S. Soccer Tournament, hosted by “Croatia” – Hamilton, took place this past weekend in Hamilton, Ontario. Similar to previous years, the tournament festivities began on Friday, and continued Saturday morning with the round robin stage of the soccer competition. In addition to the men’s teams from Canada and the United States that participated in the tournament, this year, for the first time ever, the tournament also included a women’s tournament.

The open age women’s tournament consisted of 5 teams including Chicas-Croatas – Chicago, Croatia A – Hamilton, Croatia B – Hamilton, Croatia – Mississauga, and Jadran – Ottawa. The round robin stage began Saturday and continued on until Sunday afternoon. Throughout the tournament all the women’s teams showed off their skills, and played with great sportsmanship. Unfortunately only two teams could go on to play in the first ever women’s championship game.

Ultimately, Croatia A – Hamilton and Croatia B – Hamilton dominated the women’s tournament, as they went on to play for the championship title. Before beginning the game, both teams huddled together in the centre of the field and began chanting “Hamilton Croatia”. While discussing the tournament experience with Ashley Bucar who plays for Croatia A, she stated that “it was nice because we knew the other team, and we knew that at least one of the Hamilton teams would win”. It was a pleasure to see both teams so excited and proud to share the experience of this championship game with one another.

Croatia B started off the game with high hopes as they scored the first goal of the game, however Ashley Bucar tied up the game with a perfectly executed free kick goal from 30 yards out. Soon after, Kaitlyn Filipcic scored a great second goal which secured a 2-1 victory for the women on Croatia A – Hamilton, making them the first ever female champions of the H.N.N.S. Soccer Tournament.

The festivities continued Sunday evening at the Ancaster Fair Grounds, where all the teams celebrated the weekend-long tournament with a banquet and dance. The venue was filled with Croatians of all ages who came together for a successful and flawlessly organized event.

HAMILTON, ON, Tomislav Strk (croat.ca) — Hamilton was the site of the 48th Annual Croatian National Soccer Federation Tournament from September 2 to 4, 2011, which was hosted by local soccer club Hamilton Croatia. The event regularly draws semi-professional Croatian teams from all across North America. The premise of the tournament is to promote the sport enjoyed by many Croatians and the respective Croatian culture of each of the participating cities. Several thousand people were in attendance over the weekend event. Those in attendance enjoyed Croatian food, including ćevapi, and roasted lamb and pork, and bouncy castles kept children entertained for hours.

The participating teams were initially drawn into 5 groups with each of the group winners earning an automatic berth into the next round and the top 6 remaining teams competing for a spot in the quarter-finals. All group stage and qualifying games were played on Saturday, with the quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals being played on Sunday.

Following all of the rounds of play, two representatives from Chicago were left standing and headed to the finals – CBP Jadran and Hrvatski Vitezovi (formerly Zrjinski Chicago). The pre-game coin toss was conducted by Mr. Bob Bratina, Mayor of Hamilton and anthems were performed by Hamilton folklore groups Hrvatsko Selo and Hrvatski Narodni Dom. Following the pre-game ceremonies, the finals kicked off. Fifteen minutes into the encounter, Vitezovi took the lead off a perfectly placed cross that was headed into the back of the net. The match was very tightly contested all the way to the 85th minute, when CBP Chicago finally found the breakthrough through a headed opportunity. However, CBP Chicago’s chances were quickly extinguished as Vitezovi managed to score a deflected free kick in injury time. Vitezovi’s title win is their second in the many years of the tournament’s existence.

Aside from the Men’s tournament, Croatia Windsor won the Veteran’s tournament over Neretva Mississauga and Hamilton Croatia A defeated Hamilton Croatia B in the Women’s tournament.
Dances were held in the evenings at the nearby Ancaster Fairgrounds where over a thousand young Croatians were in attendance.

Ivan Radoš, one of the organizers of this year’s tournament, had the following to say about the weekend’s events: “I’m very pleased with how the tournament went this year. The soccer was good and the fans were well behaved. I’m already looking forward to next year’s event.”
Many commented on the variety of attractions offered at this year’s tournament, both on and off the field, for all in attendance, and the quality of the organization. Next year’s tournament will be held in Norval, Ontario and will be hosted by Livno Oakville.

Game Starts on Friday, at 1:00 PM!

Catch the game live at the Croatian Sports & Community Centre – Stoney Creek, ON

• Doors Open at NOON
• Hot lunch will be available for purchase

Address:

166 Green Mountain Road East
Stoney Creek, Ontario L8J 3A4
Location Map: Google Maps

For those staying in hotels in our beautiful downtown area and heading to the dance on Saturday, and banquet (tickets still available on registration page!) on Sunday:

- The King St. to 403 WB ramp is still closed for construction and will not be open until the 5th of September. -

A slight (2-5 min) detour will get you on the highway with ease!

Alternate: If coming from the hotels and heading to the banquet, heading south on Dundurn St.,and making a right on Aberdeen Ave., will provide you with the closest access to the 403 from your downtown location. (click for map of road work and alternate)

Directions from the hotels to the banquet venue on the hotels page have also been updated to reflect the changes.

Veterans | Women

With the tournament fast approaching, we have made available, the maps for the fields (Joe Sams Leisure Park, 752 Centre Rd., Waterdown, ON).

Click to download the JPG version

Click to download the PDF version

The map includes important times, field numbers, parking lots and washroom, kid’s playground and beer garden locations!

Don’t forget, up-to-date scores will be provided online on our Gameday page at http://tournament.hamiltoncroatia.com! This is available to all smartphone mobile devices which provide rich web browsing features such as BlackBerry, iPhone and Android devices!

Saturday, September 3rd

• Group A
  • Field #5: Jadran Ottawa vs. Vitezovi Chicago, 9 a.m.
  • Field #5: Croatia Windsor vs. CBP Jadran Chicago, 10 a.m.
  • Field #5: CBP Jadran Chicago vs. Vitezovi Chicago, 12 p.m.
  • Field #5: Jadran Ottawa vs. Croatia Windsor, 1 p.m.
  • Field #5: Jadran Ottawa vs. CBP Jadran Chicago, 3 p.m.
  • Field #6: Croatia Windsor vs. Vitezovi Chicago, 3 p.m.

• Group B
  • Field #8: Hrvat St. Catherine’s vs. Karlovac-Velebit Milton, 9 a.m.
  • Field #8: Polet New York vs. Croatia Norval, 10 a.m.
  • Field #8: Croatia Norval vs. Karlovac-Velebit Milton, 12 p.m.
  • Field #8: Polet New York vs. Hrvat St. Catherine’s, 1 p.m.
  • Field #8: Polet New York vs. Karlovac-Velebit Milton, 3 p.m.
  • Field #9: Hrvat St. Catherine’s vs. Croatia Norval, 3 p.m.

• Group C
  • Field #2: Hrvatski Orlovi Milwaukee vs. Croatia London, 9 a.m.
  • Field #2: Adria Sudbury vs. Croatia Cleveland, 10 a.m.
  • Field #2: Adria Sudbury vs. Hrvatski Orlovi Milwaukee, 12 p.m.
  • Field #2: Croatia London vs. Croatia Cleveland, 1 p.m.
  • Field #1: Hrvatski Orlovi Milwaukee vs. Croatia Cleveland, 4 p.m.
  • Field #2: Adria Sudbury vs. Croatia London, 4 p.m.

• Group D
  
  • Field #1: Croatia Hamilton vs. Croatia New York, 9 a.m.
  • Field #1: Hrvat Oakville vs. Dalmacija Streetsville, 10 a.m.
  • Field #1: Croatia Hamilton vs. Dalmacija Streetsville, 12 p.m.
  • Field #1: Hrvat Oakville vs. Croatia New York, 1 p.m.
  • Field #1: Croatia Hamilton vs. Hrvat Oakville, 3 p.m.
  • Field #2: Croatia New York vs. Dalmacija Streetsville, 3 p.m.

• Group E
  • Field #9: Croatia Sault Ste. Marie vs. Zagreb Toronto, 9 a.m.
  • Field #9: Hrvat Kitchener vs. Livno Oakville, 10 a.m.
  • Field #9: Croatia Sault Ste. Marie vs. Livno Oakville, 12 p.m.
  • Field #9: Hrvat Kitchener vs. Zagreb Toronto, 1 p.m.
  • Field #8: Croatia Sault Ste. Marie vs. Hrvat Kitchener, 4 p.m.
  • Field #9: Livno Oakville vs. Zagreb Toronto, 4 p.m.

• Playoffs
  • Field #1: Wild-Card #1, 5:20 p.m.
  • Field #2: Wild-Card #2, 5:20 p.m.
  • Field #5: Wild-Card #3, 5:20 p.m.

Sunday, September 4th

• Playoffs
• Field #1: Quarterfinal #1, 9 a.m.
• Field #2: Quarterfinal #2, 9 a.m.
• Field #1: Quarterfinal #3, 10 a.m.
• Field #2: Quarterfinal #4, 10 a.m.
• Field #1: Semifinal: Winners of Quarterfinal #’s 1 & 2, 11 a.m.
• Field #2: Semifinal: Winners of Quarterfinal #’s 3 & 4, 11:30 a.m.
• Field #1: Third Place: Semifinal losers, 1 p.m.
• Field #1: Championship: Semifinal winners, 2:30 p.m.

Note: All fields, teams, and times are subject to change.

Represent your community - become Miss Hamilton Croatia!

To the ladies of Hamilton Croatia: “WE NEED A QUEEN!”

As all of you already know, this year our club — The Croatian Sports and Community Centre of Hamilton, Inc. — is hosting the 48th annual HNNS Tournament.

That being said, we would love to have a Kraljica represent us. This has been a long-standing tradition that has until recently been a huge component of the annual tournament and it is still immensely important to us.

Many of you have represented our club in some way or another and we would love for you to represent us once again. Speaking as someone who has held this role in the past, it is an amazing honour to know that you are a part of something so great, something so memorable, and something that has been and will hopefully continue to be a part of your lives in the future.

You will not only be representing yourselves and this club, but our entire community as a whole.

The requirements are as follows:

• Contest (being held at our August 21st picnic at GMR):
- Q&A in either English or Croatian (2-3 question per person)
- Special talent competition (sing, dance, juggle soccer ball, etc.)
- Short speech of why you should be Miss Hamilton Croatia

• Requirements:
- Walk out at final game and hand out flowers
- Recognized at banquet (free ticket to get in)

PRIZE FOR WINNER – $500 of Cash and Prizes

If you have any further questions please let me know. You can either reply to the forum thread or email me at jbilic@cogeco.ca.

Looking forward to your responses,

Jenny Bilic

Hamilton Croatia is proud to introduce for the first time ever online team registration at the official website of the 48th Annual Croatian National Soccer Federation of Canada & U.S.A’s Men’s Soccer Tournament.

Men, Women and Veteran’s teams can pay for their teams and banquet tickets online at Registration/Tickets.