Boxing Day Blues

Hamilton loses heartbreaker in dying seconds of semifinal

VAUGHN, ON. — Much like the Hamilton Croatia team that travelled down to Ohio in November, a roster with some CSL talent attended the Annual Indoor Boxing Day Tournament in Vaughn. And like the Ohio tourney, the team came up just short of bringing back some hardware. The squad was made up of Canadian Soccer League players Tomislav Bilic, Ivan Grubisic, Andrew Leggett, Martin Mamic, Daniel Niksic, Sandro Rajkovic and Silvano Rajkovic. Former Hamilton Croatia veteran goaltender Frank Perin was again between the pipes, while brothers Matteo and Andrew Barsalona also took part. The tournament had 48 teams split into 16 groups of three. The top two teams in each group advanced to the Championship Bracket, while the 16 third-place teams moved on to the Consolation Bracket. Croatia won their opening match over FK Bosna 1-0 on a Silvano Rajkovic penalty shot. This dropped Bosna to 0-2, so Hamilton was through to the round of 32 regardless of the outcome of their second group match, one which they eventually lost 1-0 against The Other Guys. In the knockout round, Hamilton faced Group J winners Waterloo. After playing to a 0-0 draw Silvano again struck the decisive penalty, this time in the shootout, and Perin saved all three kicks he faced as Croatia advanced. It was brother Sandro Rajkovic scoring on a header in the round of 16 as Hamilton defended well and beat Inter FC 1-0. The Croats then faced their toughest test as they took on Rick Titus and his defending champion Real Toronto squad in the quarterfinal. Hamilton paid strict attention to detail in their own half and played a counter attacking style which amounted to exactly zero goals for both teams.

A penalty shootout had to decide this game as well, and again Croatia came out on top. Perin stopped four of seven shots as Hamilton dramatically advanced 0-0, 4-3 on penalty kicks. It was Perin’s fourth shutout in the five games played. But when you live by the sword, you die by the sword. And with only two goals scored all day, Hamilton’s luck finally ran out in the semifinal against Richmond Hill. Only 15 seconds remained in a 0-0 game before another shootout when a Richmond Hill player got to a through-ball and redirected it slowly past a hard-charging Perin. The ball barely crossed the goalline, handing Croatia a 1-0 loss and knocking them out of the tournament. Richmond Hill would lose to The Ballaz in the final. The tournament was held at The Soccer Centre in Vaughn, Ontario on turf fields, and is considered one of the more prestigious winter indoor events in southern Ontario.