A capacity crowd at Bishop Reding Field in Milton, Ontario witnessed history Friday evening as Milltown FC, one of four new members of the Canadian Soccer League for 2010, registered the first goal and first victory in the club’s short history. On the strength of excellent goalkeeping, strong defending and a lovely second half goal by recent signing (and Milton resident) Eros Olazabal, Milltown FC shutout 2009 CSL finalists Serbian White Eagles by a score of 1-0.

This match also marked the return of Head Coach Rafael Carbajal to the Milltown FC sidelines. Carbajal rejoined the club earlier in the week after serving as a member of Canada’s U20 Men’s National Team Coaching Staff at a camp in Holland, where he was also joined by Milltown’s Strength and Conditioning Coach, Paolo Pacione. Not surprisingly, Coach Carbajal was very happy about his team’s performance on Friday evening.

“I continue to be very proud of this team,” said Carbajal. “We worked hard for 90 minutes, got great performances from key players and we got our first ever goal thanks to a player from Milton who went to high school at Bishop Reding. Our hard work in training is definitely paying off.”

For a second straight match, the team was lead by an outstanding performance by starting goalkeeper and captain, Scott Cliff. He commanded the 18 yard box all night, made some wonderful saves and got some help from the woodwork as White Eagles hit two crossbars to earn his second consecutive shutout. Cliff shares Man-of-the-Match honours with central defender Thierry Mangwa-Batomen. The tall Frenchman, who played with Serbian White Eagles in 2009, was a force all night. Working alongside Ben Ragan, who also had a strong game, Mangwa-Batomen did an excellent job containing the SWE forward tandem of Sasa Viciknez and Viktor Anastasov, winning numerous balls in the air and making a number of brave and well-timed tackles to help ensure the opponents stayed off the score sheet.

White Eagles maintained much of the possession in the first half and had the better of the chances to score. Looking to change the momentum, Coach Carbajal decided to insert twin brothers Erick and Eros Olazabal into the match at the 31st minute, in place of Erwin Balazs and Cordell Benjamin, and those personnel change started to pay dividends almost immediately. Milltown started enjoying more of the ball, especially in the offensive third of the field, and they carried that positive play forward into the second half, looking very poised and dangerous.

A long stretch of strong play and several good chances culminated with the only goal of the match. 18 year old Eros Olazabal made a well timed run onto a perfectly weighted pass from his brother Erick and then showed tremendous patience under pressure as he stepped around on-rushing SWE keeper Milos Kocic and calmly slotted the ball into the back of the net, sparking a huge celebration both on the field, where Olazabal was mobbed by teammates, and in the stands as the nearly 500 supporters erupted with joy and relief.

With the win, Milltown moves to a record of 1 win, 1 tie and no losses for a total of 4 points from 2 games and now the team travels to Brantford for another tough test on Sunday (May 30) to take on fellow league newcomers, Brantford Galaxy. The Galaxy is shaping up to be one of the tougher teams in the CSL, having imported the maximum of 9 foreign players to bolster their roster. Game time is 7:05pm at Steve Brown Sports Complex.

Scoring Summary:

71st minute – Eros Olazabal (assist to Erick Olazabal)

Milltown FC Starting Lineup:
Scott Cliff, Germain Sefa, Thierry Mangwa, Ben Ragan, Michael Jan, Jason Morgan, Cordell Benjamin, Martijn Kuijpers, Agustin De Medina, Erwin Balazs, Gersi Xhuti

Milltown FC Substitutes:
Daniel Mendez, Chad Fernandez, Range Hussein, Jesse Mahal, Erick Olazabal, Danilo Richards, Eros Olazabal

Milltown FC Substitutions:
31st minute – Balazs out, Eros Olazabal in 31st minute – Benjamin out, Erick Olazabal in 71st minute – Sefa out, Fernandez in
77th minute – Xhuti out, Richards in

Milltown FC Disciplinary Summary:
71st minute – Eros Olazabal (Yellow) 87th minute – Michael Jan (Yellow)

Serbian White Eagles Starting Lineup:
Milos Kocic, Uros Stamatovic, Dragorad Milicevic, Mirko Medic, Marc Jankovic, Milos Vucinic, Milos Scepanovic, Adrian Tismenar, Kiril Dimitrov, Viktor Anastasov, Sasa Viciknez

Serbian White Eagles Substitutes:
Milos Djurkovic, Taylor Lord, Goran Vlaski, Milan Janosevic, Shawn Brown, Alex Braletic, Stefan Vukovic

Serbian White Eagles Substitutions:
45th minute – Dimitrov out, Braletic in 59th minute – Anastasov out, Brown in 78th minute – Viciknez out, Vukovic in 88th minute – Tismenar out, Janosevic in

Serbian White Eagles Disciplinary Summary
75th minute – Sasa Viciknez (Yellow)
90th+ minute – Milos Kocic (Yellow)