Tonight at the opening of the season Serbian White Eagles, completely outplayed and convincingly beat Astros Vasas 3-0 (1-0). Eagles have played in almost brand new composition, rejuvenated, and after all of the haggling, negotiations and trials between CSL-CSA, and the final start of the season, entered the championship as the big unknowns. The first impression is very positive; especially in the first half the Eagles played attractive football.
Stadium: Centennial
Weather: Ideal
Referee: Alexis Vaughan
Booked: Vukoje Sasso, James
Scorers: 1-0 Strunjaš (21) 2-0 Stankovic (74) Dimitrov 3-0 (82)
Serbian White Eagles: Avramovic, Orlando, Zayarnyy, Jelic, Popovic, Lukovic, Vukoje (76.Beader), Stankovic, Dimitrov (84.Miodrag) Strunjaš (70.Bailey) Chamale
Coach: Uros Stamatović
Astros Vasas: Toth, Kaum-Assane (65.Kolozsi), Sasso, Simon, Adalbert, James Ramsey, Jung, Dana (37.Zwane) Csak, Gulyas
Coach: Laszlo Kiss
Start the game and almost the entire first half passed in full domination and charge by Eagles. They were connecting very well, played well in the middle and wings but couldn’t quite finish. Our team had possession of the ball at least 70 percent of the time in the first half but only created two or three chances. Unselfish and very imaginative play in the midfield was ending with shots from distance.
First Dimitrov tried ,6th minute shot from just outside the box went just wide . The same player took a shot in 16th minute, but again it was wide. In 21.minutu free kick was awarded for our team 25 meters from the goal close to the left side line. On a set play Kirilov quickly found Stankovic who freely entered the box sideways, he waited for someone to open, and then ideally found Strunjaš ten meters from the net who took a routine ground shot and scored for 1-0!, More than deserved lead.
We continued with our dominant game, but other than fakes and good and near miss by Stankovic from 16 meters in 31st minute and a good kick by Vukoja in 45th minute, our team did not create more scoring chances.
In the second half Eagles deliberately retreated a little, gave deceptive advantage to rival first fifteen minutes, after which took full control and dominated opponent by taking initiative and creating a lot of chances.
In 46th minute Dimitrov took a good shot from 16 meters and nearly missed. The first chance guests had in 55th minute when Gulyas took very good shot from 20meters hiting the side net. A great opportunity was missed in 62nd minute after Stankovic took a great corner kick, Popovic has jumped and headed the ball from 7 meters, but a defender managed to clear the ball in front of the goal line. In 74th minute Dimitrov made the run on the right side, passed the perfect ball to Stankovic who received the ball well, and gave a little self-pass and took a 14 meter shot the left side of the goal keeper and scores for 2-0 lead. 78th minute brought a new great chance after a corner, but Jelic’s shot was blocked as well as Dimitrov’s. In 84th minute Stankovic, who had an excellent night, shook the cross bar with the strong 20 meter shot. Finaly Dimitrov penetrated sideways from the right side entered the box and took a shot to the opposite corner and scored for 3-0.
There wasn’t a weak spot in our team tonight. Stankovic was exceptional, Jelic confident, Dimitrov excellent, still we need to highlight a great game by 18 year old Stefan Popovic, who in his debut for the first team played flawlessly.