London City’s captain returns for late push
In London City Soccer Club’s 2-0 loss to
Toronto Croatia on Friday (Aug. 2) there was something missing from them
— and not just a ball in the back of the net.
In fact, it has been missing the last 10 games.
Nenad Begovic hasn’t stepped on a Canadian
Soccer League (CSL) field in the London black or red colours since the
team’s fourth game of the season held June 2 on the road against North
York’s Astros Vasas FC when City’s captain was issued a red card for
allegedly assaulting an official.
“
Mr. Begovic (player #15) sprinted in a
threatening way towards me yelling at me using foreign language and
stopped face to face with me then proceeded to headbutt me,” wrote
Hassane Rifai, the harmed referee in question, in a witness report to
the Canadian Soccer Association (CSA).
The CSL deals with all league discipline,
except for abuse of an official. In that case the governing body CSA
handles the incident.
The 33-year-old London player was suspended indefinitely until further notice by the CSA.
Begovic, and his team, vehemently denied the
allegations and had a personal hearing with the CSA Discipline
Committee to appeal the decision on July 13 in Toronto.
London City general manager Jasmin Halkic
and teammate Aldin Kukic spoke at the hearing in Begovic’s defence.
There’s a YouTube video of the incident, which the Committee looked at as well and can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDJX-w0qOv0.
When it was all said and done the suspension was dismissed.
“The Committee is unable to agree and
support the allegations brought forth by the CSL against Begovic,” the
CSA wrote in a letter to London City announcing their decision on July
30. “From the angle of the video of the alleged incident, the Committee
determined that the match official’s head did not move back at any time
to indicate that he had been head butted by Begovic. To support this
finding, the players on the field would have responded or reacted to any
physical act or contact by Begovic towards the match official,
especially a headbutt.”
The infraction had originally been posted in
the discipline section of the CSL’s website in bold red letters reading
Bega wouldn’t return to a field until next year. Now the infraction
isn’t even publicized, unlike the rest of the yellow and red cards that
have gone and past. It’s like the incident never even happened.
But it did, and it cost Begovic and his team seven games together.
“He’s the team leader, he’s the team captain
and he’s the most experienced player here,” London City’s leading
point-getter Marin Vucemilovic Grgic. “We need him.”
Just as Begovic was about to take back his
captain duties from defender Zvonko Bakula, who has filled in the role
in the meantime, the reinstated pro player received a call from back
home in Belgrade, Serbia.
His mother-in-law had died and Begovic
returned to his European home to be with wife and pay his condolences.
With that, he missed another three games.
His teammates kept in constant contact with
Begovic since he returned to Serbia and they could hardly await his
return to the Forest City when he flew into Toronto on Saturday (Aug.
3).
According to Grgic, teammates would be
meeting Begovic at the airport with a sign reading, “Team captain, we
miss you.”
“When one player goes home because of a
death in the family that affects all of us,” Grgic said in describing
the closeness of his team. “We always called him asking, ‘Are you coming
back?’”
Begovic’s return can’t be understated.
London City did fine without him, going
winless with a 0-2-2 record to start the season and following it up with
a 5-4-1 record with Begovic gone.
There’s no doubt he can help his team pick
up a few extra points though, but what Begovic does transcends outside
of the field.
He’s been the face of the team since London
City changed ownership last year and completely revamped its roster.
In a club where English isn’t most of the
players first language, he’s been the one answering questions.
When City’s head coach mysteriously left
midway through last season, Begovic was the one organizing practices and
running drills.
In other words, since joining the team in 2012 Begovic has been London City’s “guy.”
At the end of the day the suspension is off
the CSL’s website and you would be hard pressed to find mention of it
anywhere. The standings, however, will never be taken down and London,
currently in sixth place, will most likely only go up in the rankings
with Begovic back in his spot in midfield and eight games left.
“Definitely we need him in the game. He’s a
quality player,” said London’s new coach Tomo Dancetovic, who has two
games under his belt with the team. He previously coached Begovic on the
Brantford Galaxy. “He’ll definitely be a big help for the team.”
Begovic is expected to make his return in a
London City jersey Friday (Aug. 9) when the team hits the road to take
on the St. Catharines Roma. He’ll make his first home appearance Aug. 17
against the Serbian White Eagles.
Seoane
had five goals in four games in the PDL Playoffs, including the
game-winning goal in each of the Aztex’s four victories on the way to
the championship. He pulled the Aztex even from the penalty spot
following Pedro Adan’s early goal had given the Chill the lead. Seoane
then added a second midway through the first half before assisting on
Khiry Shelton’s finish just before the break.
All
four teams headed to the 2013 PDL Championship presented by Nike this
weekend in Austin, Texas are represented on the All-Conference teams.
The host Austin Aztex lead all teams with four players selected,
including goalkeeper Devin Cook, defender Max Gunderson, midfielder
Antonio Rocha and forward Krystopher Tyrpak.
Caringi,
set to play his senior season at UMBC, led the Bohemians (8-1-5) to
second place in the Mid Atlantic Division while tallying 16 goals and 37
points in 12 games. He edged out Ottawa’s Carl Haworth by a point in
the scoring race and finished one goal ahead of Real Colorado’s Oliver
Gore and Orlando City U23’s Tyler Blackwood in the goal-scoring race.