Sudbury soccer fans were treated to one of the most exciting and dramatic soccer games ever witnessed in the north. Unfortunately, the game occured in semi-final play of the 14th annual Caruso Club Men's Soccer Tournament as Oakville stopped Sudbury's S.C Italia after a much-prolonged penalty kick session.

In the end, both teams would enjoy success in their final encounters, with Oakville taking gold over Mississauga and S.C. Italia bouncing back to upend Soo Croatia.“We battled it hard for two halves and the two overtimes,” said SC Italia head coach Walter Michelutti of the semi-final classic. “There’s no team here that’s better than the other. There’s just two good teams playing each other and unfortunately, it had to come down to penalty shots.”

The semi-final match pitting SC Italia and the defending champions from Oakville featured no ordinary shootout competition. It took fourteen kicks to declare a winner and was completed only after Oakville had thought they seized victory on two separate occasions. Two Sudbury kicks were re-taken when the referee ruled that the Oakville keeper had jumped off the goal line before the kicks were taken.

“They say the goalie was off his line before they took the two kicks,” said Oakville's Chad Aboud. “Whether that was the case or not, you’ve never seen that called. I’ve never seen that called more than once in my life, and for two times in sudden death in one penalty kick competition, it’s unbelievable" Aboud noted.

“It was the most bizarre, but hard-fought game I’ve ever played in,” he admitted. “The other team put in just as much effort as we did. It was a tough call in the penalty kicks, but we’re just happy we got to go to the finals”

In the end, Oakville managed to come out on top, 11-10 on penalty kicks, after playing to a 1-1 draw in regular time and extra time. It was a very tough pill to swallow for the Sudbury team, which jumped out to the early lead, only to have Oakville tie it on a bicycle kick and eventually win it on controversial penalty kicks.

“The rule is the goalie can’t come off the line and he (referee) made the right calls” Michelutti concluded. “The final one, he definitely jumped off the line, but I think there would have been a big brawl here amongst the fans if he didn’t let that stand. We gave it everything we had and when it comes down to penalty shots, it’s anybody’s game. I think the fans saw one of the best soccer games in years” said Michelutti.

The coach also felt the team’s inability to capitalize on their chances ended up catching up to them. “Twice, they had missed and we had a chance to put it away and we missed. I mean you can only get so many chances and we should have won the game.”

SC Italia went on to win the consolation game against Soo Croatia in extra time after the two teams remained deadlocked 1-1 after regulation. It was a big victory for the team, which was visibly exhausted from the semi-final game just a half hour earlier. “We’re obviously disappointed that we had to end up playing in the consolation game” admitted co-captain Dan Palladino.

“But, the guys dug deep and the guys stuck it out, right up until the end. I think the fitter team won this afternoon and you really have to credit everybody here, right from the coaching staff to every single player on this team. They sucked it up and gave it everything they had. I’m very proud of the accomplishment of third place” stated Palladino.

SC Italia reached the semi-finals by knocking off another local team, Italia Flyers, in the quarter-finals 1-0. The other two Sudbury-based squads, Sudbury Panhellenic and Sudbury Athletic, weren’t able to reach the playoff round of the 12-team tournament.

Oakville picked up their second consecutive Caruso Club Tournament championship, winning the final game 4-1 against Mississauga 4-1. The game started closely enough, with Mississauga taking the early lead on one of their first shots. But Oakville ended up coming back to take the lead and they never looked back.

“We’re really happy with the win, but we’re just glad to beat them after they beat us in the round robin,” said Aboud, who’s been on the team for their last three tournament appearances. “They thought that they were a little better than us after beating us in the round-robin, but we played real well and dominated the final game" he added.

"I think the difference was experience on our team, intelligence with the ball and a little extra fitness. Everybody was exhausted and cramping”. Second-year player Andrew Saulez, was also pleased with the win. “We came down for a good weekend and to have fun, but at the same time, we really wanted to win it” he said. “We won it last year, so it’s nice to repeat.”

Second place finisher, Mississauga, made it to the final after defeating Soo Croatia 2-0 in the first semi-final. The game was scoreless all the way through to the last ten minutes. It was a great win for Mississauga, but Marco D’Alfoonsa, admits they had nothing left when they finally made it to the final.

“It was a hard-fought game, but at the end they had more legs,” he said. “They were more fit. They had a little bit of a deeper bench, which also helped…we beat them in the preliminary, but we couldn’t beat them in the end". Still, D'Alfoonsa takes away good memories from his team's northern sojourn. "We had a great time here” he concluded. “It’s all about fun and playing good soccer. We want to come up here and hopefully win it next year…this is our third year here and Sudbury is a great town and it’s a very competitive tournament. You feel really good about yourself to be able to play good, competitive soccer.”