Photo from Silhouette Photo Archives

By Lucas Uggenti

Challenge. That’s just another word in the dictionary for McMaster men’s soccer team’s Carlo DiFeo, as he has proven on numerous occasions throughout his soccer career that overcoming challenges is exactly what it takes to achieve greatness.

Although most things come naturally for DiFeo on the pitch, he has never been one to shy away from competition and continues to train every day to make his dream of becoming a professional soccer player a reality.

“Saltfleet’s in my blood,” said DiFeo when asked about his younger playing days.

 

[spacer height="20px"]DiFeo started his soccer career playing for his hometown team, the Saltfleet Strikers, where his father managed and coached him until he was 14 years old. Aldo DiFeo played an important role in his son’s development, always striving to teach Carlo that soccer is more than just a game and that the little things are what make playing worth it.

Aldo used his ability to communicate and his high soccer IQ to help shape Carlo into the player and man he is today, on and off the field.

“My dad is the realest man ever,” DiFeo said. “He taught me how to have the right mentality when dealing with any type of adversity, whether that be not starting in a match or dealing with an injury.”  

Aldo had to sacrifice his own personal time to help Carlo continue down a successful path, never once complaining about the hours spent developing game plans and training techniques to help both his son and every player he coached. Not to mention the countless hours spent behind the wheel, all of this did not go unnoticed by the young McMaster star.

“I wouldn’t be who I am on the pitch without him,” Difeo said. “He made me fall in love with the game.”

DiFeo’s resilience is what separates him from his peers and what gives him the edge in competitions. He will never be the strongest guy on the pitch or the tallest, but DiFeo has an incredible skill set and an understanding of the game which is unlike no other.

This put him on McMaster’s radar at an early age, where DiFeo was looked at as a potential good fit for the program. Unfortunately for Mac, he decided to stay back for a fifth year of high school where he continued to train with the Ontario provincial team.

DiFeo has had the opportunity to travel the world and play in different countries throughout Europe with the team, giving him a better look at what international soccer was going to be like.

DiFeo has a knack for finishing what he starts, and his loyalty to the game and his team is a big part of what makes him so successful today. His decision to stay back another year to develop ultimately benefited him and McMaster by the time DiFeo chose to join the team.

“I wanted to play for Mac,” said DiFeo. “I’ve always heard good things about the soccer program and coach Dino [Perri]. It was a team I wanted to be a part of.”

Using his skillset to his advantage, DiFeo always could escape danger by not putting himself in it, which is a lot easier said than done. He is not shy to admit he’s been battling such adversities since he first put on the boots.

“It’s a challenge, especially being a 5’8” midfielder,” DiFeo said. “I played with a group of guys who were taller and stronger. It opened my eyes to the notion that a position is never given, you have to earn your spot. If you’re not playing good that week then you’ll lose your spot and start on the bench. It really opened my eyes to competitive football.”

[spacer height="20px"]DiFeo’s most recent challenge came in the form of a position change. He has played most of his life in the number 10 role, an attacking midfielder, and most recently changed to a right fullback.

DiFeo was given a responsibility on the pitch that differed greatly from his usual spot as coach Perri decided to move DiFeo to the fullback role. The move came as a pleasant surprise for both DiFeo and the McMaster soccer team as he continued to be the most effective player on the pitch.

This opened new avenues for DiFeo outside of McMaster, as he now has found himself a starting role on the Oakville Blue Devils, a successful team in League 1 Ontario. The position change has allowed DiFeo to become more versatile in attack, giving his coaches a different weapon to use. This has helped him become a regular starter for Oakville which included starting in important matches such as the Canadian Championship final and a match against Frosinone, a top team in Italy.

DiFeo consistently deals with any piece of adversity thrown his way and will continue to strive in the right direction to get to his final goal. With an excellent support system behind him, and a strong soccer program at McMaster, DiFeo is well on his way to a long and successful soccer career.

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Photo by McMaster Athletics

The 2017 Ontario University Athletics Final Four did not go as the Marauders had planned. Ending the season at second place in the OUA West division, the team looked like they had a strong chance at moving on to the national championships.

Unfortunately, the trip was never meant to be as Mac struggled in their playoff matches, falling short of bringing home any hardware. The end to the season felt undeserved, but those tough-to-accept losses are far behind the 2018 team as they face the challenges of this young season.

This season appeared to be a tough test right from the start for the Marauders as a significant number of upper-year players were put on a team suspension and were forced to sit out the first four games of the season. This left a hole in leadership, calling for younger players to step up.

One such player is Antonio Sereno, a third-year winger who started six of the 13 games he played in last season. This season he had to step up and be one of the players to lead by example.

“I got to be more of a leader on the field this year because most of the guys were suspended,” Sereno said. “I was one of the older guys, so you kind of have to lead the way, show the rookies and set an example.”

That is something that Sereno accomplished on the field during Mac’s Aug. 31 game against the Western Mustangs, when the third-year notched a goal in the eightieth minute. It was his first goal of the season and gave the Mac men their third straight win to start the year.

Sereno points to the culture of the team, a united front of rookies and veterans, as a key reason why the Marauders were able to remain successful despite some holes in the roster.

“Everybody's on the same page,” Sereno said. “We just really clicked. It's like we've been playing for a while, but realistically, it's been three, four weeks and yet everybody's just on the same page.”

“Everybody wants to be there,” Sereno added. “We celebrate every goal as a team. It's like we've won a championship. Even here at Mac, you got to go over the stands but we just jump up. I love it. Like even at Western, guys are running across the field. It's amazing.”

Throughout their six games, Mac has mostly played in close contests, boasting a goal differential of +4. This is in line with Mac’s style as Sereno described the Marauders as a team that excels on the counter-attack.

“We do our job defensively everybody works hard, and then on the counter we just we just click,” Sereno said. “I don't think we're more of an offensive team, we just work hard defensively and then when we get that chance we go.”

However, the counter-attack was missing over the weekend as the Marauders had a tough time on the pitch, scoring one goal in two games against York and Guelph. They will need to work hard to get that counter-attack back on track and luckily head coach Dino Perri has been able to keep the team competitive while training.

“Like [coach Perri] says, nobody has a guaranteed spot on the team, anybody could come in,” Sereno said. “Rookies could come in and fill in spots without any problem and it's just the hard work people are putting in. Everybody's working hard, even in training. I love to see it. It's amazing.”

After a Sept. 14 match against Brock, Mac will get a little break over Homecoming weekend, where they can use that hard work and grit to prepare for the last part of the season. Sereno believes that this team can end this season with a better result than last year, but to do so they will need to put the work in.

“I just hope things go our way,” Sereno said. “There's a lot of potential on our team and, like [coach Perri] said, if we work and we want to get to that next step I think Nationals is possible for us. That's how much talent and potential we have, we just got to put our mind to it and work.”

Six games into the season, coach Perri and the Marauders are on the right track to amass another successful season on the pitch. With a long road still ahead to the end of the regular season, the team will need to continue to work hard if they want to pull ahead in a division full of tough teams.

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The Canadian Premier League is the first division league of soccer in Canada, kicking off their inaugural season in April 2019. 

Hamilton’s Forge FC will be one of the CPL’s founding clubs, joining Cavalry FC (Calgary), FC Edmonton, HFX Wanderers FC (Halifax), Valour FC (Winnipeg) and York 9 FC in York Region. A Port City team in British Columbia and another in Ottawa are expected to join.

Hamilton’s team, aptly titled Forge FC, will play home games out of Tim Hortons Field, keeping the upper bowls closed and keep capacity at an initial 14,000, allowing attendees to have a more intimate viewing experience. 

Hamilton has been linked to a professional soccer team as early as June 2013, when reports of a potential professional soccer league launching in Canada first emerged. 

In February 2016, the ownership group, including Hamilton Tiger-Cats owner Bob Young and investors from the Canadian Football League sought permission from city councillors to place a dome over Tim Hortons Field in order to allow year-long activity for a soccer league.

May 2017 saw Hamilton as one of two cities accepted by the Canadian Soccer Association for professional club membership when the Canadian Premier League was unanimously approved. 

Forge FC was officially unveiled on July 12 as the sixth team to join the Canadian Premier League. The name was chosen to represent Hamilton’s past as an industrial city while complimenting the city’s effort to forge ahead and build its future. Their team colours will include ‘spark orange, platinum steel and waterfall white.’

Greg Dunnett, the Senior Director of Business Operations at Forge FC says that the name pays homage to Hamilton’s heritage. 

“We picked the name Forge FC because we think it really ties into the brand of the city,” said Dunnett. “It ties back to the heritage of the steel mills and the manufacturing industries but really talks about how we believe Hamilton is a city forging ahead, forging forward.

Club memberships will be going on sale in the fall, but the club is currently hosting a deposit drive which will allow members to hold their spot in the queue once memberships go on sale. 

With the $50 deposit, fans can reserve their spot in line to select their seats at Tim Hortons Field at the membership level that best meets their needs. Further, exclusive benefits that include a personalized Forge FC scarf, co-founder board membership, exclusive Tim Hortons Field experiences and discounts on Forge FC merchandise. 

“We’re going to come in at a price point that you can you can go and not blow your wallet, so the need for it is that as a young person,” said Dunnett. “What’s really exciting about the first year is you get to make that connection from the start; the Bulldogs have been around for 20 years, the TiCats have been around for [60] years and [Forge FC] isn’t even 150 days old, so it’s something to connect to.”

Over the next six months, Forge FC will be holding tryouts around the country, keeping a quota for Canadian players on the field. 

Over the next six months, Forge FC will be holding tryouts around the country, keeping a quota for Canadian players on the field. 

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When I meet Chris Baio at Toronto’s Drake Hotel he is exhausted and mildly anxious, but still smiling. Slightly bleary-eyed from his cross-Atlantic flight that day, the London-by-way-of-New-York musician is about to do sound-check for one of the first shows in support of his debut solo album, The Names, but is waiting on a crucial part of his performance.

Nursing a coffee in one hand while warmly shaking my own with his other, Baio leads me to the patio to both get some air and explain his predicament.

One would think that Baio’s experience playing with Vampire Weekend would render him immune to pre-show jitters, but that doesn’t appear to be the case. In this case, it has got more to do with his equipment than his self-belief.

“Right now, the pedal-board belonging to the guitar player that I’m playing with is somewhere between the airport and here. So I’m just waiting on a piece of equipment. We just flew in today from London [England] to Chicago, and from Chicago to here. I’m doing okay, I slept a lot on the flight.”

Passing up the golden-opportunity to make a Wilco joke (“Via Chicago”), I ask how life in London, England is treating him. Having grown up in New York’s surrounding suburbs before moving to Manhattan for college, the wiry musician had spent most of the time he wasn’t touring with Vampire Weekend in the city. As fate would have it, Baio would have to be geographically separated from his beloved New York Rangers due to a career-related move for his wife.

Not one to take his sporting allegiance lightly, Baio has been sacrificing rest to watch the Rangers late at night.

“I tend to live like a reasonable person, but I found that every time I watched the game it would go to double-overtime and I would be on my couch yelling at the TV at 5 a.m.” he said with a chuckle.

Luckily for him, the Rangers’ recent trophy haul has been enough to offset Arsenal’s 10-year cup drought (the F.A. Cup is consolation for consistent failure), the North London football club of which Baio describes himself as a “casual fan.”

What Baio lacks in taste when it comes to soccer teams, he makes up for with his astute musical ear. The EPs that he has been releasing on his own since 2012 (Sunburn, The Silent/New You, Mira) all veer in different, but focused directions. The need to start recording and producing his own music arose from a desire to use the time spent at home from tour productively. While he had been messing around with Logic on his laptop  since 2009, this was the first time he began to take it seriously.

“It came from having ideas in my head and not being able to get them out. You can have an idea for a synth tone, a melody, a way a voice will sound but if you don’t know anything about production there’s no way you can convey that. I was very bad before I got good, and I think that I don’t regret doing it that way. Sometimes you can spend a lot of money and hire someone else to produce, but you don’t have that same level of control. Taking the time and spending five years figuring out how to be a producer before finishing this first record has lead me to listen to and understand music very differently than when Vampire Weekend started and it makes me excited to make another one of these records down the line.”

Baio also said that watching his bandmate, Rostam Batmanglij, produce the first two Vampire Weekend records on his own was a factor in his desire to keep production in-house as he saw the creative license it gave them.

“I wasn’t in a record contract or anything like that and just took it to a place where I had something I was really happy with before even starting to send it to people. When you’re just making a record on your own there are less expectations and pressure. I can’t say that anyone was really clamouring for a solo record from me, which I think was a good thing because it meant I could focus on the thing itself and make a record that I was really psyched on, which should be why people make records.”

If you sit down and listen to Baio’s discography chronologically, you won’t begin to hear his own voice until you hit his most recent EP, Mira, released in 2013. While he is quick to condemn his vocal performance on “Welterweight” as “not very good,” it showcased an artist growing more comfortable with himself and led to the testing of his limits. Sometimes, as Baio explains, these limits were pushed too far. When playing back the rough cuts of experimental songs for his wife, Baio was on the receiving end of some scathing words.

“She said she liked it, but she also said that when I’d sing in a deep voice it reminded her of the movie Planet of The Apes, which struck me as a funny first reaction.”

“Sister of Pearl” is one track that could have been included under Baio’s wife’s umbrella, but the vocal flows and cadences he employs are anything but ape-like. Inspired by the works of David Bowie and Bryan Ferry, Baio broke away from conventional singing with his staccato-like yelps and the results are seductive. Although they forced Baio to break away from his comfort zone, risks like the ones he took throughout The Names make it an imminently more infectious album from front to back.

The Names was finished approximately a year ago, and Baio says the gruelling post-production routine the record went through before it was picked up by Glasslands makes touring all the more appealing.

“I’m just trying to enjoy the ride. I’ve always enjoyed playing live and I feel it’s kind of like the payoff of the work of making a record.”

Whether you buy the record and end up singing in the shower, or hit up one of his shows, you’re guaranteed a pleasurable ride as well.

Photo Credit: Dan Wilton

By: Charlie Coe

On Sunday, Sept. 20, the Marauders soccer team defeated the Waterloo Warriors with a score of 3-0. The team is now on the road to record their fifth clean sheet—games where their opponents were unable to score a point—of the season.

In the 40th minute, midfielder Marco Gennaccaro put a goal on the board for the Marauders. The other two came soon after from forward Stefan Scholz.

The most intriguing narrative to have come out of this victory goes far beyond the numbers.

With two goals during the second half of the game, Scholz announced his arrival on the field with a standout debut performance.

Scholz took only five minutes to make his presence known after coming on as a second-half substitute, before completing his brace with an injury-time goal. Despite more than a yearlong journey to make the varsity squad during which time he has been preparing diligently for his big moment, Scholz admits that he wasn’t expecting to have a debut game quite like this one.

“I did really well in practice the week before, which was why I was given the opportunity to play and all the guys were expecting me to score, but I never thought that I would have that kind of a performance for my debut,” he said.

Scholz spent all of last season as a redshirt, unable to play after facing the disappointment of finding out he was not going to make the 27-man roster. He credits his standout performance on Sunday to the hard work and dedication he has put in to grab his coaches’ attention at the start of this season.

“I trained a lot during off-season and in the summer trying to get better but I’d have to say the turning point for me was during our pre-season. When we started to actually practice together, I felt like I was more involved with the squad,” said Scholz.

The sky is the limit for the second-year forward, who has a chance to make a real difference for the highly competitive Marauders team.

This win has placed the team second in the OUA West standings, holding a current record of six wins and two losses.

The team will once again attempt to make the national finals and avenge the 1-0 defeat they suffered against the York Lions in last year’s CIS Championship final.

The Marauders will look to add another game to their winning streak as they host the Laurier Goldenhawks at Ron Joyce Stadium on Sept. 27, part of the McMaster Homecoming weekend.

Photo Credit: Jon White/Photo Editor

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With injuries hindering the success of the women’s soccer team for seasons in the past, the youth and health of the team shows a promising future for the Marauders.

17 first year players and more than half of the roster has been added, and a fresh group of athletes have been injected into a team that had playoff dreams cut short at the hands of injuries.

Three regular games into the season and a current record of 2-1-1 shows that these Marauders are willing to compete and will have the chance to to do just that.

Co-captains Taylor Davis and Sophia Ymeka are playing in their last year of eligibility and add years of experience to the defensive back line.

Aug. 29 - McMaster vs. Waterloo TIE 2-2

With the first season game, the McMaster women’s team looked promising. McMaster led 2-0 with points on the board from Jessie Faber and Maila Carboni. Carboni, a rookie striker, got her first OUA goal in her debut in maroon and grey. The Marauders regulated most of the 90 minutes of play before the Warriors answered back with two goals of their own in the 85th and 87th minute.

Both teams split the points, and neither came out with a victory.

Aug. 30 - McMaster vs. York LOSS 0-1

Though McMaster’s defence remained steady throughout, a goal in the 49th minute of play saw the Lions get back on the bus with a win.

Sept. 5 - McMaster vs. Windsor WIN 1-0

The Marauders’ first win this season came at home as they competed against the Lancers. The goal was made by the first-year striker Maila Carboni.

Sept. 6 - McMaster vs. Brock WIN 1-0

It was a flawless winning weekend for the McMaster soccer team as they beat the visiting Badgers. The only goal of the day came from first year Alexandra Riganelli in the 26th minute of the game.

With games scheduled almost every week for the next few weeks, the team will have to keep their health a priority for a shot at making it to playoffs. It is still early in the season and the team’s performance will decide their own fate.

The team will hope to continue their winning streak as they travel to Toronto to face York on Thursday, Sept. 10. Kick-off starts at 5 p.m.

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By: Tom Lewis

McMaster men’s soccer ended their season on a high, taking silver at the CIS National Championships in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

The York Lions underlined their status as Canada’s strongest university side with a 1-0 win in the tournament’s last game, but the Marauders gave a good account of themselves in the first all OUA final since 2002. York completed the rare treble, winning the league table, league championship and national championship.

The Marauders did things the hard way in the quarter and semi-finals, dispatching both the University of New Brunswick Varsity Reds and the Université du Québec à Montréal Citadins on penalties to advance to their fourth meeting with York this season.

Goalkeeper Angelo Cavalluzzo was the hero against UNB, saving three penalties to help his side through to an encounter against the Citadins, in which the Marauders had to come back from two goals down to overcome the Quebec side on penalties.

In Sunday’s final, McMaster matched York for much of the opening half, with Paterson Farrell crafting several chances, the best of which was a cross that just eluded Gersi Xhuti at the left hand post.

York began to ease into their pressing game and high defensive line as the half wore on, and forced McMaster into hurried build up from the back.

York’s pressure was rewarded inside 32 minutes, as a Joey Cicchillo strike found the back of Angelo Cavalluzzo’s net.

Marauders’ coach Dino Perri threw on Sasha Riccuiti, Karl Bicamumpaka and Kyle Kazda in an attempt to break down an obstinate Lions’ defence in the second half, but Mac faced the same problems that have now condemned them to three straight defeats against York, struggling to hold the ball up in the final third under pressure from midfielders Jonathan Lao and Mark Stinson.

Defensive midfielder Ryan Garnett continued to mop up well at the back, launching searching passes into the York half, while Sasha Riccuiti showed excellent skill to beat two men deep into the second half, but his ball across the York box failed to connect with any of the on-rushing McMaster attackers.

The Marauders were given a lifeline after York’s Jonathan Lao sent a late penalty wide of Angelo Cavelluzzo’s right hand post, but centre back Nicholas Vecchi picked up his second yellow card, reducing Mac to ten men, and a flurry of late corners failed to pick the lock on York’s sturdy defensive display.

Despite missing out on gold, the Marauders can be proud of an excellent CIS campaign, which saw them equal McMaster’s best-ever performance at the national tournament, having last won silver in 1991 and 1992.

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By: Tom Lewis

The Marauders made the best of their OUA Final Four tie on Saturday, Nov. 1 against Ryerson, but ultimately dispatched the Rams side on penalties to qualify for this week’s national championships in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

While Mac may have missed out on the OUA gold medal, losing 2-0 to West Division champions York, qualifying for the nationals will allow Dino Perri’s maroon-clad charges to test themselves against some of Canada’s most talented teams, beginning this Thursday, Nov. 6 against the University of New Brunswick.

McMaster almost jeopardized qualification inside the first minute of the game against Ryerson, with a mix-up in the back four almost freeing Ryerson’s forward line to open the scoring.

The opening stages proved an open affair, with McMaster dominating possession and building up in a composed fashion, though the Marauders’ defence was forced to head away a number of crosses as Ryerson grew into the game.

Jinking runs from Gersi Xhuti and Paterson Farrell gave McMaster a valuable attacking outlet, while Mark Reilly opened up the Ryerson defence on 25 minutes with a clever touch, but his back heel flick proved slightly too heavy, sending the ball out of play.

McMaster’s patient possession game was frequently interrupted by rough tackles from the Rams, with Brandon Gutierrez left spread-eagled on the touch line after a big slide tackle 23 minutes in, while a thundering challenge saw striker Mark Reilly land heavily and injure his right arm.

McMaster’s solid but inspired performance continued into a finely poised second half. Perri saw the need for an injection of pace and urgency, bringing on wingers Sasha Ricciuti and Marco Gennacaro, though Mac’s best chance came courtesy of a Kody Kazda free kick, which wrong footed the Ryerson keeper and grazed his right hand post.

Frustrations began to mount on both sides as the game remained goalless, with Ryerson’s Jackson Tooke substituted soon after hammering a loose ball into the Mac bench as it ran out of play.

A flurry of late McMaster corners still failed to break the deadlock, while a long range shot from Riccuiti in the extra time forced the Ryerson keeper into a spectacular diving save as extra time loomed.

Both sides looked increasingly stretched as extra time rolled on, with attacks raining down on both goals, and Angelo Cavalluzzo forced to punch clear twice from his panicked penalty box in quick succession on 13 minutes, as Ryerson threatened to bundle the ball over the line.

With both sides shanking late chances, it needed five well-taken McMaster penalties, capped by a rocket of a strike from late substitute Christian Truyen, to see Dino Perri’s team over the line, and into the nationals.

“We worked hard against a rough team. We were forced to deal with a number of late challenges, but we battled through,” said Marauders’ coach Perri.

“It’s excellent that we have qualified for nationals, that was our ultimate goal.”

On goalkeeper Cavalluzzo’s man of the match performance, Perri said, “all year long he has been the best keeper in Canada. He was overlooked by the OUA all stars last year, so I am delighted he has made it this time around.”

McMaster missed out on the OUA gold medal in their second game of the final four, with York establishing themselves as the team to beat at this week’s CIS National Championships with a dominant performance.

McMaster began the game defensively, with a 5-3-2 formation giving York’s number 15 Mark Stinson too much time to dictate the play from midfield, and sustained pressure resulted a deflected shot from York’s Eric Amato squirming past a grasping Cavalluzzo.

Pushing Gennacaro and Riccuiti to the flanks in support of Paterson Farrell in the second half granted McMaster far more attacking impetus, but a 73rd minute close-range miss from Riccuiti proved crucial, and allowed York to cement their win, and a second straight OUA championship, through Jarek Whiteman in injury time.

Nevertheless, the win over Ryerson earned the Marauders their goal of a berth in this season’s nationals, and with their first match kicking off at 11 a.m. this Thursday, Nov. 6, they will be eager to begin a run at the CIS title.

By: Tom Lewis

Two wins over OUA West Division whipping boys Algoma last weekend capped an impressive tilt at the Blackwood Trophy for McMaster men’s soccer, and spirits are high as they head into the playoffs.

Over two fixtures, the Marauders struck twelve goals past a hapless Algoma defence, conceding just two in reply.

Those victories earned Mac a strong finish to the OUA West Division, with eleven wins, three draws and two defeats leaving them in second place, four points off third, but eight from the division’s strongest outfit, York.

Head coach Dino Perri was satisfied with his side’s performance this season, but had some reservations. “We have been inconsistent. We have had some great games and some mediocre games,” said Perri.

“If we showed up to play each and every game we would be undefeated heading into the playoffs.”

Co-captain Paterson Farrell echoed his coach’s thoughts.

“Overall our performance this year has been great, but no season is perfect. We’ve had a few speed-bumps along the way, but were able to fight through them and finish strongly,” said Farrell.

Both coach and were quick to praise the team’s strength in depth.

Anyone who has had the pleasure of savouring ćevapi adorned with ajvar knows that good things come out of the Balkans. But for some time, a problem has been threatening the favourite sport of the southeastern European nations.

Soccer has always been plagued by organized fan violence, but it is in former Yugoslav nations like Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia, and Albania that a bevy of right-wing nationalistic hooligans have been wreaking havoc.

If you’re any of the aforementioned nationalities, you’ll know about the 1990 riot that occurred at Zagreb’s Stadion Maksimir between not just the players of Dinamo Zagreb and Crvena Zvezda, but the thousands of Croatian and Serbian supporters there. Tensions had been rising to a boiling point, with Croatia electing a president favouring independence from the Yugoslavian communist state and the riot — which saw Dinamo’s Zvonomir Boban rise to the defence of a fan and kick a police officer in the chest — marked the turning point that saw Yugoslavia enter into a brutal war.

Being Croatian and a Dinamo Zagreb supporter myself, I’ve heard laudatory talk of Boban’s kick at family gatherings after everyone’s had a few shots of rakija. I never thought anything of it until recently when I’ve begun to grow increasingly disgusted with such nationalism. As I’m sure other Serbians, Bosnians, and Albanians raised in Canada by diaspora parents can attest to, they’ve been conditioned by their family to, if not hate, then dislike their former neighbour.

What happened at the match last week was avoidable and shouldn’t have happened. I had grimaced upon hearing that the two had been drawn in the same group, but having seen the Croatia-Serbia World Cup qualification matches go off without a hitch — with the exception of Josip Šimunić’s cynical clattering of Sulejmani — I was optimistic about the chances of these two nations sharing the same luck. UEFA, European soccer’s governing body, took no chances and allowed no away fans into the match held in Belgdrade. But all that did was create an even more toxic atmosphere in which flares were numerous and laser pointers where shone at Albanian players.

Near the end of the first half, a drone was flown over the field with a flag bearing the Greater Albania insignia. When it dipped towards the players, Serbia’s Stefan Mitrovic pulled down the flag, eager to restart play. He was subsequently rushed by several Albanian players who objected to his actions. From there, both benches erupted, and dozens of hardcore fans took to the field to throw chairs at the Albanian players and get punches in where they could.

One of the fans present on the field was Ivan Bogdanov, a Serbian member of Crvena Zvezda’s hooligan firm, the Deljie. Bogdanov is notorious for leading a massive riot in Serbia’s Euro qualification match against Italy in Genoa, and the question remains as to how such a volatile figure was allowed into the stadium let alone onto the pitch.

While the hooligans and even some of the stadium stewards were assaulting the Albanian players, most of the Serbian players gathered round the Albanians to shield them from the violence, and others like Serbian fullback Aleksander Kolarov voiced their displeasure directly to the fans who were infiltrating the field.

Despite how admirable the Serbian team’s reaction was, it should not have been needed. Allegations against Olif Rama, the Albanian prime minister’s brother, have surfaced, claiming that he controlled the drone. While nothing concrete has been established, whoever flew the drone should be ashamed of themselves. There is a place for political statements, and a soccer pitch is not one of them. The act was a rash one that endangered both sets of players and will ultimately lead to heavy fines being levied against both federations.

It is time for the Balkans to look inwards instead of finger-pointing any longer. While each nation romanticizes their past, all of their histories have been built on a dangerous brand of nationalism that is no longer needed and should be stifled at whatever cost. Although there was a heavy police presence at the match, the hooligans were able to take the field all too easily, which raises questions of corruption that may answer how Bogdanov got into the stadium.

My reaction toward the riot was similar to the one that Serbian midfielder Nemanja Matić had as he lingered on the field after both teams had disappeared down the tunnel — one of disbelief and disappointment at what had just happened. Ethnic tensions will probably always be there, but it’s the responsibility of the more levelheaded members of each Balkan country to take the moral high road and attempt to separate soccer from state feuds.