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2002 Canadian Professional Soccer League season

Field	Value
competition	Canadian Professional Soccer League
season	2002
winners	Ottawa Wizards
shield
shieldtitle	Regular Season title
league topscorer	Darren Tilley (Mississauga Olympians)
best goalkeeper	George Azcurra
matches	133
biggest home win	Ottawa Wizards 8-1 St. Catharines Wolves (July 7, 2002)
biggest away win	North York Astros 0-8 Mississauga Olympians (June 16, 2002)
highest scoring	Mississauga Olympians 6-4 St. Catharines Wolves (July 19, 2002)
total goals	456
prevseason	2001
nextseason	2003

The 2002 Canadian Professional Soccer League season was the fifth season for the Canadian Professional Soccer League. The season began on May 23, 2002, and concluded on October 20, 2002, with Ottawa Wizards becoming the first expansion franchise to win the CPSL Championship (known as the Rogers CPSL Cup for sponsorship reasons) by defeating the North York Astros 2–0. For the first time the final was hosted at Esther Shiner Stadium, which granted the hosts the North York Astros a wildcard match. As the league was divided into the Eastern and Western Conferences the Wizards clinched the Eastern title, while Toronto Croatia won the Western Conference. The expansion of the league saw the return of professional soccer to Hamilton, and the addition of another Toronto franchise. On February 26, 2002, the CPSL signed a player agreement deal with the Toronto Lynx of the USL A-League, which provided the Lynx access in order to use CPSL talent and provide players an opportunity to play at a higher level.

Changes from 2001 season

For the second straight season the CPSL expanded to 14 clubs to include the Hamilton Thunder and Metro Lions. Due to the increase of teams the CPSL management split the league into two Conferences the Eastern and Western. The Toronto Olympians moved to Erin Mills, Mississauga, which opened the Scarborough territory to the Metro Lions. Changes occurred in the York Region territory with Glen Shields changing their team name to Vaughan Sun Devils in order to fully represent the city of Vaughan. Meanwhile, their rivals the York Region Shooters were sold to Tony De Thomasis, and relocated the team to their original home at Highland Park in Aurora. While former Hamilton Bulldogs president Cary Kaplan was hired as a Management Consultant for the league.

Teams

Team	City	Stadium	Manager
Brampton Hitmen	Brampton, Ontario (Bramalea)	Victoria Park Stadium	Ed McLaughlin
Durham Flames	Oshawa, Ontario (Vanier)	Oshawa Civic Stadium	Steve Hamill
London City	London, Ontario (Westmount)	Cove Road Stadium	Jurek Gebczynski
Hamilton Thunder	Hamilton, Ontario	Brian Timmis Stadium	Marko Maschke
Metro Lions	Toronto, Ontario (Scarborough)	Birchmount Stadium	Anthony La Ferrara
Mississauga Olympians	Mississauga, Ontario (Erin Mills)	Erin Mills Twin Arenas	David Gee
Montreal Dynamites	Laval, Quebec	Centre Sportif Bois-de-Boulogne	Mohamed Hilen
North York Astros	Toronto, Ontario (North York)	Esther Shiner Stadium	Pavel Zaslavski
Dejan Gluscevic
Ottawa Wizards	Ottawa, Ontario (Carp)	OZ Optics Stadium	Klaus Linnenbruegger
St. Catharines Wolves	St. Catharines, Ontario (Vansickle)	Club Roma Stadium	Lucio Ianiero
Toronto Croatia	Mississauga, Ontario (Streetsville)	Memorial Park	Zarko Brala
Toronto Supra	Toronto, Ontario (Brockton)	Centennial Park Stadium	Victor Cameira
Vaughan Sun Devils	Vaughan, Ontario (Thornhill)	Dufferin District Field	Dave Benning
York Region Shooters	Aurora, Ontario (Aurora Village)	Highland Park	Vito Colangelo

Final standings

Eastern Conference

Western Conference

Rogers CPSL Championship playoffs

Wildcard

Semifinals

Rogers CPSL Championship

FRY Dejan Gluscevic
Belarus Pavel Zaslavski

Germany Klaus Linnenbruegger

Rogers CPSL Championship MVP: :Guillermo Compton Hall (North York Astros)

All-Star Game

The 2002 CPSL All-Star match was arranged by the German consulate general in Toronto to have TSV 1860 Munich of the Bundesliga to come to Canada. London City head coach Jurek Gebcznyski was selected to assemble an All-Star roster with Dave Benning, Victor Cameria and Steve Nijjar serving as his assistant coaches. Jimmy Douglas was appointed the general manager for the team.

Poland Jurek Gebczynski

Austria Peter Pacult

2002 scoring leaders

:Full article: CSL Golden Boot

Position	Player's name	Club	Goals
1	Darren Tilley	Mississauga Olympians	20
2	Kevin Nelson	Ottawa Wizards	18
3	Mladen Dikic	Toronto Croatia	14
4	Carlo Arghittu	St. Catharines Wolves	13
5	Gus Kouzmanis	Vaughan Sun Devils	13
6	Khalid Mensah	Montreal Dynamites	13
7	Abraham Osman	Ottawa Wizards	12
8	Kevin De Serpa	Mississauga Olympians	8
9	Tom Kouzmanis	Vaughan Sun Devils	8
10	Kurt Mella	Brampton Hitmen	8

CPSL Executive Committee

A list of the 2002 CPSL Executive Committee.

Position	Name	Nationality
President & Chairman:	Vincent Ursini	CAN Canadian
League Administrator/Director of Media:	Stan Adamson	England English
Director at Large:	Walter Kirchner	ROM Romanian
Director of Discipline:	Clifford Dell	CAN Canadian
Director of Officials:	Tony Camacho	Portugal Portuguese
Administrative Co-ordinator:	Josie Storto		Canada Canadian
Treasurer:	Peter Li Preti	CAN Canadian
Legal Counsel:	Ira Greenspoon	CAN Canadian

Individual awards

Domagoj Sain was named the Defender of the Year

The annual CPSL awards ceremony was held on October 20, 2002, at the Hollywood Princess Convention in Concord, Ontario. Where the Mississauga Olympians received the most accolades with three wins. Darren Tilley a former English football and USL A-League veteran was given both the CSL Golden Boot and Rookie of the Year. After accumulating the fewest card bookings they received the Fair Play award, their third in the club's history. Toronto Croatia went home with two awards with George Azcurra adding his third Goalkeeper of the Year award to his resume. While Domagoj Sain was named the Defender of the Year.

Abraham Osman of the Ottawa Wizards became the first player to receive the MVP in two straight seasons. After a mediocre start to the season the Metro Lions utilized the services of Aldwyn McGill as manager, who transformed the expansion franchise into a title contender. While Michael Lambert's work as a match official was recognized by the league with the Referee of the Year award.

Award	Player (Club)
CPSL Most Valuable Player	Abraham Osman (Ottawa Wizards)
CPSL Golden Boot	Darren Tilley (Mississauga Olympians)
CPSL Goalkeeper of the Year Award	George Azcurra (Toronto Croatia)
CPSL Defender of the Year Award	Domagoj Sain (Toronto Croatia)
CPSL Rookie of the Year Award	Darren Tilley (Mississauga Olympians)
CPSL Coach of the Year Award	Aldwyn McGill (Metro Lions)
CPSL Referee of the Year Award	Michael Lambert
CPSL Fair Play Award	Mississauga Olympians

References

Baines, Time. "Triple the fun for Wizards". Ottawa Sun.
(2003-08-22). "North York and The Astros look to October: Esther Shiner Stadium will be the site of the CPSL playoffs".
Peters, Ken. "CPSL preseason story on Hamilton Thunder from The Spectator". Hamilton Spectator.
Laskaris, Sam. "Scarborough Mirror-Guardian May 5th, 2002 Preseason story on Metro Lions". Scarborough Mirror-Guardian.
(February 16, 2002). "CPSL signs Player Agreement with Toronto Lynx".
Da Costa, Norman. "Hartrells defy odds to keep Lynx alive". Toronto Star.
(April 14, 2002). "Expanded CPSL will kick-off 5-month Campaign".
Laskaris, Sam. "Soccer team eyes move to Mississauga". Scarborough Mirror.
"CPSL retains hokey executive".
"CPSL - Hitmen Ready for Action". Brampton Guardian.
"Durham Flames".
"London City".
(August 9, 2002). "Thunder gets burned by Durham Flames".
"Metro Lions Football Club 2002".
(June 12, 2002). "CPSL - Toronto Croatia vs Montreal Dynamite". Mississauga News.
(May 3, 2002). "Dynamites News: A new head coach for the Dynamites".
"All time coaches".
Laskaris, Sam. (May 7, 2002). "CPSL - Astros preSeason story from the Mirror-Guardian".
Wallace, Jim. (June 5, 2002). "CPSL - St Catharines Roma Wolves vs Hamilton Thunder".
"St Catherines Roman Wolves".
Brown, Joel. (June 16, 2002). "CPSL - North York Astros vs Mississauga Olympians from Mississauga News". Mississauga News.
Laskaris, Sam. "Supra squad eyes Etobicoke as possible relocation site". Mirror-Guardian.
Glover, Robin. (March 23, 2002). "CPSL rumours".
(May 23, 2002). "Thunder Struck".
"inforoster".
cucumilstein. (2006-07-14). "Compton Hall Guillermo".
Rumleski, Kathy. "London Free Press CPSL column April 26th, 2002".
Glover, Robin. (May 15, 2002). "International Friendly CPSL All-Stars vs TSV Munich 1860".
(2003-11-21). "League statistics 2003-2002".
(2002-12-11). "CPSL - Canadian Professional Soccer League: Executive Committee".
(May 8, 2001). "2001 - May 8 - Stan Adamson".
(April 17, 2001). "2001 - April 17 - Message from DOO; Volunteers; Dell".
Glover, Robin. (October 20, 2002). "CPSL Awards Dinner".
Laskaris, Sam. (October 23, 2003). "CPSL Season review of Metro Lions from Scarborough Mirror". Scarborough Mirror.
(2003-08-10). "Featured player: Abraham Osman of Ottawa Wizards".

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