Real Toronto a team comprised of mostly players from the Caribbean Community won the 2008 Men (open) Ontario Cup Championship after defeating AEK London 2-1 on goals by Hayden Fitzwilliams and Kadian Lecky.

A week earlier the Markham Lightening another team community players defeated GS United 2-0 to win the 2008 Ontario Masters Champions in the Over 35 division. As a result the two teams will have to travel to Moncton, Alberta to play in their respective divisions for the Canadian National Championship tournament.

The Men’s Open final was played at the Soccer Centre in Vaughan, and compared to the semi finals two week earlier it was quite different to the semi finals which were played in sweltering heat while the final game started with an overcast sky which evolved into a constant rain for most of the game.

In the semi finals at Hershey Centre AEK outlasted Ottawa St Anthonys 1-0 on a golden goal in overtime while Real Toronto defeated Hamilton Serbians 3-0 after a 1-0 first half to set up a very interesting Ontario Cup final match up.

My conclusion of the semi final was that AEK London had a lot of desire and grit, combined with an aggressive style of play while Real Toronto from day one after defeating GS United in their first game in the Ontario Cup schedule was the intimidating team. Real Toronto has a welt of highly talented players with quite a few of them plying their trade in the Canadian Soccer League.

However at the Soccer Centre on the day of the final Real team was missing some of their play makers in the midfield and as a result a few of their bench players of the semi finals was inserted into the starting line up and as the game progressed AEK London began to put together some dangerous offensive pressure.

With the rain falling from midway through the first half and the body and soul tackling beginning to favor AEK London the much traveled Real Toronto midfielder Hayden Fitzwilliam short circuit any idea of a London upset when he elevated over his defenders on a left side cross to score with a fine header to give Toronto a 1-0 lead.

However with the pro London crowd with their umbrellas and a Real team short on personal and playing a bit listless everyone knew that the game was for from over. Need less to say Kadian Lecky one of Real Toronto potent strikers had his say as he maneuver through the London defense to score what turned out to be the game winner as Real Toronto took a bumpy 2-0 lead.

London Jovan Ivanovic created some Real (literally) anxious moments when he drew his team closer with a header at the 79th minute but with Toronto holding on with ten men time ran out.

In the final of the Masters Peter Firebrace and William Guiummarra scored in the second half of play to give Markham Lightning the 2-0 win over GS United at the Soccer Centre.