Dinamo legend watches his old side beat TFC in card-filled “friendly” By Charles Posted on February 10, 2011 Comments Off on Dinamo legend watches his old side beat TFC in card-filled “friendly” 0 746 Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Trialist Gianluca Zavarise scored and was sent off as Toronto FC lost 3-1 to Dinamo Zagreb Thursday in their final training match in Turkey. Despite being without veteran Igor Biscan — the former Liverpool man was out with injury — and Brazilian-born midfielder Sammir, who has been linked to a move to Fiorentina, the Croats triumphed in a game that was anything but friendly. Ivan Tomecak got one of the two red cards shown to Dinamo players ; his second yellow came after he re-entered the pitch without getting permission from the referee, a pretty harsh call considering the friendly nature of the game. Zavarise was tossed late in the second half for a high challenge. Because of the friendly nature of the match, teams were allowed to replace the red-carded players, so neither side played shorthanded. TFC coach Aron Winter started a trialist-filled lineup that included the debut of Dutch left back Kevin Westmaas, who was just brought into camp. They looked green as Dinamo scored twice in the first seven minutes. Slovak forward Jakub Sylvester was too much for the TFC backline to handle. He scored under the bar just a minute into the game, then provided the pass for new Dinamo addition Josip Brezovec to finish for the second goal. Zavarise came on as a halftime sub and scored on a pass from Jacob Peterson. Zlatko “Cico” Kranjcar, one of the greatest players to ever wear Dinamo’s colours — and currently the manager of Montenegro’s national side — came to Turkey to watch his old club face Toronto FC. Kranjcar was the captain of Croatia when the country played its first game after splitting from Yugoslavia, so he is regarded as a national hero, and it added a sense of occasion to the friendly. TFC defender Adrian Cann and forward Dwayne De Rosario weren’t available as they represented Canada in Greece on Wednesday. There is a good chance that some of TFC’s Canadian players could return to Antalya on March 29. FIFA has posted on its website that Canada will play Belarus there on that date. Dinamo’s third goal came on a penalty after Matt Stinson committed a foul in the area.
