Hamilton Thunder
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| Full name | Hamilton Thunder Soccer Club |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | The Thunder, Thunder Bolts, Thunder Crew |
| Founded | 2001 |
| Dissolved | 2005 |
| Ground | Brian Timmis Stadium, Hamilton, Ontario |
| Capacity | 5000+ |
| Chairman | Italo Ferrari |
| Manager | Salvator DeSimone |
| League | Canadian Professional Soccer League |
The Hamilton Thunder were a soccer team located in Hamilton, Ontario, playing in the Western Conference of the Canadian Professional Soccer League. The team played its home fixtures at Brian Timmis Stadium until a rent dispute with the city caused home games to be moved to Vaughan midway through the 2005 season. The Thunder won the regular season Western Conference championship each season from 2003 to 2005, but lost in the Rogers Cup semifinal each of those years.
Hamilton Thunder joined the Canadian Professional Soccer League in 2002, which marked the return of professional soccer to the city of Hamilton since the folding of the Hamilton Steelers of the original Canadian Soccer League in 1991. The club played its first competitive match on May 11, 2002 in a friendly against the Toronto Lynx of the USL A-League. Toronto won the match in a 1-0 victory, but Hamilton managed to attract over 2000 spectators to Brian Timmis Stadium a relatively high number for CPSL standards. The club hired Marko Maschke as head coach who previously coached professionally in Germany and China. Maschke brought in several players from the 2001 St. Catharines Wolves playoff champions roster, and signed promising players like Ian Bennett, Miles O'Connor, Matthew O'Connor, Orlin Chalmers, and young goalkeeping prospect Roberto Ferrari. In their debut match the Thunder wrecked the Vaughan Sun Devils in 5-1 victory at home.
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