Bob Bolitho

Robert "Bob" Bolitho (born July 20, 1952 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada) is a former Canadian national team, North American Soccer League and Canadian Soccer League player. He is of Cornish descent.

Bob Bolitho
Personal information
Date of birth (1952-07-20) July 20, 1952
Place of birth Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Position(s) Defensive midfielder; defender
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
1969–70–? Victoria O'Keefe ? (?)
197?–1976 London Boxing Club ? (?)
1977–1980 Vancouver Whitecaps 87 (5)
1979–1980 → Los Angeles Aztecs (indoor) 12 (6)
1980 Tulsa Roughnecks 12 (1)
1980–1981 Tulsa Roughnecks (indoor) 1 (1)
1981–1983 Fort Lauderdale Strikers 79 (6)
1983 Fort Lauderdale Strikers (indoor) 1 (1)
1984 Minnesota Strikers 12 (1)
1984 Tampa Bay Rowdies 6 (1)
1989 Victoria Vistas ? (?)
National team‡
1974–1981 Canada 23 (2)
1975, 1976 Canadian Olympic (amateur) 11 (1)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 19 May 2008
‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 19 May 2008

Club career

Bolitho played as a teenager of Pacific Coast Soccer League side Victoria O'Keefe S.C. before joining the soccer team of the London Boxing Club in Victoria, for whom he won a Canadian Club Championship national title in 1975. The following summer Bolitho joined the Vancouver Whitecaps and remained with the club until 1980. He was a member of their Soccer Bowl winning team in 1979, playing at right back in the Soccer Bowl win over the Tampa Bay Rowdies. He went on loan to the Los Angeles Aztecs during the 1979–1980 NASL indoor season. In 1980, Bolitho began the season with the Whitecaps before being traded to the Tulsa Roughnecks with whom he played the rest of the 1980 outdoor as well as the 1980–1981 NASL indoor season. In 1981, he moved to the Fort Lauderdale Strikers. In 1984, the Strikers moved to Minnesota where they became the Minnesota Strikers. He began as a starter that season, but soon moved to the substitutes bench before being traded to the Tampa Bay Rowdies. Bolitho then played one season for Victoria Vistas in the CSL in 1989.

International career

Bolitho was on the Canadian squad at the 1975 Pan American Games[1] and was a member of the Olympic team at the 1976 Summer Olympics, playing against the Soviet Union in Montreal and North Korea in Toronto. He played a defensive midfield role in the early days of his first class career before settling down at right back. Bolitho scored an impressive equalizing goal against the United States in Vancouver in 1976 in a World Cup qualifier and scored again later that year in a 3–0 win over the US in a playoff in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, which allowed Canada to advance to the final round in 1978 World Cup qualifying.

International goals
Scores and results list Canada's goal tally first.
#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
124 September 1976Empire Stadium, Vancouver, Canada United States1–11–11978 FIFA World Cup qualification
222 December 1976Stade Sylvio Cator, Port-au-Prince, Haiti United States3–03–01978 FIFA World Cup qualification

References
  1. Pan-American Games 1975 (Mexico) - Match Details
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