Steven Sandor's Blog, page 16

Hart to lead Halifax Wanderers as the club’s first coach and GM

The Canadian Premier League’s silly season for coaching announcements continued Thursday, as Halifax Wanderers unveiled former Canadian national-team boss Stephen Hart as the man who will lead the club in its inaugural season.

Like Valour FC’s appointment of Rob Gale on Tuesday, this is a move that surprised no one and, really, was sort of expected. Just like Gale is synonymous with soccer in Manitoba, Hart has deep roots in Nova Scotia football. He’s managed both Canada and Trinidad and Tobago.

FC Edmonton will announce its new head coach next Tuesday.

Wanderers president Derek Martin admitted that his club has had a hard time keeping secrets (remember that, when the club launched, Hart was listed on the website as the club president until it was taken down and fixed). Fans knew about the name before it was announced, and fans all knew that Thursday would be the Hart announcement day.

“There was one name that was repeated to me over and over and over and over again — and that was Stephen Hart,” said Martin. “And it was very clear to me that he had the respect of the soccer people in this community.”

During his time as Canadian national-team coach, I lost count of the times Hart lamented the number of players he called up who weren’t getting regular playing time, whether it be in Europe or in MLS or other leagues. And, then, he had to cope with having to call in so many unattached players — he was bringing players in, hoping that their performances for Canada would trigger a few phone calls to their agents.

“For all of us in the region who are passionate about the game and  have been involved, whether as players or coaches, we always felt that there was one piece of the puzzle missing,” Hart said Thursday, standing behind on a podium on the Wanderers’ ground.  “For a pathway to any aspiring players, that piece of the puzzle would have been having a professional team and having a professional league.”

And Hart, who will also serve as the club’s general manager, called for patience.

“This is brand new. Like in building anything, it will take time. It will take time to get things right. But, along the way, in trying to get things right, it will be exciting. It will be adventurous.”

The club announced that, on July 28, a team of Atlantic Canadian all-stars being assembled by Hart will take on Fortuna Dusseldorf’s youth side at the Wanderers home ground. Martin said this is the first concrete proof of how the Wanderers will scour the Atlantic provinces for talent. The hope is that some players on that All-Star squad will earn invites to the first-ever Wanderers training camp.

Fury books spot in Canadian Championship semis, will sweat on status of Tissot

When it comes to the scoreline, the second leg of the Canadian Championship qualifying round went as expected. Already leading 1-0 after the first leg in Quebec, the USL’s Ottawa Fury took the home leg, 1-0 over AS Blainville.

Carl Haworth scored early in the first half — and, while the visitors were game, in truth they did little to trouble Fury keeper Maxime Crepeau.

Unfortunately, there is a major talking point coming out of the game, and it doesn’t have to do with the final score. It’s the state of left winger/fullback Maxim Tissot’s health. Tissot, the former Montreal Impact player who won an NASL title with the San Francisco Deltas in 2017, had been limited to just 48 minutes of USL action this year as he recovers from a knee injury.

He came on as a sub in Wednesday’s game, and, just minutes after joining the fray, he went on a run down the left wing. Without contact, at the touch line, he crumpled to the turf clutching his left knee. He was down for several minutes before stubbornly attempting to give it a go. His efforts only lasted a couple of minutes before he fell to the turf again, without contact. And, on the second occasion, he was taken off the field on a stretcher.

After the game, Fury coach Nikola Popovic said it would take at least a few hours to judge the severity of the injury. While it didn’t look good, there’s no point in trying to play doctor or speculate what kind of injury Tissot suffered. We get that a lot in sports “journalism,” people playing doctor by watching replays on TV and thinking they know exactly what is wrong. (Mo Salah in the Champions League final, anyone?) There is no point in further dragging our profession into the muck by trying to diagnose Tissot from afar. He clutched his knee, he was taken off on a stretcher. That’s all we can say for sure.

The tie, though, was for all intents and purposes done and dusted when Haworth scored to give the Fury a two-goal lead on aggregate. Adonijah Reid, the USL player of the week who bagged a hat trick on the weekend, started the play with a good dash up the left side. He squared the ball to Tony Taylor, who scored the Fury’s goal in the first leg. But Taylor was tackled in the box as he prepped to shoot. But the ball found its way to a wide-open Haworth, who smashed it in. It was proof that by spacing men in the box, well, good things happen.

Haworth celebrated by making like he was drying his eyes with the corner flag. Not bad when it comes to style points.

Taylor had a good chance to make it 2-0 in the second half. He was sprung thanks to a good through ball from Reid. But Blainville keeper Erwann Ofouya stretched to make a good save.

The Fury moves on to face defending champion Toronto FC in the semifinals.

World Cup not yet making a huge ratings splash on traditional Canadian TV

Amongst traditional English-languageTV consumers, the best the opening week of the World Cup did on TSN in Canada was an average of 660,000 viewers per minute.

According to Numeris, which just released its topline data for the week of June 11-17, the early matches from the weekend of June 16-17 hit that 660,000 viewer-per-minute mark. Those broadcasts were good enough to only earn the 24th spot out the 30 top-watched programs in Canada. Compare that to the Stanley Cup, which easily won the Canadian ratings battle the previous week.

Now, let’s not get too excited here. We’re only looking at the first week of the World Cup, before the knockout stages — and the real fun — begins. And, we need to state that the 660,000 represented the high-water mark for TSN, or for any sports programming in Canada, during that week.

As well, with so many of the games being played during the morning and early afternoons of Canadian weekdays, a lot of us are streaming while we’re at work. So, the start times for the games make it difficult for traditional TV viewing.

Really, it’s no surprise that — even on weekends — the early games are rating better than the games going on late in the day. Once we get into later mornings and early afternoons, we all have stuff to do — so we try and keep up or stream when we can. The games that go on while we’re still at home having our morning coffees are rating higher.

Now, for comparisons: Stanley Cup final games between the Washington Capitals and Vegas Golden Knights were broadcast on both CBC and Sportsnet. The CBC broadcasts averaged nearly 1.8 million viewers per minute, while the Sportsnet telecasts drew nearly 950,000 per minute. Put them together, and the audience is more than 2.7 million, a number that dwarfs those early World Cup numbers.

The Stanley Cup finals were the highest rated program from June 4-10 in Canada.

 

“For Manitobans, by Manitobans:” Rob Gale is the first GM and coach in Valour FC history

For a Canadian league to survive and thrive, it has to be more than giving Canadian players a place to play. It needs to be about giving Canadian coaches the chance to work in professional environments. It’s about having Canadian administrators and general managers.

Former Canadian youth-team coach Rob Gale was unveiled as the general manager and  coach of Valour FC in Winnipeg Tuesday morning. Gale lives in Winnipeg, is the former technical director of the Manitoba Soccer Association, and this a move that surprises absolutely no one. Honestly, it would have been a shock if Valour FC didn’t hire Gale, whose name is synonymous with soccer in Manitoba.

“The people in this province, and particularly the soccer community, have given me and my family so much,” said Gale.

“The Canadian Premier League, as we all know, will be a league for Canadians, by Canadians,” said Gale. “But this team is going to be a team for Manitobans, by Manitobans. It will have a Manitoban in me running it, Manitoba staff around us and Manitoba players playing for us right from the very first year. It will be of the people and for the people. I don’t think this can be understated. Our kids were born here, are growing up here, we volunteer in their schools and their soccer clubs and their other activities.”

And he suggested that the team’s footprint would initially include Saskatchewan and Northwestern Ontario, as well.

Gale took over as coach of  the national U-20 program in 2014, and took that side through two World Cup qualifying cycles.

But, in both the 2015 and 2017 cycles, Gale’s teams didn’t qualify for the U-20 World Cup. The team that Gale set up for the 2017 qualifying process showed fantastic potential, including a 2-1 win over Marcus Rashford and England. But, the 2017 team was decimated by injuries to key players such as Marcus Godinho, David Choiniere and Shamit Shome, and the final kick in the teeth was Ballou Jean-Yves Tabla’s decision to not play for Canada at the CONCACAF Championships. Gale was forced to bring a team to the CONCACAF Championships that wasn’t close to the team that showed so much in that win in England.

Inescapably Canadian Power Rankings: MLS Week 17/USL Week 15

In hockey, it’s called a natural hat trick. That is, three goals are scored all in a row by one player. One. Two. Three. With no one else getting a goal in between.

This past weekend, the Ottawa Fury’s Adonijah Reid, a draft pick of FC Dallas, put on a show, scoring all three goals in a 3-0 win over NYRBII. Reid was one of eight Canadians to start the match for Ottawa.

Reid’s performance was, of course, the highlight of the week when it comes to Canadians playing in USL and MLS.

Here are the rankings after the 17th week of MLS play/15th week of USL action:

MLS MINUTES BY PLAYER, THE CANADIANS

Samuel Piette, Montreal, 1530 (17)
Alphonso Davies, Vancouver, 1239 (17)
Will Johnson, Orlando, 1185 (14)
Mark-Anthony Kaye, LAFC, 1161 (14)
Jonathan Osorio, TFC, 1082 (13)
Marcel de Jong, Vancouver, 759 (10)
Raheem Edwards, Montreal, 749 (12)
Ryan Telfer, TFC, 649 (9)
Dejan Jakovic, LAFC, 604 (8)
Russell Teibert, Vancouver, 601 (9)
Jay Chapman, TFC, 565 (10)
Michael Petrasso, Montreal, 565 (9)
Tosaint Ricketts, TFC, 495 (12)
Anthony Jackson-Hamel, Montreal, 476 (12)
Ashtone Morgan, TFC, 459 (6)
Jordan Hamilton,TFC, 373 (7)
Liam Fraser, TFC, 366 (6)
Doneil Henry, Vancouver, 270 (3)
Brett Levis, Vancouver, 227 (4)
Richie Laryea, Orlando, 127 (5)
Louis Beland-Goyette, Montreal, 109 (4)
Julian Dunn-Johnson, TFC, 104 (2)
Tesho Akindele, FC Dallas, 85 (5)
Brian Wright, New England, 27 (2)
David Choiniere, Montreal, 12 (1)
Aidan Daniels, TFC, 12 (1)
Shamit Shome, Montreal, 6 (1)
Kwame Awuah, NYCFC, 3 (2)

 

TEAM RANKINGS, MLS MINUTES PLAYED BY CANADIANS IN 2018

Toronto FC, 4105/15 (273.7)

Montreal, 3171/16 (198.2)

Vancouver, 3096/17 (182.1)

LAFC, 1765/15 (117.7)

Orlando City, 1312/16 (82)

FC Dallas, 85/15 (5.7)

New England, 27/16 (1.7)

NYCFC, 3/16 (0.2)

 

USL MINUTES BY PLAYER, THE CANADIANS

Jordan Schweitzer, Colorado Springs, 1460 (17)
Skylar Thomas, Charleston, 1260 (14)
Paris Gee, Tulsa, 1191 (15)
Robert Boskovic, TFCII, 1160 (13)
Amer Didic, Swope Park Rangers, 1110 (13)
Kyle Bekker, NCFC, 1099 (14)
Maxime Crepeau, Ottawa, 1080 (12)
Jordan Dover, Pittsburgh, 1064 (12)
Carl Haworth, Ottawa, 1041 (14)
Jamar Dixon, Ottawa, 1026 (14)
Jordan Murrell, Reno, 997 (12)
Eddie Edward, Ottawa, 990 (11)
Bradley Kamdem-Fewo, Fresno, 990 (11)
Karl Ouimette, Indy, 990 (11)
Aidan Daniels, TFCII, 905 (11)
Chris Mannella, Ottawa, 900 (10)
Luca Uccello, TFCII, 899 (13)
Adonijah Reid, Ottawa, 849 (12)
Malik Johnson, TFCII, 839 (14)
Thomas Meilleur-Giguere, Ottawa, 779 (9)
Rocco Romeo, TFCII, 744 (9)
Josh Heard, Real Monarchs SLC, 701 (10)
Noah Verhoeven, Fresno, 680 (12)
Matthew Srbely, TFCII, 617 (10)
Julian Dunn-Johnson, TFCII, 540 (6)
Ryan James, Nashville, 522 (8)
Noble Okello Ayo, TFCII, 502 (7)
Zachary Ellis-Hayden, Fresno, 493 (6)
Mauro Eustaquio, Penn FC, 462 (7)
Mastanabal Kacher, Real Monarchs SLC, 452 (8)
Nana Attakora, Ottawa, 450 (5)
Angelo Cavalluzzo, TFCII, 450 (5)
Tyler Pasher, Indy, 440 (5)
Gianluca Catalano, TFCII, 434 (5)
Luca Petrasso, TFCII, 418 (7)
Keven Aleman, Sacramento, 396 (6)
Dante Campbell, TFCII, 390 (6)
Drew Beckie, OKC Energy, 360 (4)
Darrin MacLeod, Swope Park Rangers, 360 (4)
Zak Drake, Las Vegas, 296 (6)
Shaan Hundal, TFCII, 293 (8)
Chris Nanco, Bethlehem Steel, 280 (11)
Mark Anthony Gonzalez, Reno, 278 (4)
Doneil Henry, Ottawa, 270 (3)
Jordan Faria, TFCII, 264 (6)
Michael Cox, Nashville, 264 (5)
Alessandro Riggi, Phoenix, 209 (10)
Ryan Telfer, TFCII, 207 (3)
Daniel Haber, FC Cincinnati, 200 (6)
David Edgar, Nashville, 200 (5)
Liam Fraser, TFCII, 180 (2)
Callum Irving, Ottawa, 180 (2)
Kyle Porter, Ottawa, 173 (2)
Jordan Hamilton, TFCII, 153 (2)
Kunle Dada-Luke, TFCII, 147 (4)
Luca Ricci, Phoenix, 119 (3)
Steffen Yeates, TFCII, 110 (2)
Matthew Baldisimo, Fresno, 90 (1)
Daniel Da Silva, TFCII, 59 (1)
Terran Campbell, Fresno, 53 (5)
Gabriel Wiethaeuper-Balbinotti, Ottawa, 50 (2)
Maxim Tissot, Ottawa, 48 (2)
Monti Mohsen, Ottawa, 45 (1)
Malyk Hamilton, TFCII, 11 (1)

 

TEAM RANKINGS, USL MINUTES PLAYED BY CANADIANS IN 2018

TFCII, 9322/14 (665.9)

Ottawa, 7854/14 (561)

Fresno, 2306/17 (135.6)

Indy Eleven, 1610/13 (123.8)

Swope Park Rangers, 1470/16 (91.9)

Colorado Springs, 1460/17 (85.9)

Charleston, 1260/15 (84)

Reno, 1275/16 (79.7)

Tulsa, 1191/15 (79.4)

NCFC, 1099/14 (78.5)

Real Monarchs SLC, 1153/15 (76.9)

Pittsburgh, 1064/14 (76)

Nashville, 986/13 (75.8)

Penn FC, 462/15 (30.8)

Sacramento, 396/17 (23.3)

OKC Energy, 360/16 (22.5)

Las Vegas, 296/14 (21.1)

Phoenix, 328/17 (19.3)

Bethlehem Steel, 280/15 (18.7)

FC Cincinnati, 200/15 (13.3)

 

Fisk hopeful that Derry City deal begins extended European stay

When FC Edmonton paused its first-team operation at the end of the 2017 NASL season, Ben Fisk had options.

He has interest from quite a few USL clubs and a couple of MLS teams. But, after spending the previous season and a half playing in his home country, the midfielder wanted to head back to Europe. The former Vancouver Whitecap had previously spent time plying his trade in Spain.

But, after waiting out a fruitless January transfer window, would his decision to push for a European return pay off?

The dominoes began to fall in May. Derry City, the Northern Irish club that in the mid 1980s received special dispensation to play in the League of Ireland, announced that it would be selling left winger Ronan Curtis to Portsmouth. And Derry City’s manager is Kenny Shiels, father of Dean Shiels, who spent part of the 2017 season as Fisk’s teammate in Edmonton.

So there was a team in Europe, with a connection to FC Edmonton, in need of a player on the left side. Hmm.

On Friday, Derry announced Fisk as the club’s newest signing. He’s on contract till the end of the season.

“It was 100 per cent the connection,” Fisk says over the phone from Northern Ireland. “Derry sold their left winger to Portsmouth, and Dean mentioned me to his dad, and his dad had seen some of our (FC Edmonton) games.”

Fisk has been abroad for two weeks, waiting for his paperwork to go through. Now, the next step is to get back to match fitness. He hasn’t been in a pro match since November.

Then, Fisk will be looking to prove himself in League of Ireland matches, because his goal is to impress enough that he can extend his stay in Europe.

As well, Derry City has an upcoming Europa League qualifier against Dinamo Minsk.

“It’s a big thing for me,” says Fisk. “As a kid, you grow up dreaming about playing in a European competition. Dinamo Minsk has qualified for the Europa League a couple of times, so it will be a challenge.”

Fisk has said that staying in Europe is his priority, but he’s still following the rise of the Canadian Premier League. FCE will return as a member of the new CanPL; four other teams have been announced, and Hamilton’s coming-out party is still to come.

“I definitely won’t rule out the CPL,” says Fisk. “I am very excited about the CPL, like a lot of Canadian players are. I’m not going to say it isn’t an option. I’d be proud to be part of the CPL.”

Fisk isn’t the only former Eddie to play in the League of Ireland. Canadian keeper Tyson Farago and American forward Jake Keegan are over at St. Patrick’s.

“I played a lot against them in training,” says Fisk. “That’d be great if I can bang one past Tyson! But it will be great to have a chance to catch up after the match.”

 

Fury edges Blainville by a very familiar 1-0 scoreline

It was if the Soccer Gods deemed that, on Wednesday, that all matches played on the planet had to be linked thematically. Overwhelming favourite vs. unfancied underdog. And, in every case, David’s dogged effort was close, but not close enough. In the end, all of the upstarts lost 1-0, but had at least have the moral victories of not being blown out.

(For the record, moral victories suck.)

We saw that in all three World Cup matches today. Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Iran all fell by that scoreline to favourites who were expected to win by more.

And, on Wednesday night, AS Blainville, representing Quebec’s semipro division-three league, fell by that same 1-0 score at home to the USL’s Ottawa Fury in the first leg of their Canadian Championship preliminary round series. 

The Fury will say “heck, we won the first leg, got a road goal, didn’t give up one” and be confident that it will handle things at home for  the second leg; Blainville can say “heck, we fell asleep right at the start of the game, but didn’t give up anything after that.”

You could argue that we should all expect that a USL side, playing in the second-highest tier of  North American pro soccer, would  beat a Div-3 club by a greater margin than an MLS side would be favoured to beat a Div-2 team.  You could argue that, on paper, the gulf between MLS and USL isn’t as great as the gulf between USL and Quebec semipro.

So, when Tony Taylor dashed down the left wing and saw his poor-angle shot go right through Blainville keeper  Erwann Ofouya, you would be forgiven for thinking “oh, boy, this is the first of many.” (Remember, it was Ofouya’s fumble of a cross that led to Oakville’s only goal of the qualifying series against Blainville.)

But, instead of opening the floodgates, that was it for the night.

And, unlike Iran or Saudi Arabia or Morocco, Blainville actually had some real chances to equalize (sure, Iran had one ruled out after an offside ruling was confirmed by VAR. But it was offside. It was the right call. So, no crocodile tears). Fury keeper Maxime Crepeau had to make a great save in each half.

With five minutes left in the first, Blainville’s Nazim Belguendouz launched a free kick into a sea of blue shirts in the Ottawa penalty area. Crepeau dove towards the far post after the ball was directed towards goal.

And, in the 57th, Crepeau rose to direct a free kick that deflected off his own defender. He had to adjust to the shot’s last-second change in direction, and he showed why he was named USL’s Player of the Month for May.

“I think it’s a difficult game,” said Fury coach Nikola Popovic. “We played against a team who is very good. They have good players, perhaps players who didn’t get the opportunity to show themselves on bigger stages, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have quality. We faced today a very good team, organized. It was a very difficult game for us. We are happy with the 1-0 result. The game didn’t tip over and it tells us that we will have to be very focused when coming in to play the second game because we expect it to be difficult.”

Inescapably Canadian Power Rankings: MLS Week 16/USL Week 14

MLS had a reduced slate of games this past week, as the eyes of North American soccer fans turned towards Russia and the World Cup. Meanwhile, USL had a full week and nears the halfway point of its season.

So, it’s a good time to analyze the numbers: So far this season, 27 Canadians have played in MLS matches. Nine of them have played for Toronto FC, as the team’s roster has been stretched because of CONCACAF Champions League commitments and an injury epidemic which has cursed the team this season.

A total of 64 Canadians have played in USL. But only six have played more than 1,000 minutes so far, or about the equivalent of just a little more than 11 full matches.

Jordan Schweitzer of Colorado Springs leads the Canadians in USL in terms of minutes played, while Montreal’s Samuel Piette is building a large lead atop the minutes-played-by-Canadians chart in MLS.

 

Here are the rankings after the 16th week of MLS play/14th week of USL action:

 

MLS MINUTES BY PLAYER, THE CANADIANS

Samuel Piette, Montreal, 1440 (16)
Alphonso Davies, Vancouver, 1194 (16)
Mark-Anthony Kaye, LAFC, 1161 (14)
Will Johnson, Orlando, 1119 (13)
Jonathan Osorio, TFC, 992 (12)
Marcel de Jong, Vancouver, 759 (10)
Raheem Edwards, Montreal, 724 (11)
Ryan Telfer, TFC, 649 (9)
Dejan Jakovic, LAFC, 604 (8)
Russell Teibert, Vancouver, 601 (9)
Jay Chapman, TFC, 565 (10)
Michael Petrasso, Montreal, 565 (9)
Anthony Jackson-Hamel, Montreal, 476 (12)
Tosaint Ricketts, TFC, 473 (11)
Ashtone Morgan, TFC, 459 (6)
Jordan Hamilton,TFC, 373 (7)
Liam Fraser, TFC, 366 (6)
Brett Levis, Vancouver, 227 (4)
Doneil Henry, Vancouver, 180 (2)
Richie Laryea, Orlando, 127 (5)
Louis Beland-Goyette, Montreal, 109 (4)
Julian Dunn-Johnson, TFC, 104 (2)
Tesho Akindele, FC Dallas, 40 (4)
Brian Wright, New England, 27 (2)
David Choiniere, Montreal, 12 (1)
Aidan Daniels, TFC, 12 (1)
Kwame Awuah, NYCFC, 3 (2)

 

TEAM RANKINGS, MLS MINUTES PLAYED BY CANADIANS IN 2018

Toronto FC, 3993/14 (285.2)

Montreal, 3050/15 (203.3)

Vancouver, 2961/16 (185.1)

LAFC, 1765/14 (126.1)

Orlando City, 1246/15 (83.1)

FC Dallas, 40/14 (2.9)

New England, 27/16 (1.7)

NYCFC, 3/15 (0.2)

 

USL MINUTES BY PLAYER, THE CANADIANS

Jordan Schweitzer, Colorado Springs, 1370 (16)
Skylar Thomas, Charleston, 1170 (13)
Robert Boskovic, TFCII, 1160 (13)
Paris Gee, Tulsa, 1101 (14)
Amer Didic, Swope Park Rangers, 1020 (12)
Kyle Bekker, NCFC, 1009 (13)
Maxime Crepeau, Ottawa, 990 (11)
Bradley Kamdem-Fewo, Fresno, 990 (11)
Jordan Murrell, Reno, 990 (11)
Karl Ouimette, Indy, 990 (11)
Carl Haworth, Ottawa, 978 (13)
Jordan Dover, Pittsburgh, 974 (11)
Jamar Dixon, Ottawa, 936 (13)
Aidan Daniels, TFCII, 905 (11)
Eddie Edward, Ottawa, 900 (10)
Luca Uccello, TFCII, 899 (13)
Malik Johnson, TFCII, 839 (14)
Chris Mannella, Ottawa, 810 (9)
Adonijah Reid, Ottawa, 759 (11)
Rocco Romeo, TFCII, 744 (9)
Josh Heard, Real Monarchs SLC, 701 (10)
Thomas Meilleur-Giguere, Ottawa, 689 (8)
Noah Verhoeven, Fresno, 655 (11)
Matthew Srbely, TFCII, 617 (10)
Julian Dunn-Johnson, TFCII, 540 (6)
Ryan James, Nashville, 522 (8)
Noble Okello Ayo, TFCII, 502 (7)
Mauro Eustaquio, Penn FC, 462 (7)
Mastanabal Kacher, Real Monarchs SLC, 452 (8)
Angelo Cavalluzzo, TFCII, 450 (5)
Tyler Pasher, Indy, 440 (5)
Gianluca Catalano, TFCII, 434 (5)
Luca Petrasso, TFCII, 418 (7)
Zachary Ellis-Hayden, Fresno, 403 (5)
Keven Aleman, Sacramento, 396 (6)
Dante Campbell, TFCII, 390 (6)
Nana Attakora, Ottawa, 360 (4)
Darrin MacLeod, Swope Park Rangers, 360 (4)
Zak Drake, Las Vegas, 296 (6)
Shaan Hundal, TFCII, 293 (8)
Mark Anthony Gonzalez, Reno, 278 (4)
Drew Beckie, OKC Energy, 270 (3)
Doneil Henry, Ottawa, 270 (3)
Jordan Faria, TFCII, 264 (6)
Michael Cox, Nashville, 264 (5)
Chris Nanco, Bethlehem Steel, 232 (10)
Alessandro Riggi, Phoenix, 208 (9)
Ryan Telfer, TFCII, 207 (3)
Daniel Haber, FC Cincinnati, 200 (6)
David Edgar, Nashville, 200 (5)
Liam Fraser, TFCII, 180 (2)
Callum Irving, Ottawa, 180 (2)
Kyle Porter, Ottawa, 173 (2)
Jordan Hamilton, TFCII, 153 (2)
Kunle Dada-Luke, TFCII, 147 (4)
Luca Ricci, Phoenix, 119 (3)
Steffen Yeates, TFCII, 110 (2)
Matthew Baldisimo, Fresno, 90 (1)
Daniel Da Silva, TFCII, 59 (1)
Terran Campbell, Fresno, 53 (5)
Gabriel Wiethaeuper-Balbinotti, Ottawa, 50 (2)
Monti Mohsen, Ottawa, 45 (1)
Maxim Tissot, Ottawa, 21 (1)
Malyk Hamilton, TFCII, 11 (1)

 

TEAM RANKINGS, USL MINUTES PLAYED BY CANADIANS IN 2018

TFCII, 9322/14 (665.9)

Ottawa, 7161/13 (550.8)

Fresno, 2191/16 (136.9)

Indy Eleven, 1610/13 (123.8)

Swope Park Rangers, 1380/15 (92)

Colorado Springs, 1370/16 (85.6)

Reno, 1268/15 (84.5)

Charleston, 1170/14 (83.6)

Tulsa, 1101/14 (78.6)

NCFC, 1009/13 (77.6)

Real Monarchs SLC, 1153/15 (76.9)

Nashville, 986/13 (75.8)

Pittsburgh, 974/13 (74.9)

Penn FC, 462/14 (33)

Sacramento, 396/16 (24.8)

Las Vegas, 296/13 (22.8)

Phoenix, 327/16 (20.4)

OKC Energy, 270/15 (18)

Bethlehem Steel, 232/14 (16.6)

FC Cincinnati, 200/15 (13.3)

 

Blainville beats Blue Devils, sets up date with the Ottawa Fury

Until Wednesday night, if you’d heard of Diyaeddine Abzi, it was likely because of his reputation as a futsal player. He’s made one appearance for Canada’s national futsal side — against Costa Rica. In 2017, he was the top scorer at the Canadian Futsal Championship.

But, in Oakville, Ont. on Wednesday, Abzi wrote a bit of history as an outdoor player. His late first-half goal gave the PLSQ’s AS Blainville a 1-0 win over League1 Ontario’s Oakville Blue Devils in the second leg of their Canadian Championship qualifying series.

Blainville won the first leg 2-1 in Quebec, so Abzi’s second-leg goal represented the nails in Oakville’s coffin.

This year marked the first time L1O and PLSQ are represented in the Canadian Championship. PLSQ gets the bragging rights for 2018. The prize? The winner gets to take on the USL’s Ottawa Fury.

Abzi’s winner came after a period of Oakville pressure. The ball was hoofed down the left wing by Blainville in order to simply get the ball out of danger.  Abzi found himself in plenty of space to simply barge down the wing. He got to the outside of Oakville’s penalty area, then, simply fired a shot at goal. Oakville keeper Matt George was in position to make the save, but somehow allowed the ball to squeeze underneath him.

With Toronto FC coming back from three goals down to salvage a 4-4 draw at home to D.C. United, the attention of most soccer fans in the GTA was with MLS, and not with the Canadian Championship. But, last week, we saw an energetic, smoke-spewing crowd energize the stands in Laval. Those fans are going to get a chance to party again — and likely twice, as Ottawa isn’t that far a drive from the PLSQ champions’ home base.

 

CONCACAF CONCACAFs CAF: United gets World Cup 2026, as Moroccan vote collapses

“When I was five years old, a country called Canada welcomed us in, and the boys on the football team made me feel at home. Today, I’m 17 years old and I play for the men’s national team and I’m a proud Canadian citizen. And my dream is to someday compete in the World Cup, maybe even in my hometown of Edmonton.” — Alphonso Davies

The World Cup will be played on Canadian soil in 2026.

The United bid from the United States, Mexico and Canada ended up winning the World Cup-hosting vote comfortably on Wednesday. Edmonton, Montreal and Toronto are the three proposed Canadian host cities out of the 23 in the bid. The bid called for 10 of the 80 games to be played on Canadian soil, but FIFA has the final call when it comes to how many games will be played in each of the three host nations.

Of the 23 proposed host cities, 16 will be selected. So, fans in the prospective host cities still have to sweat out one more selection process.

“All of the (Canadian) host cities are really excited to be part of the process,” said Canada Soccer President Steven Reed. But he admitted that there “may be some disappointment” for some when the final 16 are announced.

“It’s not a decision I’m looking forward to,” said USSF President Carlos Cordeiro.

Reed appeared in front of the FIFA and said the fact the North American bid was based on stadiums and supporting infrastructure that was already in place offered a level of certainly Morocco couldn’t match. Morocco’s bid was based on stadiums and infrastructure that needed to be built and required financial investments in the billions.

“Why is this certainty so important?” said Reed. “It means we can focus more on other areas, like delivering an unrivalled experience for players and fans, from the moment they arrive to the final whistle.”

Canada Soccer had originally planned to bid for a 32-team World Cup on its own. But, after FIFA changed the scale of the tournament to include 48 teams, which meant more stadiums and more infrastructure, the decision was made from the Canada, Mexico and the United States to combine their efforts.

“No one country — even my own — could have done it themselves,” said Cordeiro.

As well, teenage Canadian national-teamer Alphonso Davies appeared in front of the conference, and talked about the thrill of possibly playing in his hometown of Edmonton.

In the end, it wasn’t close. Morocco go only 65 of the 201 votes at the FIFA Conference in Russia. A bid that has been predicted to be running neck-and-neck with the United bid, well, didn’t.

Countries that had previously stated support for Morocco’s World Cup bid didn’t end up voting for that bid. Russia, who had famously endorsed the Moroccan bid, ended up voting for United. And Africa’s delegates weren’t, ahem, united, as Benin, Botswana, Cape Verde, Guinea, Lesotho, Liberia, Mozambique, Namibia, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Zimbabwe all voted for the joint North America bid.

And, while the African vote was fractured, the CONCACAF votes weren’t. Four CONCACAF nations whose government had previously expressed support for the Moroccan bid all ended up putting an X by United on their ballots: Those four were Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica and Saint Lucia.

Cuba, Slovenia and Spain abstained, as did three American territories, U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and Guam.

Iran voted that neither bid was sufficient and that the voting process should be reopened.

L-R: Sandra Gage, Canada Soccer President Steven Reed, Alphonso Davies, Canada Soccer General Secretary Peter Montopoli

“This a milestone moment for soccer in this country,” said Canadian Premier League Commissioner David Clanachan in a statement. “Having the 2026 FIFA World Cup in Canada will transform the way that Canadians perceive the global game and change the way the world sees Canada. Congratulations to the United Bid on their commitment and special recognition to our partners at Canada Soccer for their leadership in making Canada a focal point of the bid.

“The Canadian Premier League and our clubs will be celebrating this decision with all Canadians coast to coast. We look forward to having the 2026 FIFA World Cup played in Canadian stadiums, and we are even more excited at the possibility of having CPL athletes playing on the world’s biggest stage on home soil. “

Teams will be divided into 16 groups of three, into regional clusters, to help limit travel. The top two teams in each of the groups will qualify for the 32-team knockout round. Canada is expected to host seven group-stage matches, two round of 32 matches and a single round of 16 game.

The bid is expected to generate $14 billion in revenue, sell 5.8 million tickets and generate $5 billion in economic impact for the three countries.

American President Donald Trump relieved some of the political tensions that had built up in regards to the bid — heck, Canada and the Americans are in the first stages of a trade war right now — by writing letters to FIFA assuring that. for the World Cup, visiting fans from around the world wouldn’t be hindered by travel bans.

The United bid also survived the high-profile exits of Vancouver, Chicago and Phoenix. In Vancouver’s case, the British Columbia government refused to support a stadium agreement with what it felt were open-ended financial guarantees that put the province at undue financial risk.

The vote had been predicted to be close, and Morocco looked to have momentum until FIFA released its scores on the technical merits of the two bids. The United bid scored far higher than the Moroccan bid. Still, we couldn’t shake the feeling that politics would render the results of the technical assessments moot. In the end, they didn’t.

Cordeiro said the bid’s strategy was to consolidate the Americas first, and he noted that the bid got 100 per cent support from the voting CONCACAF members and 90 per cent out of South America. Then, the focus was on Asia, where CONCACAF ended up outpacing Morocco by roughly a three to one margin.

“I would say about 10 days ago we had a sense that this was breaking our way,” said Cordeiro. “To say that we knew it would be a landslide is probably unfair, but we knew it was going to go well for us. So we were very pleased, at the end, with the result and delighted it was quite the result it was.”

And what will it mean for Canada?

“We could become the preeminent sport in our country,” said Reed. “That’s what we’d like to see.”