From the Halifax Wanderers all the way to Langford's Pacific FC, the Canadian Championship is a yearly tournament to determine which is the best soccer team in Canada. This year 14 teams will fight for the Voyageur's Cup. The three teams from Major League Soccer as well as the eight Canadian Premier League teams and finally League 1 winners from Ontario, Quebec and the League 1 BC Champions: Burnaby's TSS Rovers.
Swanguard Stadium last hosted a Canadian Championship game back in May 2010 when the Vancouver Whitecaps faced off against Major League Soccer's Toronto FC. On that day, despite playing in a lower league, the Whitecaps were able to hold TFC to a stalemate. April 19th will see a similar David vs. Goliath match-up as the Rovers hope to advance past Winnipeg's Valour FC. And given that every game is a do or die affair with the winner advancing and the loser being eliminated, anything can happen.
The only certainty you can take from past competitions is that outcomes are always impossible to predict. CPL teams have beaten MLS teams and League 1 champions have bested CPL opponents. There are bound to be upsets and high drama along the way, shoot-outs and extra-time heroics.
TSS Rovers: Developing Future Stars of Canadian Soccer
The mandate of the TSS Rovers to develop players. As coach Will Cromack explains, "The idea of the club itself is to try to help guys get themselves to Pro". And they have been very successful in this enterprise. In the last 5 years, no less than 21 players have gone on to turn pro including national team defender, Joel Waterman and Julia Grosso, who famously scored the penalty kick in Toyko that gave Canada their first Olympic gold medal.
This year, the young Rovers players have a unique chance to showcase their talent thanks to the exposure that competing in the National Championship provides. According to Cromack, "They have the opportunity to go and prove that they can be there and maybe someone will tap them on the shoulder and take them one day".
A Pathway to Success
If a player does find themselves in the spotlight, it wouldn't be the first time it has happened. Canadian National team defender Alistair Johnston went from playing for League 1 Ontario's Vaughan in the Canadian Championship to a brief MLS career. Four years later, on the heels of an impressive World Cup performance, he suits up for Scotland's largest and most successful club, Celtic. At just 15 years old, Canadian superstar Alphonso Davies played his first professional game in this competition. Three years later, he won the European Championship with Bayern Munich. There is no better place for a Canadian to build their reputation.
However, it's not just the players who can advance their fortunes through the tournament. Beyond being crowned the Kings of the North and lifting the Voyageurs Cup, whichever team wins the Canadian Championship also qualifies for Concacaf Champions League, a tournament that determines the best team in on the continent. Just competing in that competition adds to a club's prestige and renown. Although no team from Canada has ever won that competition, if teams like the Rovers continue to get opportunities to test their mettle against top opposition they will continue to develop better and better players which can only strengthen every part of the Canadian Soccer pyramid going forward.
If you want to see the future stars of Canadian soccer, tickets for the April 19th match are still available: https://www.tssfc.ca/tickets
The game will also be broadcast on Onesoccer.ca, Telus 980 and Fubo.tv
0 Comments
In second half stoppage time last weekend, I sat and watched in dread as Dallas’ Jáder Obrian stepped around his marker and threaded a pass to the penalty spot where Jesús Ferreira was waiting. Here we go again, I thought, another promising effort undone by a defensive lapse in the second half. But before Ferreira could slot the ball home, a streak of blue and white overtook him and threw a desperate leg in to deflect the shot out for a corner. No need to check the number of the game saver. Andrés Cubas is where opposition attacks go to die. While it’s the strikers, play-makers and keepers who get all the glory, teams succeed or fail on the strength of their mid-field. Among these positions, there is none more important than the role of the number six, the defensive midfielder. As Carlos Ancelotti puts it, “The number six position is the key to everything. He must be a player who can defend, support the attack, and control the game’s rhythm.” Over the past year, Whitecaps fans have had the opportunity to witness first-hand just how crucial the role of the defensive midfielder is in the modern game. When the Whitecaps belatedly made the signing of Andrés Cubas official last April, few fans had ever heard of the Paraguayan international. Despite his Boca Juniors pedigree, cynical Vancouver fans questioned whether a player from a recently relegated Nîmes Olympique side could really change the team’s fortunes. It would be almost two months before they got the opportunity to find out. By the time Cubas made his first start on June 18th in Dallas, the Whitecaps had only managed to win five of their first 15 games, tying two others and losing the rest. And while other factors played a part in their resurgence in the second half of the season, there can be little doubt that Cubas had a starring role in both their league play and in their Canadian Championship victory. The role of the number six is to disrupt and generally create chaos in the opposition attack. They must be both physically and mentally agile in order to read the play, anticipate their opponents’ movements, and position themselves effectively to deliver tackles and make interceptions.
Just how good is Cubas at this? Despite playing only 18 games last season, he led the team in tackles with 36. If he maintained this rate over the course of a full season, he would have finished second in the entire MLS (which, coincidentally, is where he finds himself today after three games). He also led the Whitecaps in interceptions with 34. Again, at that rate, over the course of a full season he would be in the top three in MLS. But Cubas doesn’t just win possession. As the number six, he is also the pivot. He transitions the team from defense to attack. Although he doesn’t often appear on the score sheet for assists, Cubas is second only to Gauld when it comes to completed passes in the forward zone and he might have led the team if he played a full season. Among all Whitecaps who have played any real minutes last year, he had the second highest passing accuracy. When Sporting Director Axel Schuster announced the signing of Cubas as their new number six he said: “We think that he is the difference maker in his position as Ryan Gauld is at his. It was a waiting game for the right guy. We are up to wait. And now we have to get him in and to show everyone that he is the right guy.” A year later we can safely say that Schuster and director of recruitment Nikos Overheul found their man. While he will seldom lift the fans out of their seat, Cubas is among the very best in the league at his position, the kind of relentless destroyer that gives opponents nightmares. His contributions might not always be as obvious as a game saving block in stoppage time, but they are plain to see once you start to look for them. Whitecaps fans should appreciate what they have in Cubas. Soccer is the most popular sport in the world for a simple reason: soccer is the ultimate team game. When you watch a good soccer team, the game stops being about the individual players and becomes all about the collective. On a good team, players’ movements are so connected, it seems like they can read each others’ minds. While this is true of many sports, there is something different about soccer. It seems to hold a near universal appeal. Maybe this is because everyone, even those in the poorest villages, learns to kick a ball when they are young. We all have played some form of soccer which makes it the global game. And because everyone can learn to play it, great players can come out of nowhere. They can sometimes even emerge in Canada. Now the Canadian women’s team have been good for a long time. If you weren’t aware of that, you need to stop reading this and go and watch every game of theirs in the 2010 London Olympics women’s soccer tournament. You will witness a performance that has to be seen to be believed. Christine Sinclair was in a league of her own. The whole team was great and they did everything right but… well, you just have to watch it. On the men’s side however, it’s been a different, and sadder, story. I’ve followed the men’s team for a long time and there have only been two highlights. In 2000, after winning a coin toss to get into the playoffs, Goalkeeper Craig Forest elevated his game to unbelievable heights and Canada prevailed over Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago and finally Columbia to win the tournament. Lady luck was on their side. Before that, the height of success was the team qualifying for the World Cup in Mexico back in 1986. They played well, but went home after three games without having scored a goal. But for those of you who haven’t been following men’s soccer lately, the long drought of success is coming to an end. The team suddenly finds itself with an embarrassment of soccer riches. First among them is the team captain, Atiba Hutchinson. At 39 years of age, you would be forgiven in believing he is past his prime, but you would be mistaken. He just captained his team Beşiktaş to the league title in the Turkish Super Lig. He did it along with fellow Canadian striker Cyle Larin. The former MLS rookie of the year, who, just this year, finished second in league scoring with 19 goals. For those of you who don’t follow the game, that’s a lot. In goal, we have Milan Borjan who plays for Red Star Belgrade in Serbia. They just won both their league and their league cup thanks to two of his saves in the penalty shootout. We have yet another league winner up front in Johnathan David. He just won the French league title with Lille, scoring a goal and drawing a penalty in the final must-win game. Lille (which pays its players approximately £25,241,892 per year) won the title on the final day of the season by a single point over Paris St-Germain (£202,254,468 per year). And that’s another reason to love soccer, money can’t buy titles. It helps, but it can’t guarantee them. Then there is the once in a generation talent: Alphonso Davies. Born in a refugee camp, he immigrated to Canada when he was five. Ten years later he made his debut for the Vancouver Whitecaps and two years after that, he was traded to European giant Bayern Munich. They won every major title in soccer in his first year. He is undeniably a superstar, the top left back in the world, as well as the United Nations Refugee Agency’s Goodwill Ambassador. He is also only 20 years old.
He is a big part of Canada’s first Golden Generation, but he isn’t alone. Twelve members of the named to the squad for world cup qualifying are 24 or younger. Coach John Herdman, who so adroitly coached the women’s team for a decade, is doing his best to meld youth with experience as the team heads into what may be a defining year for the team and soccer in this country. He has all the pieces he needs. If he can bring these outstanding individuals together into a collective, there is nothing that these players can’t achieve. It’s time to forget about the past, the future starts now. You can watch the World Cup qualifiers this weekend only on Onesoccer.ca. The 2021 Gold Cup begins July 11th. Are you aware that there is a controversy about the birthplace of hockey? The people of Kingston aren’t. As far as anyone there is concerned, hockey- just like Confederation and thus Canada itself- was invented in Kingston. They with tell you these things with pride, like they played a part in their invention. Sure, they might humour you if you’re one of those stubborn people who insist that games like hockey were played elsewhere first. When it comes to hockey, REAL hockey, that started in Kingston. And we’re, er- they’re not wrong either, you can look it up! The Limestone City is the original hockey-mad town and growing up, I had the fever. I spent hours perfecting my wrist shot, my best breakaway move (a quick feint and top-drawer backhand), and making tight wraparounds which the Great One had taught us. I played hockey endlessly in the winter, because that it what one does, but truthfully- it wasn’t my favourite sport. My heart always beat a little quicker when I smelled the snow melting. The first real sign of spring was always a change in the air- a rich, wet earthy smell like the musty damp of a forest, but carried on a warm breeze. That smell meant the start of soccer season, the sport that I have loved from my earliest memories. I started playing when I was four years old on the school playground. Outside of my travels abroad (there were no amateur teams in Korea), I have played every year until my health problems two years ago. I am back in the gym now and you can bet I will be playing again this summer (albeit in the old men's league). I have been watching soccer on television for just as long. Infrequently when I was young, because that’s when it was on, but much more regularly once cable TV came to my willage and even more once I moved to the west. I was delighted to discover when I arrived on the coast that there were people here much like myself who had fallen in love with soccer’s complexity and athleticism, whose moods rose and fell with the performance of their favourite teams, who simply “got it”. Now, I loosely follow the English Premier League and catch as many Champions League matches as I can and I love the big competitions: the Euro and the World Cup, even the Gold Cup when Canada is playing well. I love the passion of the crowds at these games. Around the world, the cheering, the tears, the shouts of joy and the roars of frustration. I always wanted to be part it, but never imagined it would happen here. But then, finally, 10 years ago, Major League Soccer announced that the Vancouver Whitecaps would be the league’s 17th franchise. Two years later, Mr. S and I were there for their MLS home opener. It was an unseasonably warm, sunny day. They played in a temporary open-air stadium at Empire Field and the electricity in the air was palpable. The team delivered a rare win in that first season- a 4-2 victory over Toronto. It was really an amazing experience, a two-hour celebration of the city and the sport, a dream come true. Late in the game with the ‘Caps up 3-1, I even got our section singing “Hey, Hey Goodbye” before Toronto pulled back within a goal and rattled the nerves of the crowd. Since then, I have followed the Whitecaps closely and attended every home opener except for one that inconveniently conflicted with Ms. M’s birth. I already have our tickets for this year’s opener. A March 2nd Match against the Minnesota FC, A.K.A “The Loons”. And as excited as I am about the season starting, I feel like there is an extra bit of electricity this spring because of the arrival of the Canadian Premier League, the first national professional league in this country since 1992. From Pacific FC in Victoria to the Halifax Wanderers on the opposite coast, soccer is taking off again in this country. And there is further ambitious expansions planned leading up to our co-hosting of the 2026 World Cup.
Whether it’s because of increasing immigration, the remarkable success of the Women’s National team or the spread of MLS to our biggest cities, Canadians are finally starting to see what the rest of the world has long believed. Soccer, or football as it is more commonly known, with it’s intricate interplay of tactics, dynamic passing, improvisation and athleticism, the occasional individual’s raw power and magic, is truly “the beautiful game”. With the first hints of spring in the air, I am happy to see the love of the game blossoming across the country. |