The Footie » canada soccer

Ottawa Seeks USL Addition in 2012

Jyle Dupuis — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 06:26:02 +0000

Ottawa, Ontario has announced that they will be added to the United Soccer Leagues First Division for the 2012 season as the Ottawa Fury. The deal with the USL is however conditional that they upgrade the proposed Frank Clair Stadium at Lansdowne Park to their standards.

Frank Clair Stadium - Ottawa, Canada

Organizers are also setting their sights high for the proposed team. John Pugh, who is the CEO of the Ottawa Fury has said that this is just the first step towards becoming apart of the Major Soccer League. He has also put out there that he hopes that with the creation of the team in a professional league he’ll be able to attract aspiring soccer players to continue playing.

Unfortunately in Canada so many good soccer players go unnoticed because of lack of local funding or venues to continue playing. University is at best the highest level of soccer to play, but after that its over. By creating more teams and affording to pay good wages to local players many may turn to playing soccer as a profession. In a country that values hockey, it will be a breath of fresh air to see a good professional soccer game.

Image: Wikipedia.org

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Kristina Kiss Retires From Canadian Soccer

Jyle Dupuis — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 17:27:51 +0000

Kirstina Kiss has announced today that she will be retiring from the Canadian Women’s National Soccer Team today. Kiss began her soccer career in Ottawa, Ontario after being a star player at the Holy Trinity High School. She was the team captain for Canada and helped her team win silver at the 2003 Pan American Games in Santo Domingo and bronze in 2007 at the Pan American games in Rio de Janairo. She also represented Canada twice at the FIFA Women’s World Cup Games.

Canada's Kristina Kiss (L) clears the ball under pressure from Ghana's Anita Amankwa (R) in Hangzhou, 15 September 2007 in eastern China's Zhejiang province, during FIFA Women's World Cup 2007.

There was no reason given for her retirement, at just 28 she’s hardly over her prime. But she did tell reporters that she was retiring and wanted to wish the new generation of players good luck in helping develop the sport in Canada.

Kristina Kiss studies philosophy and psychology at Carelton University in Ottawa, Canada. She also won the Canadian National Junior Judo Championship in 1995 in the under 44 kg category. She has made a total of 75 Team Canada appearances which places her 11th in Canada’s player history.

Image: Newscom

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Canada Ranks 66 For FIFA World Cup

Jyle Dupuis — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:47:20 +0000

It’s not looking too good for Canada in their attempt at playing in the 2010 South Africa FIFA World Cup games. Their ranking has been tallied by the FIFA governing body as being in 66th place. This is not at all surprising considering we are a hockey country and only have two MLS teams.

Canadian Soccer Association

Soccer critics have blamed the Canadian Soccer Association for not giving their best players more support in the game. But I guess that’s what happens when there is no money from sponsors for the game.

The United States on the other hand has almost been able to take the top ten spot. This comes as renewed funding for the games has improved since the USA are looking towards sponsoring the World Cup games in the future.

The best Canada has ever done in the past was in 1996 when they placed 40th place in the ranking system.

Image: TSN.ca

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Montreal Impact Bows To River Plate 2-1

Jyle Dupuis — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 16:11:27 +0000

Montreal Impact lost to Argentina’s River Plate 2-1 last night in over-time. River Plate remained undefeated on their Canadian tour. They played the Toronto FC and a game against an English clud in Edmonton so far.

It may have been raining hard in Montreal yesterday but attendance was high to near capacity at the Saputo Stadium. A large River Plate crowd was there for support as well. RP’s Christian Fabbiano managed to slip one buy in the 21st minute. But it was Montreal’s rebound in the 64 minute by Roberto Brown that got the local fans going.

Despite being a friendly game, the pre-emotive decision was to go into a shootout. So RP decided the game in over-time with two scores going in with Montreal’s zero. Despite the loss and the rain, it was a great game that everyone seemed to enjoy. Montreal will be hosting the Minnesota Thunder on August 9th.

I know I go there every time I write about the Montreal Impact so why break tradition. I think Montreal deserves to be apart of the MLS. They were the only Canadian team able to stave off the River Plate in any form. The Toronto FC folded almost completely in an embarassing loss.

Image: TSN.ca

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Canada Loses, USA Continues Gold Cup Run

Jyle Dupuis — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 06:38:56 +0000

The CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals are being held in Philadelphia this year and it just seemed like the magic left the Canadian team. On Saturday they played against Honduras and lost 1-0. USA continued in a spectacular match that left Panama wondering what happened.

National U.S.A. Soccer Team

The USA will now advance to the semifinals rounds that will be held in the great city of Chicago. The crows are expected to supersede the over 30,000 fans who showed up at the Philadelphia match.

Image: TSN.ca

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Montreal Impact Beats Syria in Friendly

Jyle Dupuis — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 00:08:42 +0000

The Montreal Impact (who are not apart of the MLS yet) played against the Syrian national soccer team on Wednesday and defeated them 2-1. Felix Brilliant managed to secure the winning goal by head butting it into the corner net.

Montreal Impact

Montreal has shown themselves to be an impressive team during the last few years. Yet they always seem to be overlooked when it comes time to add more teams to the MLS roster. They were overlooked last year when the bid when to the Vancouver Whitecaps. It was assumed that MLS officials believed Vancouver was better known internationally and had better facilities since they are hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Image: TSN.ca

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Toronto FC Are New Nutrilite Champions!

Jyle Dupuis — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 17:07:04 +0000

Toronto FC have defied all odds and won the 2009 Nutrilite Canadian Championship. They were in a three point deficit behind the leading Vancouver Whitecaps, when they played the Montreal Impact last night. With this in mind Toronto managed to squeeze in 6 goals in the Montreal Impacts net making the final score 6:1.

At the beginning of the game they were hoping to at least secure a second place victory, but when things seemed to be going their way they pushed for the Championship title and winners of the 2009 Voyageurs Cup.

The Nutrilite Canadian Championship is the most prestigious soccer cup in Canada. Though many only see it as a stepping stone for the bigger CONCACAF Champions League where they get to play other country winners throughout North America. The first CONCACAF Champions game for the Toronto FC will be played against the Puerto Rico Islanders.

Image: Newscom

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Whitecaps Beat Impact 2-0

Jyle Dupuis — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:42:04 +0000

The Vancouver Whitecaps have much to prove as they are now preparing themselves for entry into the MLS in 2012. The Whitecaps weren’t able to thwart the Toronto FC in the first Canadian Championship games, but they did manage to beat the Montreal Impact last night.

Vancouver Whitecaps

The Montreal Impact are the reigning champions of last years Nutrilite Canadian Championship but that doesn’t seem to be working in their favour this year.

The Impact and Whitecaps faced off in Montreal in a near capacity crown of 11,483 at the Saputo Stadium. The crown were left disappointed after allowing in two goals making the final score 2-0. Montreal will have another crack at the Whitecaps when they head over to Vancouver for the next game.

The winner of the Nutrilite Canadian Championships gets to represent Canada in the CONCACAF Champions League. Last year the Montreal Impact won after defeating Mexico.

Image: Newscom.com

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Montreal Impact Upset Over Losing Streak

Jyle Dupuis — Sat, 16 May 2009 06:37:47 +0000

It was a sad day this week for Montreal Impact fans to learn that they lost against the Toronto FC in the Nutrilite Canadian Championship. There was only one goal scored during the entire game, unfortunately it was in favour of Toronto.

Toronto also defeated the Vancouver Whitecaps on May 6 (also in a 1-0 game) during the opening Nutrilite Canadian Championships. The Toronto FC are naturally excited by their recent streak of wins and hope that they will continue to be strong in the MLS. Montreal on the other hand continued to disappoint fans by tying their following game against Charleston on May 12. The club then decided that they had had enough with their head coach, so he was sacked on May 14. Lets hope the shake-up works.

Image: Montreal Impact

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Toronto Squashes Whitecaps in First Canadian Championship game

Jyle Dupuis — Thu, 07 May 2009 18:07:33 +0000

Toronto FC defeated the Vancouver Whitecaps 1-0 in the opening Nutrilite Canadian Championship games. Toronto had allot to prove as they are currently the only Canadian team in the coveted MLS. Vancouver will be joining in 2011 but the Montreal Impact will have to wait their turn.

Montreal won the Canadian Championship last year with Toronto barely defeating Vancouver for the send spot. With only three teams competing for the title that’s a huge deal. The next Nutrilite Canadian Championship game will be on May 27th in Vancouver (Whitecaps FC-Impact), June 2nd in Vancouver (Whitecaps FC-Toronto FC), and June 18th in Montréal (Impact-Toronto FC).

Check out CanadaSoccer.com for more information.

Image: TSN.ca

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