Kicking it up another notch
Canadian socc er had lots to be proud of in 2019
Looking back at 2019, it will be remembered as a banner year for Canadian soccer as the game continues to grow and expand throughout the country.
The successful launch of the Canadian Premier League changed the landscape, creating more options for homegrown talent to play in a professional environment.
Canadian national teams experienced both success and heartbreak at the international level and Toronto FC once again captured the imagination of soccer fans with another run to the Major League Soccer final.
All in all, it was a great year for the beautiful game in Canada and showcased a bright future.
Here is a look back on the year in Canadian soccer:
❚ ❚ With the creation of the Canadian Premier League and addition of seven professional clubs in the country, Canada Soccer announced in January it would expand the national championship tournament, making it bigger than ever.
The seven CPL clubs were joined by teams from League 1 Ontario, the Première ligue du Soccer de Québec (PLSQ), United Soccer League and MLS and played a 24- game schedule to determine a national champion.
The tournament kicked off on May 15 and culminated with the Montreal Impact winning its fourth national title and earning a spot in the 2020 CONCACAF Champions League.
Cavalry FC of Calgary proved to be the surprise of the tournament, knocking off the Vancouver Whitecaps in the third round before losing to the Impact in the semifinals.
“I think it speaks to the growth of professional soccer in our country,” Canada Soccer general secretariat Peter Montopoli said. “It’s a natural evolution of our sport and I believe with more cities involved and more interest from every province, it is only certain to grow the game exponentially.”
❚ ❚ Later in January, the bar for Canadian professionals was set higher than it had ever been with Alphonso Davies joining German powerhouse Bayern Munich.
Davies, 19, who was born in a refugee camp in Ghana before immigrating to Canada, netted MLS’S Vancouver Whitecaps a $22-million transfer fee to play with Bayern.
While not the first Canadian to play overseas, Davies was the first to be transferred to such a high- profile club. He has quickly become of face of Canadian soccer around the world.
“It’s been magical,” Canadian national team member Tosaint Ricketts said. “It’s fuelled the country, it’s fuelled Canada Soccer and we need more of that. We need more players growing up in Canada and reaching that next level and inspiring that next generation and showing them that they can too make it as well.”
❚ ❚ Closer to home, the CPL announced its opening match of its inaugural season with Forge FC of Hamilton eventually hosting York9 FC.
The CPL would feature a split schedule with a Spring and Fall Season format. Each team would play 10 games in the Spring Season and 18 in the Fall Season. The winners of the two seasons would face each other in a twogame, total-goal final.
“The world started to spin real fast on Jan. 1 and I think it went into warp speed because the realism of it all comes together,” CPL commissioner David Clanachan said at the time. “The excitement; you’re seeing it in the communities and at the club level now and people are enthusiastic about this. We’ve been talking about building a movement and it’s happening, you can feel it.”
The CPL received another boost in February when Spanish communications giant Mediapro decided to invest in the league, signing a 10-year partnership.
The agreement guaranteed every CPL game would be available to livestream over the next decade. The partnership brought instant stability to the league before a ball was even kicked.
❚ ❚ While the men’s game was getting a boost, the women’s game was preparing to take centre stage.
Canada boasts one of the greatest goal- scorers of alltime in Christine Sinclair, who continued to pursue the international record.
Sinclair has been the face of the women’s national team for the better part of two decades and in March was preparing to lead Canada into the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup with an eye on the record.
Canada prepared for the Women’s World Cup by participating in the Algarve Cup in Portugal, where they finished third, defeating Sweden in a penalty shootout. The win would actually play a part in Canada’s elimination at the World Cup later in the summer.
Sinclair went on to score her 179th international goal in a 1- 0 victory against Scotland at the Algarve Cup, putting her five away from retired American striker Abby Wambach.
Sinclair scored her 180th goal in a 1- 0 exhibition win against England in April and picked up 181 in a 3- 0 win against Mexico in Canada’s send-off match in May, which appeared to set her up well to break the record on the world’s biggest stage.
“It’s one of those things, it’s just an honour to be chasing Abby down,” Sinclair said following the win over England. “I just don’t want it to be the focus heading into the World Cup. It’s not what our team should be focusing on and it’s not what I want to be focusing on.”
❚ ❚ In April, the CPL played its inaugural game with Forge FC and York9 drawing 1-1 in front of 17,611 fans at Hamilton’s Tim Hortons Field. Ryan Telfer scored the league’s first goal three minutes into the game and Kadell Thomas responded in the 78th minute in the nationally televised contest.
The rest of the teams kicked off later in the week, bringing a national professional league back to Canada for the first time since the Canadian Soccer League folded in 1992.
“It’s fundamentally the most important thing that has happen to Canadian soccer in all of our history,” Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis said. “You can look back at the qualification and participation of the 1986 World Cup, which was massive. Since then, this is it, this is what we need. It shifts a lot of things in the game of soccer towards the positive.”
❚ ❚ While the CPL was gaining momentum in June, the women’s national team gathered in France for the World Cup, looking to go on a long run. The team started the tournament off well with a 1- 0 victory over Cameroon in Montpellier on June 10. Kadeisha Buchanan, who plays her club soccer in France for Olympique Lyonnais, scored the only goal in the contest.
Five days later, Jessie
Fleming and Nichelle Prince scored for Canada in a 2- 0 victory against New Zealand in Grenoble to book a spot into the second round.
“I’m very happy to get another three points in this group, we played very well and I think that’s the most exciting part about it,” Prince said. “We’re building off each game and we’re playing really great soccer and it’s cool to be able to see us play so well and play our game.”
Having already booked a spot in the second round, Canada was looking to win the group when it came up against the Netherlands in Reims on June 20.
Canada appeared to have earned an early penalty in the game when Janine Beckie was tripped in the penalty area. Upon video review, however, it was determined the initial contact was made outside the box and Canada was awarded a free kick instead.
Canada went on to lose the match 2-1, but Sinclair scored, putting her two away from Wambach. It was Sinclair’s 10th World Cup goal and gave her the distinction of scoring in five consecutive World Cup tournaments, joining Marta of Brazil as the only players to accomplish the feat.
“Heading into the game, we knew we had qualified for the next round, but we wanted to get nine points ( three wins) so we’re obviously disappointed,” Sinclair said. “They started very strong and we definitely didn’t. If you do that in the knockout rounds, you might be down two goals and the game is over. So I think it’s a little bit of a wake-up call for us, I think, especially at the start of the game.”
Canada would go on to face Sweden in the second round and its tournament came to an end in heartbreaking fashion, losing 1- 0. Canada controlled the majority of play, but conceded a goal on a counterattack in the 55th minute. They had a chance to get back in the game, but Beckie was stopped on a penalty shot in the 68th minute. Sinclair passed on taking the crucial penalty because she had been stopped in a penalty shootout by Swedish goalkeeper Hedvig Lindahl in the Algarve Cup.
“I feel like I let the team down,” an emotional Beckie said after the game. “I’m feeling frustrated and disappointed and all the negative emotions right now.”
❚ ❚A few days after the women crashed out of the World Cup, the men’s national team faltered at the CONCACAF Gold Cup in the United States.
After a strong group stage where Canada defeated Martinique 4- 0, lost to Mexico 3-1 and beat Cuba 7- 0, it fell to Haiti 3-2 in the quarter- final after holding a 2- 0 halftime lead.
The loss knocked Canada out of the tournament, which Mexico eventually went on to win, beating the United States 1- 0 on the same day the American women won the World Cup with a 2- 0 victory over the Netherlands.
Following its disappointing summer, the Canadian men’s team continued its Nations League campaign and after wins over Cuba had a home- and- home series with the U.S.
Davies and Lucas Cavallini scored to give Canada its first win against the Americans since April 2, 1985. The win also put Canada in the driver’s seat in the group with a good opportunity to advance to the final.
Unfortunately for Canada, it was unable to make good on the victory and advance to the semifinal, losing 4-1 to the U. S. a month later in Orlando, Fla.
Canada gave up a goal two minutes in and it was all downhill from there. The loss eliminated Canada from the Nations League and put its World Cup qualifying hopes in jeopardy.
❚ ❚ Closer to home, Forge FC was putting the finishing touches on winning the inaugural CPL championship.
Forge FC blanked Cavalry FC 1- 0 in the home leg with Tristan Borges scoring the only goal late in the first half. A week later, David Choinière scored late into second- half stoppage time to give Forge a 1- 0 win in Calgary and the league title.
It’s fuelled the country, it’s fuelled Canada Soccer and we need more of that.
We need more players ... reaching that next level.
❚ ❚A week after the CPL champion was crowned, Toronto FC fell short in the MLS title game, losing 3-1 to the host Seattle Sounders.
While it was a disappointing end to the season, few expected TFC to get back to the MLS final after struggling in the early part of the season.
“It’s been a season in some ways that’s felt like two or three seasons all in one,” head coach Greg Vanney said. “But this group has really come together. They sacrificed for each other, they enjoyed playing with each other, they enjoyed fighting for each other. And they left everything on the field.”