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Peters leaves for Ipswich

By NEIL DAVIDSON

R020336AU.jpg

Canada's Jaime Peters(7), fights the ball

against Hondura's Emilio Izaguirre in Honduras

Jan. 28, 2005. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)

(CP) - The latest chapter in Jaime Peters' excellent soccer adventure is about to unfold.

Just back from a successful trip to Honduras with the Canadian under-20 team, the 17-year-old midfielder from Pickering, Ont., left Thursday for England and his new club side Ipswich Town. A game with Canada next Wednesday in Belfast against Northern Ireland also beckons. Peters will only train with Ipswich until May 4, when he turns 18 and can sign a contract, reportedly because of visa restrictions.

He chose the side from the League Championship, formerly the first division, over Premier League powerhouse Chelsea.

A tough decision?

"Yes, it was because Chelsea is one of the biggest clubs in the world. So you'd always want to go there," Peters said Thursday prior to boarding his flight. "But you want to look forward to your future, because I'm really young. You have to see what's better for your future and your career. It was kind of a hard decision but in the end I think I made the better decision."

Chelsea is stacked with talent, with at least two established internationals at every position. Peters saw the wealth of riches during a tryout with the London club in November.

He still remembers the players' parking lot.

"The Ferraris and the Bentleys and all those expensive exotic cars," he recalled.

Ipswich currently leads the Football Championship with a 17-5-8 record.

The club has ties to Canada. It is currently home to Canadian international defender Jason DeVos and national team manager Frank Yallop, former Olympic team coach Bruce Twamley and former Canadian goalkeeper Craig Forrest all played there.

Peters, who spent last season with Kaiserlautern's under-19 team in Germany, also had trials with Derby and Millwall in England.

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DeVos Future: Ipswich defender Jason deVos has confirmed his Canadian international career is essentially over.

"I'm not going to announce my retirement but, to all intents and purposes, I have probably played my last game for Canada," the 31-year-old deVos told the East Anglian Daily News. "I spoke to Frank (Canadian manager Frank Yallop) about it at length a couple of days ago and there is nothing for me to play for anymore.

"The World Cup qualifiers are finished for us and the next one doesn't start for another four years."

DeVos told the newspaper he might come back if Yallop needs to play a teaching role.

"He knows what I'm like, what my character is and if he feels, at some stage in the future, that he has a young centre-half who would benefit from playing alongside me for a few games, then I may consider playing - but he knows my focus now is my club football and that could well be the case until the end of my career."

DeVos, who captained his country under former manager Holger Osieck, played for Canada 49 times.

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World Under-20 Tournament: The field for this summer's World Youth Championship is all but set with Chile playing Uruguay on Saturday to determine the final piece in the 24-team puzzle.

Colombia, defending champion Brazil and Argentina have already qualified from the South American zone going into the final round of weekend matches in the under-20 CONMEBOL competition.

Canada, which booked its ticket to the finals in the Netherlands by winning a qualifying tournament in Honduras last week, has to wait until March 6 for the draw in Utrecht to discover its first-round opponents.

FIFA has yet to decide on the ground rules governing the draw, ie which countries will be separated in the preliminary round-robin. Usually it is done by geography, with teams from the same region kept apart in the first round.

In 2003, in the United Arab Emirates, Canada was drawn in a tough group with Australia, Brazil and the Czech Republic but advanced as one of the top two third-place teams in the round.

With Canada winning its qualifying tournament this time around, instead of finishing runner-up to the U.S., it may make for a more benign draw this time around although there are no pushovers at this level.

The host Dutch will be joined by Nigeria, Egypt, Benin and Morocco from Africa; Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, Switzerland, Italy and Germany from Europe; South Korea, China, Japan and Syria from Asia; Australia from Oceania; Canada, Honduras, the U.S., and Panama from North and Central America and the Caribbean; and Colombia, Brazil, Argentina and either Chile or Uruguay from South America.

Colombia might bear watching. It tied Argentina and beat Brazil in qualifying.

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W-League: The 2005 women's league schedule kicks off May 6 with the defending champion Vancouver Whitecaps opening May 14 at home against the Arizona Heatwave. The Lady Whitecaps were unbeaten last season, going 15-0-2.

Also kicking off May 14 are the Sudbury Canadians, who host the Vermont Lady Voltage. The Toronto Lady Lynx open May 15 against visiting Vermont.

The London Gryphons kick off at home May 22 against the Fort Wayne Fever Women.

The Ottawa Fury home opener is June 5 against the Boston Renegades. Ottawa opens May 29 in Sudbury.

The 34-team league features 239 regular-season games in total.

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Notes: Former Toronto Lynx defender-midfielder Tyler Hughes has signed with Osters in Sweden. The club was once home to fellow Canadians Mark Watson and Atiba Hutchinson. ... TV is showing the Feb. 9 Canada-Northern Ireland international in Belfast, live at 3 p.m. EST. ... Viewer's Choice is showing the Feb. 27 Carling Cup final live between Chelsea and Liverpool at 3 p.m. EST. The pay-per-view price is $24.99

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