2016 Voyageurs' Cup (Canadian Championship)

[Gopherbashi]

5 minutes ago, Yohan said:

You make it sound like TFC has never played Edmonton or Vancouver and Mtl in their USL/NASL form before

Toronto's only played FCE once and it was five years ago.  The other two are in MLS now and it's easy for people to forget.

I've talked to a few people who were at the Toronto/Montreal game tonight and they were a resounding "Ottawa has a team?"

The exposure to other markets can only be good for soccer in this country.

[nolando]

True story: My 6 y/o told me after watching the match that,"The Whitecaps played a lot like Canada tonight."

[PaulV]

2 hours ago, 1996 said:

Not much of a crowd in Ottawa, would of thought people would have come out in numbers playing against an MLS team, but I guess not, I guess Ottawa is a CFL town not much of a soccer town, good thing the MLS did not go into Ottawa would have been a bust, the CFL  did right by going back to Ottawa , can't see soccer lasting too much longer in Ottawa even at the NASL level.

Heard of the Toronto Lynx? Even the Montreal Impact were around for about 10 years before they averaged much above 5K. Ottawa's only three years old. They are in the appropriate league to build a fanbase. 

2 out of 10 on the troll-o-meter

[Kibby]

2 hours ago, 1996 said:

Not much of a crowd in Ottawa, would of thought people would have come out in numbers playing against an MLS team, but I guess not, I guess Ottawa is a CFL town not much of a soccer town, good thing the MLS did not go into Ottawa would have been a bust, the CFL  did right by going back to Ottawa , can't see soccer lasting too much longer in Ottawa even at the NASL level.

 

2 hours ago, 1996 said:

Look at a team like Cincinnati in the USL, averaging close to 18000 a game , there is a city that wants soccer, Ottawa a city comparable in size not even close to those numbers.

Come the fuck on.

[nolbertos]

30 minutes ago, Gopherbashi said:

Toronto's only played FCE once and it was five years ago.  The other two are in MLS now and it's easy for people to forget.

I've talked to a few people who were at the Toronto/Montreal game tonight and they were a resounding "Ottawa has a team?"

The exposure to other markets can only be good for soccer in this country.

People don't tend to forget partcularly the hardcore supporters, in Vancouver on the day in 2009 when the Miracle of Grass happened and Montreal put the C-team and TFC lit them up like a Christmas tree and won the Voyageurs Cup.  Since Montreals run intp the quarterfinals as a NASL team, Ottawa and Edmonton haven't come close to making it to a Voyageura Cup Final.

[TRM]

14 hours ago, Dub Narcotic said:

Ottawa can easily get a result against that lineup, which will be the same disjointed mess we see from the Whitecaps every year in the first round with rusty bench players trying to combine with players from the USL team to usually uninspired results.

You've see this movie before!

Only a few players look MLS level. Some don't even look D2 level. Lots of work left to do in the development department.

We had 2 decent chances and Ottawa's keeper was up to the task. No away goal and a 0-2 deficit to overcome. Not insurmountable but an away goal would have been some consolation. Anyway the best team won tonight.

That pitch in Ottawa really accentuates the spin on the ball. First bounce would seem to be what you'd expect and then the second would just take off. Ottawa knew their pitch and played it. Very nice opening goal. One hellova strike on the roll. I was surprised how well Ottawa passed and received. Very sharp.

[TRM]

13 minutes ago, nolando said:

True story: My 6 y/o told me after watching the match that,"The Whitecaps played a lot like Canada tonight."

Ouch

[Gian-Luca]

4 hours ago, Gian-Luca said:

Disappointed that both teams aren't giving Roberts & Crepeau, respectively, a chance in goal. 

As glad as I was to see all the Canuck goal scorers for TFC tonight (I think this must be a club record for most goals scored by Canadian players in one game), after what I saw tonight I'll repeat what I said above, particularly re: Crepeau

[Dub Narcotic]

@TRM I agree the pitch was a huge issue for Vancouver.

[Sport Shaman]

1 hour ago, nolbertos said:

People don't tend to forget partcularly the hardcore supporters, in Vancouver on the day in 2009 when the Miracle of Grass happened and Montreal put the C-team and TFC lit them up like a Christmas tree and won the Voyageurs Cup.  Since Montreals run intp the quarterfinals as a NASL team, Ottawa and Edmonton haven't come close to making it to a Voyageura Cup Final.

Pardon me? Edmonton took Montreal to time added on two years ago before getting jobbed by MLS friendly reffing and then took Vancouver to time added on last year before conceding a result. You say haven't come close, I say you weren't paying attention. You remember 2009 but can't recall what happened in the last two years?

 

http://the11.ca/2015/05/20/heartbreak-kids-eddies-lose-canadian-championship-semifinal-in-96th-minute-again/

[deschamp86]

12 hours ago, 1996 said:

Not much of a crowd in Ottawa, would of thought people would have come out in numbers playing against an MLS team, but I guess not, I guess Ottawa is a CFL town not much of a soccer town, good thing the MLS did not go into Ottawa would have been a bust, the CFL  did right by going back to Ottawa , can't see soccer lasting too much longer in Ottawa even at the NASL level.

Not sure as I couldn't watch the game last night, but I'm pretty sure the TV camera points to the side of the field where they don't generally sell tickets. I'd imagine at 9,000 the other half of the stadium would be packed

[shermanator]

8 hours ago, Sport Shaman said:

Pardon me? Edmonton took Montreal to time added on two years ago before getting jobbed by MLS friendly reffing and then took Vancouver to time added on last year before conceding a result. You say haven't come close, I say you weren't paying attention. You remember 2009 but can't recall what happened in the last two years?

 

http://the11.ca/2015/05/20/heartbreak-kids-eddies-lose-canadian-championship-semifinal-in-96th-minute-again/

As well, last year's semifinal between Vancouver and Edmonton was heading for extra time / penalties until Laba put a dribbler through van Oekel's 5 hole in the 97th minute. And that was with a much more "A Squad" that had the likes of Morales, Laba, Waston, Mattocks, Koffie, Mezquida and Techera playing.

[fil]

 

 

[TRM]

Nice to see Osorio and Hamilton be the heros for TFC. Montreal's keeper had a very bad night. Trying to guess and diving the wrong way repeatedly. 4-2 is still quite achievable for Montreal to come back from. 2-0 at home and they are through. 

[BearcatSA]

53 minutes ago, TRM said:

Nice to see Osorio and Hamilton be the heros for TFC. Montreal's keeper had a very bad night. Trying to guess and diving the wrong way repeatedly. 4-2 is still quite achievable for Montreal to come back from. 2-0 at home and they are through. 

Some decent defending to close down the midfield service  as well as the attempts on goal inside the penalty spot might have helped.

[ted]

13 hours ago, shermanator said:

For anyone slagging Ottawa's attendance, the previously largest attendance for an NASL club in this competition was 5781, and that was with months of lead up sales. I would argue with only 2 weeks notice 9k is pretty good.

Pretty good?  When they announced the attendance I was stunned. That is bloody brilliant for a mid-week, obscure cup game in a D2 town.

[Macksam]

To 1996

I'll give you a quick 30 second analysis: 

- it's been well documented the Fury barely get any sort of meaningful marketing push by its CFL centric ownership

- the stadium was built first and foremost for the CFL team, which got all the local media buzz and hype...the soccer team playing there was just a minor footnote

- If Ottawa got the Melnyk led MLS franchise, they would be pulling in the same numbers as the Red Blacks considering all the buzz and hype would have been centered on the new soccer team playing in its brand new stadium.

- Cincinnati's USL ownership is all about their soccer team. They have ambitious owners that are solely concentrating on that team to be a success. They made their intentions clear to move up to MLS. There fan base is well aware of that and they're following suit and embracing the team the best they can to make that a reality.

[Gian-Luca]

2 hours ago, TRM said:

. Montreal's keeper had a very bad night. Trying to guess and diving the wrong way repeatedly. 

I am not sure why he chose to do that on the 2nd goal in particular. He took himself right out of the play.

 

[1996]

Well that's too bad the the owners that own the Ottawa Fury are not really marketing the team, they could have at the very least tried to push the NASl team versus the MLS team thing, I know the crowd was ok according to many but if the ownership group put in a bit more money advertising the soccer team that game last night could of easily been a sellout then, but I case their number one priority is the CFL team, maybe it's time someone else owned the team, some owners who actually like soccer and would own the team and not treat it as an after thought, soccer will only grow in Canada at the pro level with dedicated owners not owners who are just looking to fill some stadium dates.

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

56 minutes ago, 1996 said:

Well that's too bad the the owners that own the Ottawa Fury are not really marketing the team, they could have at the very least tried to push the NASl team versus the MLS team thing,

They are now, and they did push the MLS thing. They just haven't much in the past. Usually on a Wednesday night, we would get under 4000. So the "MLS factor" brought it to 9000. http://www.ottawafuryfc.com/match-center/1329/ott-vs-fce

[Gian-Luca]

0-0 in Montreal, TFC advance 4-2 on aggregate. 5 Canucks start the match for TFC -Johnson, Osorio, Morgan, Babouli & Hamilton. Only Morgan and Osorio go the full 90. Bekker and Lefevre start for Montreal, Bekker is subbed off in the second half while David Choiniere came on late for Montreal. 

De Jong and Haworth the only Canucks starting for Ottawa while Davies is the only Canuck in the Vancouver line-up, although he looks very impressive so he is making up for a lack of quantity with a lot of quality,  even if he is playing against one of the slowest-reacting back lines I've ever seen. I am somewhat mystified that De Jong is not taking the Fury's free kicks from outside the box. Tied 2-2 on aggregate with 45 to go.

[nolbertos]

So game over, Whitecaps win 3-2 aggregate.  Props to the Pttawa Fury and NASL for forcing the Caps to field the first tea and also expose how bad or inexperienced out Canadian players are.  I think NASL quality is definitely higher than USL comparing how Ottawa played against the the Caps kids.  NASL should definitely expand here, quickly as I doubt the CPL quality will be as good.

[TRM]

We cut it too close. Without an away goal if they get just one they are through. Can't blame Ottawa's keeper as he made several big saves. The second goal went in on the third attempt after he stopped the first 2.

The difference was very evident in the lack of time and space that Ottawa had. Our first team players, especially Nico, were first to the ball constantly. That and the first team passing just cut them open repeatedly. Still a good show by Ottawa and they forced our keeper to come up big several times.

The squad we played last week was just not experienced enough and disjointed in attack. Still they didn't get blown out. Losing 0-2 is bad but that can be overcome. We'll see how many make the trip to Toronto

[grande]

I was only half paying attention, but from what I saw, Ottawa's keeper was a stud. Who was he? Really good day for him, all things considered. 

[Keegan]

I think Ottawa made it was too easy by Alves giving away that PK right away, absolutely ridiculous foul to make.