October 23, 2015--Inter-Provincial Cup: First Leg Preview (from League 1 Ontario press release)
Inter-Provincial Cup: First Leg Preview . Fri Oct 23 Written By: Staff, League1 As Canadian MLS and NASL clubs prepare to enter playoffs at the division 1 and division 2 levels of professional soccer in North America, an all-Canadian final is already scheduled at the division 3 level, featuring League1 Ontario champions Oakville Blue Devils and Quebec's PLSQ (Premiere Ligue de soccer du Quebec) champions CS Mont-Royal Outremont. "We are very proud of our achievement and the opportunity to now represent League1 together with the province of Ontario," said Oakville head coach, Duncan Wilde. "We have experienced the Quebec-Ontario rivalry during our Toronto Lynx-Montreal Impact USL Pro days and it is always fierce. We hope to get some strong support for the home game on Nov 1, and set ourselves up for the away leg on November 14." CS Mont-Royal Outremont Griffons took the PLSQ championship with a record of 11-3-4, and had the best goal differential in the league after conceding only 24 goals and scoring 44. "Defensively we are usually a very strong squad, year after year," said CS Mont-Royal Outremont head coach, Luc Brutus. "This mentality has been around for a number of years, even before the PLSQ existed and we won the Quebec Cup at the AAA level and went to the nationals with the same mentality. We try to find players that fit the system of our team, not vice versa." After winning the PLSQ league and Cup double in 2013, Brutus went to work rebuilding the Griffons squad, bringing through some of the best club academy products, and senior talent from around the Montreal area. Despite a recent loss to rivals Lakeshore SC in the PLSQ Cup final, the Griffons title-winning season was affirmation that Brutus had assembled a squad capable of continuing the tradition of winning big competitions. "We are maintaining the winning tradition and high standard in our club," explained Brutus. "We tried to bring together the best players from around the city with a few from our youth system as well, but whenever we can find a good player in the city that suits our system - we try to bring him." "In our current squad, we have a number of standout players," said Brutus. "Abraham Francois used to play for the Impact, and is the captain of the team. He is the most senior player in the squad. He also played professionally in South America, Japan, Thailand, and the Toronto Lynx. The Oakville staff will probably know him from his time at the Lynx." "Sean Rosa used to be with the Canada U20 national team, before going to France and playing with a pro reserve team. He is well known in Canadian program. Arnel Dagrou used to play for the national team of Burundi, and Dimitri Anastapoulous used to play first division in Greece, and third division in Germany." "Of course we have lost a few players to university since mid-August, but I imagine it is the same for Oakville." The Oakville Blue Devils squad will be well-known to League1 followers. Although a few familiar faces will be absent for the Inter Provincial Cup - notably midfielder Gary Giffin, and centre-back Nick Muth - captain Taylor McNamara, and joint-golden boot striker Felipe Vilela will be on the pitch. "We will also need the experience from the likes of Anthony Doran, Tevin Wynter, Macca Wilde and Chris Mitchell etc. to get the job done over the two games," said Wilde. "We may potentially get a couple of NCAA boys back for the second leg depending on their school playoff situation," he added. "Either way, we will continue to include some young exciting players in our squad that came in late season from our u-21 pool. Both Brandon Duarte and Roman Young are developing well and attended the recent U18 National camp. We will retain the majority of our core group in any case." The Devils will have their work cut out with a focused Griffons side, and the Quebec champs will be eager to make amends for the 2014 championship that was won handily by Toronto FC Academy over CS Longueuil. "For the league, the federation, and for us also - it's going to be a very good challenge," said Brutus. "We are obviously going there to win." "I know last year the first game was very difficult for the Quebec team, but this year the federation is putting in a lot of resources to make sure we get a positive result. I think it will be an advantage to play the first game away, because we will have to focus intently right from the start. We are going to make sure we travel as a team on Friday and have two days in Toronto to get focused as a group." *Inter-Provincial Cup Backgrounder/ Match Details* League1 Ontario sits as the highest level of soccer for Ontario-based players, and is defined as a semi-professional league. Oakville Blue Devils captured the League1 Ontario 2015 title in their first season, after several years in the USL Pro and Premier Development League, and will represent Ontario in the 2015 Inter-Provincial Cup vs. the champion of the Qubec division 3 competition, PLSQ. The Inter-Provincial Cup is the only official division 3 level inter-provincial competition in Canada. A two-leg competition, the Inter-Provincial Cup first leg will take place on Sunday November 1, 2015 at the Ontario Soccer Centre in Vaughan, Ontario. Kickoff will be at 1:30 p.m., while admission is $5 – free for children under 12 years of age. The second leg will be held at the Complexe Sportifs Terrebonne in Terrebonne, Quebec on November 14. Kickoff will be at 6 p.m. The Ontario-based first leg will also be broadcast via live stream. Additional broadcast information for the Quebec-based second leg will be available on the PLSQ website.
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