March 29, 2024...Preview of the League1 Ontario 2024 Season (by Rocket Robin)

Article for The Sentinel April 2024

March 29, 2024

The schedule for League1 Ontario's 2024 season just dropped on Thursday and there are a few surprises from what was expected at the end of last season.

It was well known (for two years) that the league was going to 'split' into two divisions as 22 teams was getting awkward to manage and the difference in skills and a team's purpose were not all in the same direction. The league started with 10 teams back in 2014 so what growth in ten years!

The league set up a schedule for the two years of home and away (which with the sheer number of teams would take two seasons to complete) and combining the points of the two seasons at 75% for 2022 and 100% for 2023 to give teams that were new or retooling their rosters a chance to settle in. 2023 had 21 teams still battling it out.

There is now promotion and relegation for movement between the divisions but a way of looking at it for the last two years was 12 teams were going to be promoted for the 2024 set up. 12 teams in the Premier, 10 for the Championship. There also will be League2 Ontario as a collection of all the 'B' and reserve teams of the other two divisions and now is a pathway to any 'new' teams joining the league so no more flashy owners buying their way into the top immediately. Anyone new will have at least two years to work their way up.

Differing goals for different teams? Some I've seen are community owned and are looking more at youth development and they proudly announce what tournament their U-12s have won and the latest scholarship a young player has earned. Others are looking at moving players on to the pros but winning as much as they can before their players move on. I could just imagine some of the parents in the community teams arguing to spend their budget on a new U-9 coach rather than some mercenary player to try to get them into the Premier.

Changes to the 2024 season now include the end of the post season playoff system except for promotion and relegation for the second best vs second worst of the Championship and Premier (respectively) divisions to add extra intrigue to the best and worst team automatic promotion/relegation spots.

Oh but at the end of 2023 there had to be some twists involved! Eighth place Electric City FC folded after the season leaving no top level soccer for the city of Peterborough so thirteenth place Woodbridge Strikers were placed in the Premier Division. The vacant tenth place in the Championship has been given to the Toronto FC Academy who won the league's inaugural 2024 season going undefeated with a lineup that included future MLS and CPL stars Mark Anthony Kaye, Mo Babouli, and Aidan Daniels. Their 2018 roster had future TFC MLS defender Kobe Franklin score at age 15 to set the record for the youngest scorer in the L1O top division eclipsing previous holder Adonijah 'King Nijah' Reid back in 2015 then with ANB Futbol by a few months.

Toronto FC Academy will be using their U-19 roster. I noticed that team is no longer listed in the MLS NEXT system website (they still have their U-15s and U-17s in that league). I remember they left L1O near the end of the 2018 season as MLS pressured their clubs to have their academies join the American system. I had been to one of their games back in 2019 against Vardar, a team from Michigan. Very insular as their U-18/19 came all that way with no bench and they couldn't use anyone from the U-16/17 roster which had played earlier in the day. TFC shellacked them. I say they will have better competition in L1O because they will be facing older rosters.

L1O is bringing back their League Cup with teams ('B' teams exclude) from the three divisions fighting it out for a real FA Cup feel. The final will be held after the close of the regular season to keep the fan excitement going with the end of the top six playoff system. The last year the competition was held was 2018 as the regular season required so many more games with the league expanding so quickly.

League1 Ontario also continues to have a place in the Canadian Championship. Last year the draw was more about who can host a game because it was held so early in the year and many fields weren't available. This year a 'co-efficient' system has been instituted which puts L1O at the bottom—even under comparable provinces L1 leagues. They are drawn against Toronto FC of MLS in the preliminary round away in Toronto. The league's representative is 2023 L1O playoff champions Simcoe County Rovers. Team reps expect they may bring 2000 traveling fans from the Barrie region to give them support. I'm even excited by this game but feel they'd have a better chance against a CPL team. I know it seems every year the format changes but if the L1O team doesn't win, I can see them staying at the bottom of the draw and playing the MLS team that isn't a finalist for next year forever so by geography that will always be TFC or CF Montreal.

I haven't seen the rosters of teams this season but I was expecting a migration of players from Championship teams to the Premier. A career is short and to keep your name in the spotlight, a player wants to play on one of the top teams. One announcement I read was Blue Devils FC signed Anthony Wright who played in previous years for Masters FA (now in the lower division).

2023 was the time of stadium renovations too. 2023 regular season champions Scrosoppi FC is able to move back to their home stadium in Milton 37 km away from last year's default of Ontario Soccer Centre in Vaughan. Alliance United has got their Centennial College campus stadium back after a year of bouncing around. Woodbridge Strikers who never had to move will get to play on their #1 Field after new field turf has been laid over the winter.

Quick predictions?
I can see Simcoe County Rovers winning the regular season in 2024. They had a steady stream of player announcements in the off season. Only person I know has moved on is head coach Jason Beckford. Rivals Vaughan Azzurri just had a striker they were counting on, Remi Agunbiade, sign a contract with CPL HFX Wanderers continueing the highway of players since head coach Patrice Gheisar started the migration. Vaughan is one of those teams large enough to have players move on to college scholarships, move to pro contracts, and still have a very competitive L1O team year after year.

Most likely to be promoted from the Championship? Toronto FC Academy...I can see them rejoining their place at the top of the league.

Most likely to be relegated? ProStars FC who actually finished 18th for the 2023 season but were saved for having such a good 2022 season. Head coach for 2022 was John Yacou who moved over to Scrosoppi FC and brought them to first place the next year.

Rocket Robin
robin.glover.1958@gmail.com
X @RocketRobin01

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