NextPod Soccer Podcast: Season 2, Episode 4

The boys talk League1 Alberta with Scott Strasser of the YYC Soccer Podcast and dive into some of the draws and schedule drops for a busy summer ahead.

Episode Transcript

(00:19):
Welcome to Next Pod, your weeklylook at Canadian prospects with the one,
the only, the great, theWondrous James GRASSI also me Dwayne. I'm
Dwayne and welcome the Next Pod.I'm Dwayne Rollings. It's the day after

(00:47):
Canada lost Argentina to Now, Idon't think about that, James, James.
I know this is not really ayouth product or topic, but you
know, we're a Canadian show.Canada zero Argentina. Should we be happy
about that? Or sad about that? Or something about that? What should
we be about that? Kid?Yeah, you and I were texting before

(01:08):
the show or before the game.Sorry, And you know, I didn't
know how I was feeling going intothat game. It's been a pretty tumultuous
year year and a half for themen's national team, and I couldn't quite
let myself get excited for the game, just because you know, I remember
tuning into that twenty ten match againstArgentina before the World Cup there where Canada

(01:30):
sent a squad down to Buenos Airesand lost five nail and that was a
really humbling experience, I think forCanadian soccer, and it really sent a
message on how far away the men'sprogram was from really being able to compete
on the world stage. And so, you know, watching that match last
night, the first half, youknow, I gave myself the first two

(01:53):
minutes to sort of settle in andbe prepared for the worst. But as
the first half went on, Igrew more and more impressed with with how
Canada approach the match and how theywere able to limit Argentina to relatively few
chances and find their moments to bereally dangerous. And you know, unfortunately,
they weren't able to take any ofthose chances. And you know,

(02:14):
that's often the story in these games, is that the team that doesn't take
their chances eventually gets punished when whenthe opponent does. And Argentina, after
some mind games, coming out alittle bit late to the start of the
second half, found that breakthrough througha little bit of a breakdown in Toronto's
defense, and yeah, the secondone in and yeah, to no score
line doesn't look great. But Ithink Jesse Marsh and this Canadian squad will

(02:38):
will be disappointed by that result.But I think there's a lot of positives
to take out of it in termsof proving to themselves and proving to us
watching that they can compete with theseteams, and you know, as we
always say, it's just about youknow, being that much more clinical when
you get opportunities to really really putthe team under the knife and put yourself

(02:59):
in the driver's seat. Yeah.Look, I messaged out on threads.
I'm on threads a lot, whichis the meta Twitter equivalent, which is
really Twitter. But anyway, I'vebeen on threads a lot lately and I've
been a message got a little atentionthere, which is that I've followed this
team since the eighties, and beyondmaking me that old, it also makes
me like re reflective in a granderscheme of where this team is and just

(03:23):
seeing all the hype around that gameand seeing that crowd and you know,
president of FIFA of whatever you thinkfrom there to watch it like it felt
like you were a big boy playingin the big boy sandbox, right,
and that that's kind of cool whenyou've been around for a long time like
like I have. I don't wantto speak for you a game, but
like I have, so that's neatto see. But at the same time,

(03:43):
you know, we've now seen thisfour games in the last two and
a half years, we're all forfour now all for seven all time in
terms of major major tournaments to geta result. It definitely was a great
performance, and you know, Ioften look at the reaction from those who
aren't the neutral's reaction to it,and the neutral's reaction last night was talking

(04:04):
about how they felt Canada was gettinga little screwed over by the reps and
how they felt that the Canada wasputting on a great performance and they were
part of the show and they absolutelywere deserving of respect and got respect last
night. But I'm also frustrated becausenow I've watched seven games at major tournaments
and you know, seen a coupleof goals, thankfully and guitar, but

(04:28):
still don't see a result, noteven a draw. And you know there
was a point in that first halfor when Jonathan David had that that open
header, you'd expect him to scorethat or it just would have been nice
to have that moment. Still notthere. The real test here though,
and I think heading in James,we would have agreed on this that if
you don't handle it, has toldus that it was going to be a
well thought to Neil lost Argentina,there's going to be great highlights, you

(04:51):
know, some really close missed opportunities, some great safes with Max Depot that
he gave us that and told usthere were two games left, find four
points. Most of us would havetaken that, and I think four points
has a good chance of getting outof that group, particularly because Argentine is
probably gonna open up on one ofthose two teams. I don't know how
good Chile is right now, theyhave their moments or a strong team.

(05:13):
Peru actually scares me almost more becausethey're going to be hungry for that and
they're going to look at the Canadagame as a real result chance for them
to get a result. So there'sno easy touch here. But these games,
from what they perform against Argentina,should provide them with an opportunity to
finally get the monkey off the backand get that result at a major tournament,
so that we can come into twentytwenty six with the confidence that we've

(05:34):
done that and we can truly tryto take a step forward, because in
twenty twenty six games we'll be seatedin that group and we should have some
beatable opponents, and I think gettingto the round of thirty two there's a
round of thirty two, but nonethelessgetting the round of thirty two should be
their goal at home in twenty twentysix. But to do that, we're
going to need the development pathway tocontinue to produce players, aren't we,

(05:58):
James, And that's what Yeah,Yeah, it's a segue on essional something
that has nothing to do with themen's national team producing players that we're going
to talk about first here though,the women's under twenty they have their draw.
Tell us about that, James.Yeah, the women's under twenty group
learned learned who they would be liningup against at the Women's U twenty World

(06:19):
Cup, which will be held inColumbia, kicking off on August thirty first.
Their Canada was drawn into Group B. They'll open the tournament against France
and Medayen on the thirty first.They'll face Fiji on September three, and
closed the group out against Brazil onSeptember sixth in Bomata. And getting drawn
into a group against France and Brazil. I can't say I know a whole

(06:43):
lot about Fiji and football these days, but you know, Cindy's Tie,
Cindy Ties group is is going tobe hard pressed to get out of that
group. They had a nice littletraining camp in Germany back in April where
they played a couple of matches againstTier one opposition and they lost three to
one to the US and four nailedto Germany and those two matches, So
a bit of work to be donewith that group, and we'll keep our

(07:04):
ears to the ground as we waitthe squads when the young ladies get ready
to got that competition at the endof August. Yeah, I'm going to
go out and say something here thatmight be controversial. I think that's perfect
draw. With all due respect toFiji. You have a game there that
you know you can get three pointsif you do what you need to do.

(07:24):
That's again with all due respect tothem, it's just such a small
nation without the football infrastructure that gamdoFrance Brizili have. Clearly, you should
be able to get that result,You should be able to get some goals,
to get some confidence in that game. And then you have two games
against world powers, worlds powers onboth the men's obviously on the women's side,
and that's an opportunity for these youngwomen to really test themselves against the

(07:44):
best. And that's what these tournamentsare all about you get a result against
one of those, you get awin against one of those. And Canada
is a great record against Brazil atall levels at the women's side. It's
actually not that bad on the men'sside either, but they don't play very
often. There's a real opportunity here, So I like this draw. I
think that you can't ever look atdraws as the easiest. I don't think

(08:05):
you should be looking for the easiest. I think you should want want to
draw the biggest teams. Just likeyou talked about off the top here,
I mean, regardless of what happensthe rest of the Copa America, Canada
got to play Argentina and got toperform in games and confidence by playing the
world number one team in a competitiveformat. And this is a similar opportunity
for these young James. Yeah,I'm looking forward to it. And as

(08:28):
you say, this is what youwant for your young players, you want
them to go out and test themselvesagainst the best of the best. And
so a really really interesting opportunity forfor Cindy ties side to go down to
Columbia and see what they can doagainst some of the best. Stick with
the other twenty level, but movethe genders to the men's side. They
do have a squad. They aredown playing some pre tournament events right our

(08:50):
games right now, James, canyou tell us a bit more about that.
Yeah, Canada announced amend's U twentysquad for a little pre tournament camp
down in Black cal Eirat, Chile. Canada played against Chile a couple of
days ago, lost one mil.They're playing Ecuador today Friday the twenty first,
and they'll play Paraguay on Sunday,the twenty third. I was I

(09:11):
was hoping that we'd have a chanceto catch some of these games, but
sadly there's there's no broadcast information thatwe can share with you. I was
able to get my hands on thelineup and the final score, not like
it was the secret. Canada Soccertweeted that out, So we'll keep an
eye on that, and you know, the Andrew OLIVII will be leading this

(09:31):
out as he did through qualification,as they prepare for the twenty twenty four
Conker Cafmen's U twenty Championship, whichkicks off next month in Mexico. That
tournament will go from from July eighteenthto August fourth, and Canada has been
drawn in Group B alongside Honduras ElSalvador in the Dominican Republic. And you
know, we spent a fair bitof time tracking this side through the qualification

(09:54):
process, and Olaviari's brought in alot of the same players of the twenty
two p name fourteen of them werereturning, but there were a couple of
new names that I wanted to highlight, a pair of center backs, and
Richard Trupu from TFC two and Emmanuelmatt from the Vancouver white Caps. Andre
Dimitri who's caught Herban's eye and alreadymade his first team debut at TFC,

(10:16):
Jovon Ivanisovich, who was a formerTFC academy guy who moved to Croatia last
fall. Luka Jurisic who had spentsome time with Pro Stars FC and we
went Ontario before moving on to Hungary. Kadeen Kine of Ford to who everyone
who listens to this will be familiarwith, Mittao Bunbury from the Portland Timbers

(10:37):
too, who is not a famousname and spent some time in the Colorado
system. And the guy that we'relooking forward to seeing a bit more of
and last one was a little bitof the blue. When we spoke to
Olaveria a couple of months ago,we asked him if he had some dual
internationals, you know, on thebackground, or some guys that we might
expect to see in. A Bolivianborn fellow by the name of Adrian will

(11:00):
be part of this group that's gettingtogether down in Chile. So lots of
lots of interesting stuff happening at theU twenty level. There were some some
key absences. Kimani, Stuart Bainesand Alesandro Biello, who's who since we
last spoke, made his debut withMontreal and MLS were specifically mentioned as being
unavailable due to their club commitments.So we'll have to see what this roster

(11:22):
looks like when the tournament rolls aroundin about a month's time. Yeah,
being unavailable to the club commitments.Going to talk about U twenty player is
the positive you want them to bepushing for minutes to the professional level.
Also, I'm going to need totake some serious reflection after you mentioned that
there's a third generation at Bumbari hopingaround there, because that's that's made me
feel real. James, I candistinctly remember the interviewing that deal when he

(11:46):
was still in the Canadian program.So yeah, anyhow, but the good
good that that they're getting opportunities toplay down there, and it's good that
the men's twenty under twenty program isdoing some events like this or so.
I can't like this, I shouldsay, because we you and I have
talked about this on the show alot. I'm going back to my previous
shows. I've talked a ton aboutthe failure, the other failure at the

(12:09):
under twenty level and the men's sideto advance to World Cups, to have
an opportunity to compete. It's beengoing on since two thousand and seven,
where of course they were host.Now it's two thousand and five since they
last qualified. That means to change, and with conkre Kaff changing its Olympic
qualifying format, we're assuming they aregoing to continue with the under twenties move
through like they did this cycle.It makes it even doubly important to be

(12:33):
doing well out the under seventeens undertwenties in the next couple of years because
you're building up to that under twentythree level and you know we're going to
be watching our rivals in the USget an opportunity to have their young players
played in an Olympic tournament in afive weeks time. So you know,
that's an opportunity to lost in anopportunity we should be looking to grow towards
and get up to get chances forour players to grow at every level possible.
Under seventeen, under twenty, undertwenty three starts with events like this,

(12:58):
with camps like this. James good, Good the down there sounds like
the results fairly solid we're to dowith this group. Good they're opening a
lot of players, and good thatwe're seeing some famous names from the past
come back into the Canadian program.All right, The Interprovincial Championship's got some
dates? What are they? Andthen what can we talk about there?

(13:18):
Yeah, we go up to datesand location for the League one Canada inter
Provincial Championship, the competition that pitsthe winners of the various women's divisions from
across the country. It will beheld in Hamilton from August ninth to August
eleventh at Tim Horton's Field. Soyou and I might have to head to
Hamilton for the weekend in the semifinals, will be held on the Friday,

(13:39):
with the third place in final gamesgoing on the Sunday, and there'll be
a draw in the coming weeks andwe'll get broadcast details. We're expecting them
to be announced later this month.So more to lead one action to keep
an eye on. Yeah, Andultimately that's important tournament because it will lead
into what we're going to talk aboutnext, which is the pump Cap W
champions Cup. Uh, that's anew competition and sorry, I wouldn't want

(14:03):
to drop the influential Championship. Ithink that's a really worthwhile thing that's been
going on for a few years nowand that's a great opportunity for folks in
the Hamilton area to get down andwatch that. And I very well jo
aside might try to get to TimHortons Field, like do you wish it
was easier to get to James.It's a place to get to from from
Toronto here from the center of theuniverse. But I'll maybe make the effort
for that one. It's go backto the W champions Cup, though we

(14:26):
have a drop for the Bank ofthe white Caps. They won that the
Canadian women's title last year and sofar as we have one and in advance
to be the representative of Canada andthis new women's competition. I think it's
wonderful that there's this new women's competitionand there's some really exciting possibilities here.
So tell the listeners a bit moreabout Pumpcaff w champions Cup. Yeah,

(14:50):
the competition will kick off in Augustand the white Caps about Girl Elite,
will face Allianza Women at Stadio.I'm sure I butchered that horribly down and
El Salvador on August the Thief inthe preliminary round. The winners of that
one off will slot into Group Balongside the Portland Thorns, the San Diego
Wave of Club of America and SantaFe of Panama. And there's a potential

(15:13):
for some really interesting Canadian matchups shouldthe white Caps advance into the group stage
proper, with Kaylin Sheridan and MayaJones at San Diego and of course Christine
Sinclair and Jesse Fleming and Janine Beckyand all that Portland. So another competition,
another draw. It seems like we'vehad a lot of draws going on
in these past few weeks. Butanother competition for us to keep our eyes

(15:35):
on as the summer continues. There'sbeen a lot of football this summer and
we're just getting started. And thisCollect Daddy Champions Cup. It's wonderful opportunity
for the white Caps, the whiteCaps women, but ultimately down the line,
if you're looking ahead with the announcementof the w League, sorry,
the new Women's League and to escapeme the name and the Northern Superment,

(15:58):
Yeah, thank you for that,James, and I apologize for not knowing
enough to tell me ahead, butit is new that getting going and be
an opportunity for the champion of thatleague and the champion of Canada to move
forward and really test themselves against AGAINSTWSLteams and other teams in Mexico and so
on and so forth. And that'sreally I think the exciting stuff when you

(16:18):
look ahead. But like, firstthings first, for these young women to
go down and play a game inCentral America, that's going to give them
more experience, that's going to givethem an opportunity. And these young women,
a lot of them are probably goingto be in that league next year,
so it's all playing into them,all right. So with that in
mind, we're now going to throwto a great interview that James had an

(16:40):
opportunity to do earlier this week withScott Stressor of the YYC Soccer podcast As
you might imagine why I see thatbeing the airport code for Calgary talks about
soccer in that part of the country. Scott joined James to talk about League
one Alberta and what's happening in there. Great interview, looking forward to listening
to it with you. Wins outright now. Hello, Hello, and

(17:03):
welcome back to the next part.I'm really excited to be joined by special
guests from out west, our firstcorrespondent for League one Alberta, Scott Strasser
of the yy C Soccer podcasts.He's the author of Here Comes the Cavalry,
a book that just got released aboutcavalry and the history of professional soccer
in Calgary, and he's the occasionalCalgary contributor to AFTN and his day job

(17:26):
is as a news reporter for theCalgary Herald. Really excited to have you
on the show with us, Scott. It took a little bit longer on
my end to get things organized,where about six weeks into the League one
Alberta season, but really glad thatyou can join us. Yeah, yeah,
me too. Thank you for invitingme on. This is exciting.
Now you're on the ground there inCalgary and you and your podcast co host

(17:49):
Jason do a fantastic job. We'llcovering the soccer scene in the province and
in Calgary, and specifically I listenedin to the last year or so shows
some really solid kickoff interviews with abunch of the League one Alberta coaches.
So I wanted to get you onand dive in a little bit to how
League one has hit the ground whenit comes to starting off between the exhibition

(18:12):
series that we had last year andthe start of this season this season proper
this year. What's been the generalreception for the league? Yeah, and
just before I kind of get intothat, a shout out to my co
host, like you mentioned, JasonKamett. He puts a lot of effort
into our League one coverage. Hearranged and did a lot of those preseason

(18:34):
interviews, So kudos. How hasreception been. It's been exciting, definitely
among Alberta's hardcore soccer community. Gamessometimes have had good attendances, sometimes they
haven't, but there have been alot of games that have been played at
indoor facilities, which was whether itwas a bit of a factor throughout May.

(18:56):
At least it was in Calgary,and the indoor facilities that are in
Calgary are definitely not central, likeMacron which is where Cavalry train. They've
hosted quite a few League One games, and that's way out on the southeast
kind of corner of Calgary in anindustrial park. And then the West Soccer

(19:18):
Center, which has also hosted somegames, is out on the northwest corner
of the city, so kind ofthe same issue. And games being you
know, Tuesday and Friday night,it's tough to get out. I myself
haven't been able to attend games inperson yet as I have a baby and
we put them down right at thekickoff times usually to go to sleep.

(19:40):
So attendance wise maybe in like onehundred to maybe three hundred fans. It's
kind of hard to gauge. Butyeah, in terms of like the interest
in it, I think people whoare big fans of Cavalry or the CPL
or Canadian soccer are definitely keeping akeeping an eye on it. They're curious

(20:03):
to see like what players are excelling, what teams are you know, leading
the charge. There was an exhibitionseries last year, as you referenced,
but now that it's like a fullfledged league, and there's a couple of
teams added, uh, that makesit a little more interesting and there's a
bit more to play for. Ithink overall, I mean, it's it's

(20:25):
excited. It's exciting to have thisleague. It's it's a gap. It
was a gap in Alberta before.And I think a lot of our provinces
best amateur players we're going to youknow, League one BC, or maybe
they were going to League one Ontario, or they were playing in the Alberta

(20:45):
Major Soccer League, which up untilLeague One was kind of like the top
amateur league in Alberta and has beenaround for decades. But no, I
think the arrival of League one isdefinitely welcome here and it's great to have
and it's exciting to see it getgoing. Yeah. I have that same

(21:08):
problem here in Toronto. It feelslike there's hundreds of games going on around
me, but it takes an hourand a half two hours to get to
each one of them, so it'sjust a little bit too far out of
each to it to be attending everygame that i'd like to but glad to
hear that it's setting its roots andfulfilling a necessary role in the area.

(21:30):
I think that's something we've seen withall the League one leagues in terms of
players that have to go elsewhere ordrift away from the game even when they
don't have those opportunities to continue trainingand playing, and so I think that's
the purpose of this whole League oneCanada system. So for general format,
we've got seven teams in each division. Six clubs have both men's and women's

(21:52):
side. That's Calgary, Calgary Foothills, Cali's United, Edmonton BTV Edmonton,
Scottish Saint Albert Impact, while onthe men's side Cavalry are running a twenty
one side and on the women's sidethe Alberta NDC or officially known as ASA
High Performance are competing in that league. Schedule runs from May seventh to July

(22:14):
twenty six, and I think eachchanged playing twelve matches, playing each other
home in a way, and thentapping it off with some championship games between
the top two sides. You've beeninvolved in covering the soccer scene in Calgary
and the problems I always want tosay Cavalry. When I start saying Calgary,
it's one of those habits that Igot to get away from. You've
been covering the game and the problemsfor a while. Give us a sense

(22:36):
of some of the people involved,some of the names that people might know
of, where that people should knowof on the coaching front, and they're
doing. From a bunch of thoseconversations that I've listened to you and Jason
have on the podcast, it seemslike there's a really strong representation of Canada
West U sports players in the Leagueone Alberta system. Yeah. Yeah,
lots of representation from I'd say fourprograms specific in Canada West, those being

(23:02):
University of Calgary, University of Alberta, McEwan University which is in Edmonton,
and then Mount Royal University which isin Calgary. So those teams have lots
of players suiting up for League oneteams, and actually the coaching corps is
also there's a lot of overlap andcoaches who you know, coach for Mount

(23:25):
Royal in the university season are coachingfor League one teams. So examples of
you know, some of that carryoverwould be like on the Blizzard women's side,
their head coaches Diogo Riposo. Heis the head coach of the Dinos
women's team and the university season,so as you could expect, his Blizzard

(23:45):
team has a lot of players fromthat Dino's university team. Similar with with
Blizzard Men's League One team, theirhead coaches Ramon Mifflin, who is a
pretty well established figure in Calgary soccer. He was recently appointed the UFC Dino's

(24:07):
head coach, which was an interestingappointment because for the last several years he's
been involved as an assistant coach withMount Royal, so he kind of crossed,
he kind of switched allegiances and nowhe's going to be going up against
his former colleague Ryan Jackie when theDinos take on Mount Royal. But because

(24:30):
of that is you can expect onthe Blizzard men's side, there actually is
a lot of representation from Mount RoyalUniversity, who had a really really successful
twenty twenty three season, best yearin their history, winning the Canada West
Conference over UBC, which doesn't happenvery often. UBC tends to have that

(24:52):
in the bag every year. Butlots of MRIU players on that Blizzard men's
team than that I mean. Foothillsmen's head coach this year is a guy
named Mark McLaren who I didn't knowtoo much about, but he's the boys
academy manager for Foothills Soccer Club.He replaced Jonathan Wielden for that position in

(25:15):
twenty twenty two, so quite recently. He came over from England. I
had to look up his like hisCV and stuff, but he previously coached
in the US. He was withWolverhampton's Wolverhampton Wanderers youth academy. I think
Leon Hapgood, who was a nameyou might know he I think he had

(25:37):
a role in bringing him over fromEngland. So he's been Foothill's head coach.
Foothills women's head coach is Colin McKay. He's been around Foothills for ages.
I mean, I think since likeI was a competitive soccer player growing
up in Calgary, and I rememberhim from like twenty ten, twenty eleven,
so he's well established figure in Calgaryand Alberta youth soccer. What else

(26:04):
could I say about coaches? Cavaryyou twenty one their head coach is actually
a good friend of mine named victormUrk. He and I were teammates back
in the day, but he gravitatedtowards coaching after he finished youth playing.
He was recently appointed the University ofLethbridge Prong Horns men's head coach, so

(26:29):
he's going to be beginning his postsecondary coaching career this summer. Before that,
though he was involved with Pacific FC. He was Palmo Duca's assistant,
won the CPL title together in twentytwenty one, went down to North Texas
with PAS so he has a lotof experience as like an assistant at the

(26:51):
pro level, and he's been backin Calgary for a while and was Yeah,
I was named Cavary twenty one's headcoach this year. There's a lot
of other ones, but I knowI've been talking for a while, so
feel free if you want to cutme off. No, No, I
enjoyed. I enjoyed the interview reviewsyou guys did with Victram And as much
as much as the League one systemis about giving players those opportunities, it's

(27:14):
also about giving coaches the opportunity tocontinue doing what they do and to share
their knowledge and continue developing as well. So great to see that a bunch
of a bunch of somewhat familiar namesfor me or slightly familiar names for me,
and names that have established themselves inthe area are contributing to the game.
There a couple of weeks in,as I mentioned about a month and

(27:37):
a half and on the women's side, seeing albert Impact top the table five
wins and one loss. Their onlydefeat came away to Calli's United recently,
who are currently in second place.Those two meet again at the start of
July. If people want to tuneinto a match, most, if not
all, the games are available liveand on demand via Alberta's own a media
production site. So I've been ableto tune in and catch a little bit

(28:00):
of action here and there and keptsome highlights as well. And St Albert
would would pop a hypothetical combined table. I did a little bit of back
of a napkin math just to seewhich team it was and so tell us
a little bit about the Saint AlbertImpact. It's as an Eastern Canadian,
it's nice to know that the Impactname is still having a role in soccer

(28:21):
in this country. Yeah. Yeah, So Saint Albert is like a bedroom
city of Edmonton. It's just outsideEdmonton proper, but it is its own
like municipality. They have their ownmayor their own municipal services, et cetera.
Their coach on the women's side isI believe it's Dean Cordero is his

(28:45):
name, and he's also a longtimehead coach of the McEwen University Griffins in
Edmonton. So there's quite a fewexamples of players from that McEwen program,
either current players or alumni. Ithink some of the examples would be like
Brenna Packwin, Reagan McCarthy, SamanthaGoovia, So there's a lot of carryover

(29:11):
from from McEwan to Saint Albert.They do have players from other backgrounds and
like Lauren leuz Zevsky, so Iprobably butchered that, but I know she's
with the University of Tennessee. CarlyYuchatz, the goalkeeper she's with, she's
with Vancouver white Caps. So they'vehad a really solid season. And I

(29:32):
asked Conrad Krauser, who does theplay by play, what do you think,
you know, why have they beenwhy did they manage to shoot to
the top of the table, Andhe kind of said, like, you
know, they have that chemistry theyhave that connectivity. They have a lot
of carryover from last year's League OneExhibition Series roster, so they've just managed

(29:52):
to take advantage of those pre existingrelationships, it seems like. And on
the men's side, Edmundson's autistow topon the table. Calgary Blizzard are hot
on their heels, but the Edmontonhas won their first five matches before dropping
a recent one again to Kelly's United, who seemed to be the breakers of
streaks in this early part of theyear. I'll tell us a little bit

(30:15):
about Edmonton Scottish as a club.Well, they've they've been around forever,
right like the Edmonton Scottish I thinkthey go by the Tartans. They've they're
probably they're over one hundred years old. So they're a big club with a
lot of history. Pre League One, they were very active in the AMSL

(30:37):
or the Alberta Major Soccer League,which which was the de facto top men's
amateur league. I know they've wonthe Challenge Trophy probably a couple of times,
but not that long ago, intwenty sixteen, I believe it was.
So they've had some players who've beeninvolved with the club since then,
playing in the AMSL who are nowin the league. One Alberta, the

(31:00):
head coaches former f C Edmonton playerPaul Hamilton. I don't know if that's
a name that brings a bell,but it's interesting because last year in the
exhibition series they didn't do well atall, so they've really turned around their
fortunes. And in my conversations withwith some of the coaches as well as

(31:21):
with Conrad, it seems like theydid a great job recruiting. And I
did you know when I looked overthere roster, there's a decent amount of
players who at some point, whetherit was in the CPL or the NASL,
were with f C Edmonton. Soguys like Marco, Marcus Valado,
Sagey, Tony Amiobi, I thinkthe Lamb brothers, Matthew and Samuel so

(31:48):
names that I think CPL fans mightrecognize. And I talked to to Vicram
recently and asked them, like,you guys played Cali's, they are sorry
you guys played Scottish? Should theybeat you? Who stuck out? And
he said, Phil Masri up top, he was a real handful for our
defense. So I believe he's amcewban player. So again, I think

(32:10):
there's a lot of you know,guys who have played together on the University
of Alberta or McEwan, and combinethat with former professional players and you have
a recipe for success. Oh I'mglad to hear it. Tomy is still
kicking around. I remember speaking tohim back in the first year of the
CPL, and you know, wewere all sad to see FC Edvington go

(32:32):
on go on pause, But gladto know that some of that some of
that DNA is still kicking around.I think, you know, one of
the promises that I've long thought theCPL brought as the league grew was the
potential for the expansion of that professionalPA player pathways as they laid down a
footprint in their communities and started tobuild academy structures. You know, you

(32:55):
you wrote a book on Cavalry,So give us a sense of of how
that is beginning to take shape.I know Tommy and Jay are two guys
that know how important that youth sideis to developing the game. Yeah yeah,
so, I mean Cavalry U twentyone, it's somewhat of a reserve
team for the first team. Threemembers of the League One side have developmental

(33:21):
contracts with Cavalry this season. Thoseare Caiden Rogazinski who was with the Emery
Cougars, Max peep Grass and NicoMoronia who have been involved in the first
team before. So there you knowthey have some expectations on their shoulders.
And then they have a guy likeChennan Chanda who's he went to Mexico with

(33:45):
Cavalry for preseason and he's top goalscorer in league when Alberta right now six
goals and he's not even eighteen.I think, I think he's a two
thousand and six born. So theyact as a as a reserve team of
sorts for Cavalry, But honestly,Cavalry has had reserve and youth teams in
essence since they launched. If yougo back to twenty eighteen when the team

(34:10):
was first announced, Tommy Wielden junior, everybody in Calgary soccer knew that he
was going to be heavily involved withwith this pro team once it got going.
He at the time was head coachof Foothills's U twenty three PDL team,
and obviously he brought a ton ofplayers from that group over to Cavalry.

(34:30):
In twenty nineteen. So right fromtwenty nineteen onward, I think Foothill's
U twenty three was kind of lookedat as like the reserve team for Cavalie.
And in twenty nineteen there were acouple of players who made that jump
mid season, guys like Arabin Peppeleafter he did really well, Tofa Fakunlei,

(34:54):
who was Foothills U twenty three's captainin twenty nineteen. He joined the
first team midway through the season.But there was also a Cavalry twenty one
in twenty nineteen, so really theyhad three teams, so they had a
three team pipeline. Cavalry U twentyone was playing in the Alberta Major Soccer

(35:15):
League. They had a really youngroster, mostly guys who are still in
high school. And then they hadtheir PDL slash USL two team, which
was a U twenty three program,and then they had Cavalry. So those
three teams all trained at Macron oneafter the other. I think they even
had meals together, so there wasa definite connection between those three teams.

(35:37):
That's not the case anymore. FoothillsLeague one is definitely separate from Cavalry,
but Cavary U twenty one still iskind of like the reserve team. But
no, the Foothills Cavalry connection isn'tlike a thing anymore. I think that

(35:57):
was just it kind of irked afew a lot of people in Calari soccer
who weren't involved with Foothills because itdid feel like maybe that was the Cavalry
club. And now Cavalry has triedreally hard in recent years to forge connections
with other soccer clubs in Calgary likeSouthwest United, Rangers, Blizzard, etc.
But I think from the start Cavalryhas always had an eye to we

(36:22):
need a development team and we needto kind of have players moving back and
forth between the first team and thereserve slash youth team. Well, it's
a delicate thing coming into coming intoan environment where teams have existed for a
long time and trying to beat thatbig dog at the top of the pyramid.
You have to I've seen a lotof clubs stumble when it comes to

(36:44):
forging those relationships with the groups thathave have pre existed them, and so
glad to hear that Tommy and co. Have done that gracefully over the last
couple of years. I do rememberthose Forge being Sigma and Cavalry being foot
Hills conversations that we had in thoseearly days. So glad to hear that
it's it's evolving into something new.So the winner of the men's League one

(37:07):
Alberta, well, we'll surely geta spot in the next season's Canadian Championship.
On the women's side, they'll bein the League one Canada Women's inter
Provincial Championship, and I have toimagine that a women's Canadian Championship is not
too far off in the future oncethe Northern Super League gets underway. We've
all seen what the League one sideshave managed to do in that competition in

(37:29):
recent years. Tss rovers see USSailor all this season. What do you
think that that will do for thegame and the province. You know,
sadly we don't have FC Edmonton anymorefor that Edmonton Calgary rivalry, But what
would the reception be if Calgary haveCavalry MA interisterated again, have to face
that League one side in the future. What do you think that'll do to

(37:49):
the little bit of a spark inthe community. Yeah, I'm really intrigued
by that. Prospect. I honestlydon't know what the reception would be.
I know there would be interest,right like soccer fans would love to see
semi pro team go up against Cavalry. I was thinking about the other examples
that you referenced, and the onekind of thing that I wonder is if

(38:14):
the League One team had to bethe home side. I don't know where
they would play in some cases becausea lot of these venues that are fielding
League One games don't really have alot of viewing capacity, so it kind
of begs a question. Would thatmean that the game would have to be
held at Spruce Meadows even if Cavalrywas supposed to be the away team.

(38:34):
I don't really know what it wouldlook like, but I do imagine that,
as we've seen with the Ontario andBC examples, people would be excited
for that game same way they were, you know, when when a CPL
team took on an MLS side.It's kind of a similar David versus Goliath's
story, And yeah, if thathappens in the near future, I think

(38:59):
it would be be very exciting.Yeah, it's one of those you know,
we shorthanded as the magic of theCup, and nobody can really quite
put their finger on it. ButI think it's I think it's a mix
of that fairy tale element and alsothe fact that it's such a foreign idea.
You know, you never see theNHL club have to play their local

(39:19):
beer men's beer beer League hockey teamever, So there's something very unique about
it in soccer, and I thinkit really likes a fire under people.
As we saw. I wasn't ableto make it to Montreal for that TFC
awayle at csm or, but itlooked like a pretty memorable night for Canadian
soccer. Scott, you said towrite a book about Calvary and I haven't

(39:42):
had a chance to read it yet, though my copies on order, and
you ended up diving into the longhistory of professional soccer in Calgary. Soon
we'll have the Calgary Wild FC onthe women's side, with the Northern Super
League set to kick off next year. How have you seen the landscape change
in in Alberta and in Calgary specificallyover these past five years once Once Cavalry

(40:05):
came to town. Like you know, every city in this country has has
its soccer fans, and it hasits soccer bars and it has its little
soccer community, but I think there'ssomething there's something unique. I remember when
torontofc came on the scene in twothousand and seven and it was like the
little pockets of people that had preexisted, had had a central focus,
had a rally when they brought thecommunities together in a lot of ways.

(40:29):
And so with the two professional teamsin Calgary, with League and Alberta laying
down that foundation, what do yousee as the potential for the future a
short term and long term? What'swhat's what can the game be in the
problems? To your mind, that'sit's an exciting prospect because we haven't hit
a ceiling yet for soccer's popularity inCalgary. I mean, Cavalry had four

(40:53):
thousand plus fans average attendance last yearand I think that they could improve upon
that. They haven't yet this year. Again, like whether it's been a
factor their performances haven't been great ortheir results haven't been great, so they
haven't really had like a great attendancenight yet. But yeah, I mean

(41:16):
the Arrival of the Wild it isactually very reminiscent of Cavalry's arrival in twenty
eighteen. Kicking off in twenty nineteenbecause there was just something missing beforehand,
and you know, once it's there, it's just great. So the women's

(41:37):
soccer in Calgary, you know,there was a kind of pro team back
in two thousand and four. Iwrote a bit about in my book called
the Calgary Wildfire. I was curiousif the new name was a little bit
of like a throwback to that.But that team played in the usl W
League in two thousand and four,really struggled with with results, but only

(42:04):
lasted one year. But they actuallyhad Desiree Scott on that team. She
was only sixteen. But for youknow, a dozen plus years afterward,
there was just nothing local for thebest women's soccer players, so you'd see
them leave right, players like SarahKinsner more recently, but like Maya Jones

(42:24):
and Grace Story, you know,they excelled at the UWS level and then
they go off right. Grace Storywent to Portugal, Maya Jones went to
San Diego. So they just didn'thave an opportunity to play pro in their
home city, so they had togo elsewhere. And it was the same
with the men before Cavalry, sothey've I think they've gone about it in

(42:46):
the proper way for both men andwomen here where they started with like a
semi pro team. So for men, that was the PDL team that Tommy
Wilden Junior created in foot Hill SoccerClub created and then then with the women
side, it was the same Foothill'screating a team for United Women's Soccer and
that was Troy Flannery in twenty seventeenis when they kicked off. So they've

(43:12):
you know, been building that programever since. Six seven years of experience.
Now they've had some really close yearswhere they were almost the best team
in UWS. It's unlucky that they'rein a conference with Santa Clarita, but
it's always exciting when those two teamsplay each other and you have, you
know, players who are on thecusp of playing professionally. So it's great

(43:36):
that you know there's going to betwo pro soccer teams in Calgary. I'm
really excited to see how the wilddo. I don't know about McMahon Stadium,
to be honest, like it ismassive and even if you've got eight
thousand people there, it just seemsa bit empty. So they have a
lot of work. I think tomarket themselves and create some buzz so that

(43:57):
they can build that stadium as bestas they can. I have heard that
there's going to be new turf installed, which will be good for I think
the broadcasts as well as we're justin general no football lines, that kind
of thing. But I'm excited tosee, you know, who's going to
play on that team, who's goingto coach it. I imagine, like
with the men with Foothills and TommyWilden and and all that, there's going

(44:20):
to be some carryover from the UWSteam. So curious to see how it
all rolls out in the months tocome. Yea, it seems like it
seems like every year and in Canadiansoccer where we're growing immensely but at the
same time realizing just how much furtherwe have to go. It's it's that
the more the more progress we make, the more it becomes clear that there's

(44:45):
a lot more to do. SoScott Strasser, thank you so much for
joining us and sharing some of yourknowledge about Calgary and about the province of
Alberta. Thank you and again thanksfor having me on. It was awesome
to talk about this with you.And thanks again to Scott for joining James
really excited about what's happening in Alberta. We do have a little bit of

(45:07):
news that we do have to sharecoming out of that interview. It's not
the best news we can ever talkabout, but it is important that we
update that story a little bit further. So James, why don't you go
ahead and let the listeners know.Yeah, Scott was kind of enough to
get back in touch with me afterwe spoke to update us on the surprising
revelation that Saint albert even packs women'sside. The team that we spoke about

(45:30):
is leading the women's division have beenstripped of all but their most recent points,
dropping them all the way to thebottom of the standings. No details
are available as of yet as towhy they were they were punished, but
I'm sure we'll find that every soonenough, and just have to I can't
recommend highly enough the weekly podcast Scottand his co host Jason Kament do on

(45:51):
soccer and Calgary and Alberta. Iwent back through the last year of episodes
basically to prepare for that conversation,and I thought really enjoyed it. And
also Scott wrote a pretty handy bookon the History of a professional soccer in
Calgary and picked up my copy andI got my hands on it. I
haven't had a chance to read ityet, but it looks like something that's

(46:12):
right up my alley, so Igotta gotta give that a little shout out
as well. And then just beforewe go, Dwayne, I was able
to catch up with Michael McCall,our friend out in BC, to have
a little chat about the ongoing Leeone BC season. So we've got that
in the can for next week's episode. Well, before we leave today,
I wanted to mention there's a coupleof huge matches on Friday night as TSS

(46:34):
rovers play both the white Caps Academyon the men's side and the white Caps
Girls on the women's side on Fridaynight, So two pretty crucial matches in
terms of how the table is shapingup out there in BC. And so
we'll dig more into that next weekwith Michael. Friday times I had and
that was the yy C Soccer podcast, dialing up the iHeart Radio and there

(47:00):
it is. Subscribe you should too, Thanks to Scott, Thanks to all.
We'll be back again soon, youknow that time until we're back,
you know, enjoy the soccer andgo cam to Go. Thanks for listening.

(47:29):
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