Atletico Ottawa head coach Carlos Gonzalez gets the Gatorade shower from his players after the team’s 2-2 draw, with visiting York United FC in the Canadian Premier League regular-season finale at TD Place in Ottawa on Oct. 9.Matt Zambonin/The Canadian Press
One recent Friday evening I went to watch a soccer match at a place near the end of the subway line in Toronto. You get off at Pioneer Village station and, right outside, is the looming York Lions stadium, on the grounds of York University. It’s where York United FC of the Canadian Premier League plays its home games.
I’m here to see what the CPL is like; this eight-team professional league that’s meant to be the bedrock of soccer in Canada. (That is, the men’s game. No such league for the women’s game exists, but should.) Launched in 2018, what was then called York9 FC was the first team unveiled. This is where it all started and where some meaning and relevance should be revealed.
York United is playing HFX Wanderers FC from Halifax. The first thing I note about 30 minutes before kickoff, is a handful of Wanderers supporters waving their team’s flag. Or the wind is blowing the flags aloft in the cool evening air. The stadium can hold 4,000 people and the official attendance tonight is 1,525, enough to bring atmosphere and ambience. You can have a beer and buy food. Sharman’s Proper Pies is prominent and founder and TV pundit James Sharman is hanging around. So, too, is TV analyst Kristian Jack, both working the game’s broadcast on the streaming service OneSoccer. They’re probably more famous than most of the players.
A small group of York’s ultrafans start a racket and never stop. Both teams look young, a handful of older players sprinkled among them. (The average salary in the CPL is $40,000 a year.) There are 16 Canadians on York Utd’s a 23-man roster. Michael Petrasso (his younger brother Luca plays for Toronto FC) has played for Canada’s senior men’s team nine times, and he spent five seasons with Queens Park Rangers in England. Team captain Roger Thompson has played for Canada at under-20 level and midfielder Noah Verhoeven has played for the under-20 and under-23 national teams. The CPL is part of the pipeline to produce good young players for Canada’s men’s teams.
The name of York’s glamour player has a familiar ring. Osaze De Rosario has scored 11 goals since joining this season. The backstory to his arrival is startling. He’d signed for FC Rukh Lviv in Ukraine and was on the bench for several matches. He fled Ukraine just before the Russian invasion.
Yes, he’s the son of Canada and MLS legend Dwayne De Rosario. He was born in 2001, the year his dad won the MLS Cup with the San Jose Earthquakes. His York United head coach is Martin Nash, who played with his dad on the Canadian men’s national team, including the team that won the CONCACAF Gold Cup in 2000. So, it’s like family, this team, and that’s part of the key to grasping the meaning of the CPL – it’s about family, family relationships, nurturing and support. In the stands, too, there are many families, parents with multiple children, surrounded by York University students.
Regrettably, De Rosario isn’t playing tonight. He’s accumulated four yellow cards (he’s fiery) and must sit it out. His dad is here, though, and there is a sense that you’re witnessing the through-line of Canadian soccer, from a blustery night in the Toronto suburbs to a World Cup team playing in Qatar.
The match is good, not brilliant. York is in the hunt for a playoff spot after a late-season surge – thanks in part to De Rosario – but Halifax looks happy to take a single point and defends relentlessly. As the game grinds on to the almost-inevitable 0-0 draw, a few things emerge. There are two superb players, one on each team. For York it’s the mercurial Mo Babouli. A 29-year-old Torontonian who emerged from the Toronto FC Academy, he played for TFC, for Canada at under-23 level but then became a member of Syria’s national team (through family descent), played professionally in Qatar and returned to Canada to play in the CPL.
He’s quick on the ball, a slippery figure to shut down and his movement is like lightning. Trouble is, most of his teammates aren’t attuned to his quickness. He finds pockets of space, dribbles the ball past defenders and drives on, but there is no support. Still, a dazzling figure to watch on the ball.
For Halifax, it’s captain Andre Jesse Rampersad, 28, a tall, imposing midfielder, originally from Trinidad and Tobago. He controls the tempo and midfield space with aplomb and confidence, occasionally making superb passes forward. But his task on this night is mainly to slow the game and leave town, his team happy with a 0-0 tie.
Me, I was happy to be here. I’ve covered soccer from 17 countries on four continents and the theatre of it, the thrill of it, was there that night. No goals, but a good night out and the feeling that the bedrock of men’s soccer in Canada is solid.