Ottawa Fury's insistence on Canadians is a sign of things to come

TORONTO – Ottawa Fury General Manager Julian de Guzman has faced the challenge of holding a Canadian pbadport in the global game.

Now retired and sitting in the press gallery, de Guzman seems determined to make sure that other Canadians do not have the same problems.

First season of Guzman Fury, Ottawa has 17 Canadian players. Seven started in the two semi-finals of the Canadian Championship against Toronto FC. Wednesday's game even saw an all-Canadian defense

For 75 minutes, the bottom line of Ottawa reduced Toronto FC to just eight shots with a goal scored, which turned out to be the purpose of opening Ayo Akinola. Finally, TFC's clinical finishes were too difficult to overcome and the Fury succumbed to a 3-0 loss.

Even in defeat, two Canadians stood out. Jamar Dixon was indefatigable on both sides of the ball, but especially defensively by closing the right half-space

Dixon's defensive actions in 66 minutes:

– 6 interceptions
– 5 ball recoveries
– 4 tackles
– 3 releases

Pretty good … pic.twitter.com/K5BG0gh9To

– Peter Galindo (@GalindoPW) July 26, 2018

Twenty – Five years old Central defender Thomas Meilleur-Giguère, loaned by the Montreal Impact, also played admirably. Best-Giguere had six ball recoveries, which were only topped with eight cards from Cristian Portilla

Best-Giguere. He completed six ball receptions (in orange) against Toronto FC

"[Meilleur-Giguere] was solid for us," said Sportsnet Maxime Crepeau, Fury goalkeeper. "It was also important, a lot of authorizations, anticipation … He managed well Jozy [Altidore] in the first period, I think, Nana [Attakora] and Thomas did a good job of keeping it at 18 … Thomas was very strong, even with the ball in our system, he distributed the balls well and his first job was to defend and he did well. "

" I think [the defenders] was very compact, very aggressive "Nikola Popovic in his post-match press conference. "They were able to fight against one of the best teams in the MLS, a team that won the Canadian championship last year, a team that won the MLS Cup, a team that participated in the final of the Champions League. They were very, very compact. They did not make as many mistakes. So I'm very happy with the way all players have played, and of course Canadians too. "

Best-Giguère has not played for Montreal yet, but he was a regular first-team with the Fury, just like Crepeau. "We have some young players in the team, and for them, this experience is fantastic," Dixon told Sportsnet. "Of course, we can have more and more pbades, more young players are coming in, that would be fantastic, but even older guys, to have a Canadian team, the majority of the team is Canadian and that is Did not arrive before in Canada, so it's impressive. "

The Canadians are not national players on the US lists, Players are less likely to earn regular minutes in first team.

One of the biggest problems in Canadian soccer is that players lose precious time between 18 and 22 years. The Canadian Premier League should start in 2019 this gap.

For the moment, Ottawa provides an additional route.

"The project is going well and we are able to play at this level," Dixon said. "The guys just need to believe that they have talent and that they play.We have to play against the opposition like that to get better.We must be able to lose.We have to be in We need to be able to win – you need that feeling, no – I think it was a great project, I think we have a lot of good players in the team, and the spirits are funky and it's great to have a Canadian group. "

" We know that it's sometimes difficult to carry our pbadport because we're not even domestic in the United States, which is really hard for us, "admits Mr. Crepeau." You know that there are so many rules that can hurt us. It is important to have more Canadians on the field, especially during the Canadian Championship, because we want to want more.

As for the Canadian Championship, it was the first season with an expanded tournament. He had six teams instead of the usual four, thanks to the additions of the Oakville Blue Devils of Ontario League1 and AS Blainville of the Premier League of Quebec Soccer (PLSQ).

Blainville beat Oakville in a dramatic two-legged affair to establish a quarter-final date with the Fury. Ottawa beat Quebec 2-0 overall, winning two straight 1-0 wins in each leg.

Popovic, who also coached academies in Europe, is encouraged by the new look of the Canadian Championship because of "

" I think it's a very, very important competition for Canadian football. .. I would like to see more and more Canadian teams play before this stage. We will not only involve six teams, but if we can have more and more teams and more Canadian players exposed to this kind of level, giving them a platform to show themselves, I think we we will find many good Canadian players. "[19659002EvenaCanadianinternationalofficerthatthetrainingteamsareprobablyasimportantinthecompetition

" You do not always need these young people to go to Europe and fight. It's better that they come here, they have a league that they can play in their garden and they can grind in their yard. It is preferable that they have this opportunity to then move to larger and better teams in Canada. "