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The first Northern Super League final will never be forgotten, regardless of the outcome on Saturday. But it might have been more memorable if host teams Toronto and the Vancouver Rise had brought the same passion to their journey to the Canadian Women's Professional Soccer Championship.
After Vancouver made it to the playoffs In their final game of the regular season, a hard-fought 1-1 draw in Halifax on September 27, striker Latifa Abdou scored twice in the match. win 2-1 of visiting Ottawa Rapid to open a two-legged semi-final on November 4th.
Four days later, Rise FC won 4–3 in a dramatic second leg at TD Place in Ottawa, with midfielder Sofia Hagman scoring in the sixth round on a penalty after Vancouver forward Holly Ward scored to force a penalty shootout, with the aggregate score of 3–3 in the two semi-final matches.
Rise FC just finished the regular season with an 11-6-8 record, highlighted by an eight-match unbeaten streak over the summer, finishing third out of six teams.
“We're such a stubborn team.” Jessica Cowart, midfielder with international experience in the Philippines and clubs in Sweden and Australia., told the Vancouver-based Georgia Straight in early October. “We literally put our bodies on the line for each other. This is our identity – team first. And these are not just words. This is real.”
AFC Toronto finished first in the standings with a 16-6-3 record and 51 points, 12 more than Vancouver. He is riding a five-game winning streak into Saturday's 2:00 pm Diane B. Matheson Cup battle at BMO Field and boasts eight wins and a tie in his last nine matches.
The NSL Finals will be broadcast nationally on CBC and live on CBC Sports and CBC Gem on Saturday at 1:30 pm ET. Match time is 14:00.
Toronto booked its spot in the finals Monday with a 4-1 victory over the Montreal Roses at snow-covered York Lions Stadium, a match rescheduled from the previous day due to inclement weather and significant snowfall in the Toronto area.
Esther Okoronkwo, a 26-year-old forward who moved to Texas from Nigeria as a teenager with her sister, scored three goals in the first 26 minutes to build an insurmountable 3-1 lead.
The Vancouver Rise beat Toronto 1-0 on a 46th-minute goal from Jessica De Filippo.
“People doubted us from the very beginning.”
On November 1st, it was time for goalie Sierra Cota-Yarde to shine for the 22-year-old Toronto native and her teammates. knocked out Montreal 2-0 in the first match.
“I would call us ruthless,” midfielder Nikki Small of Pickering, Ont., said in an article on the team's website. “Everyone knows that we didn’t start the season the way we wanted. [with one win in four games]and people doubted us early on. But we bounced back and have been climbing ever since.
“We press relentlessly, defend, score and celebrate – that’s who we are as a team.”
Toronto hasn't lost since Aug. 17, when forward Jessica De Filippo scored the only goal in Vancouver's 1-0 win in front of 7,771 fans at BMO Field.
“What comes to mind is a rematch [that Aug. 17] – said Toronto head coach Marko Milanovic. “We were really desperate to get back to this ground because it’s the only stadium we haven’t won at this year.” Hopefully we can do it on Saturday.”
Vancouver will also seek ransom after defeat 7-0 September 13 in the hands of Toronto FC, who became the first NSL club to qualify for the playoffs that day, ending Rise FC's four-game winning streak and eight-game unbeaten streak in the process.
Kaylee Hunter and Okoronkwo boosted the attack with two goals each.
“Esther… she's an outstanding player who always delivers in big moments. I hope we'll see more of that in the final,” Milanovic said.
Vancouver boasts a balanced attack. Abdou leads the way with 11 goals, followed by De Filippo and Ward with seven each. Midfielder Quinn, a two-time Canadian Olympic medalist who joined the Rise after six seasons with the National Women's Soccer League's Seattle Reign, has six.
In a 7-0 win over Vancouver, Toronto got big goals from Esther Okoronkwo, Kaylee Hunter and Sarah Stratigakis. The win was the largest deficit in an NSL game this season.
“We have good depth”: Rise FC President
“It's been an exciting season. It felt like it was a slow start, but we really found our form in the second third of the season,” club president Sinead King told the Georgia Straight last month. “We don't rely on any one player. We have good depth.”
Each team has won twice in the season series, and their first meeting on May 11 was a 1-1 draw.
The NSL finals are expected to generate more than $12 million in economic activity and attract more than 20,000 people, according to the Ontario government, which is investing $180,000 as part of the province's plan to break down barriers and increase women's participation in sports.
The game will cap a four-day festival of women's sports with community events, concerts and conferences.
It's been just over seven months since Quinn scored a penalty to help Vancouver win 1-0 over the Calgary Wild in the NSL regular season opener.
There are now rumors that a seventh team could join the league in 2027, with a focus on Central and Western Canada.
“We were hoping that if we built it, they would come,” said Matheson, a former Canada midfielder. “And the biggest question was, will the players come, will the fans come? And it was a resounding yes. We were very pleased with the quality of the game.”
“We want Saturday to be a celebration of women's professional sports in Canada.”
