Author: Kevin Anderson
Chapter 1: Halifax The Canadian Premier League is a blast. Do I wish more people knew about it? Of course. I want this thing to explode into the private homes of Canada and drag their inhabitants out and into the eclectic mix of stadiums by their eyeballs. Or wallets. Or something. But on the low, … Continue reading CPL Road Trips: Soccer, Sights and All the Canadiana – A Series
Ok, imagination time. I am a young soccer starlet. A free agent working with an outside the box management team. I want to make the most of a short career and I am looking for a jumping off point to really kickstart my burgeoning career. The CPL seems to fit the bill, but who should … Continue reading Where Would You Go? – A Free Agents Guide to picking your Next CPL Squad
Marco Carducci, Cavalry 'Keeper, PFACan President and All-Around Good Guy, took some time out of his very busy schedule to talk with me about the game in Canada. We dove right in with a couple tough questions, and Marco stepped up and answered them all. (Writer's note - most of them the way I'd hoped, … Continue reading A Few Words – With Marco Carducci
Firstly, Paul McNulty of 13th Man Sports is a heck of a writer, bias acknowledged, so this will be a tough assignment. I am likely gonna need one of those bear suits for protection after this one. I will dare to write the counterpoint to the justifiable rage about “THAT” Chris Jones article. Ok let’s … Continue reading Alphonso Davies, Chris Jones and the Canadian Soccer Landscape: The Counterpoint
Rhian Wilkinson led the Portland Thorns to a title in the NWSL this year. Missed the Shield by one point. Took over a team that was already successful, but in her first year had to win them over to her style of play. To her style of player management. All amidst the shadow of an … Continue reading Canada’s Coaches are Champions: Anywhere but Here
I don't know, dear readers, if you are a "good news first", or a "get the bad news out of the way" kind of crowd. So, I'll just guess that you have enough negativity in your lives and jump to the good stuff. The CPL has announced some impressive increases in player compensation. According to … Continue reading Opinion: CPL Announces Pay Hikes, Hooray! But Let Me Be That Guy
Prologue Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way: I am an optimistic and friendly neighbourhood writer most days, and I am as happy-go-lucky as the next human. So, I want to get most of the cynicism and snark out of the way off the top. Imagine you were running, footloose and fancy-free, down … Continue reading Forge Season in Review
Credit where credit is due. Ottawa showed up for the finals! Over 14,000 spectators. And that credit goes to a coach named Carlos Gonzales that turned things around (we’ll discuss his technique later), a front office staff that got the word out, a team that played their hearts out, and to me, most importantly a … Continue reading The Final: Forging a Dynasty
Look, the press about soccer in Canada leading up to our first World Cup appearance since the OG Top Gun was in theatres hasn't been great. But maybe we are looking at it the wrong way. Where is our trademark Canadian optimism? Let's go back through the headlines and look for some silver linings. Clothes … Continue reading Hey Now, It’s Not All Bad: An Optimistic Look at Big Time Soccer in Canada
Here we go again. It is Coach of the Year time. Or as those of us in Hamilton know it, Smyrniotis Snub Season. So, this year the front runner is Carlos Gonzales of Atletico Ottawa, or CarGo to the hip kids in Ottawa. He took the league's bottom feeders from last to first with only … Continue reading The Argument for Bobby: A Totally Unbiased Report from Forgeland
