Nuke Soccer

The Canadian Soccer Association’s member provinces and territories have announced their soccer rosters for this year’s 2009 Canada Games in Summerside and Charlottetown, PE. Men’s and women’s teams will take part in the national competition which runs August 15-30. The women’s competition runs August 17-22 in Summerside while the men’s competition runs August 24-29 in Charlottetown.

Allow me to take this opportunity to congratulate all the players that have been selected for their respective provinces.

Your dedication and commitment paved the way for your selection. Now it’s time to savour the moment and perform to the best of your potential. To all staff, I want to wish you all the best in the games and urge you to enjoy the experience.

Stephen Hart Technical Director, Canadian Soccer Association

Women’s Competitition
In the women’s competition, there are nine players that represented Canada’s women’s U-17 team in 2008. All nine won a bronze medal at the 2008 CONCACAF Women’s Under-17 Championship in July; seven of them helped Canada reach the quarter-final stage at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup New Zealand 2008. Those nine girls are:

Alberta’s Danica Wu; Ontario’s Victoria Correa-Parsons, Diamond Simpson and Shelina Zadorsky; Québec’s Cynthia LeBlanc, Annick Maltais and Geneviève Richard; and Nova Scotia’s Nkem Ezurike and Jenna Goobie.

From the BMO National Championships, Ezurike is also a Jubilee Trophy champion from last year’s senior women’s competition in St. John’s, NL. So too are her Halifax City Salty’s teammates Hannah Emmett and Melissa Gaudet, both also representing Nova Scotia at this year’s Canada Games. Nova Scotia’s all-time best showing in women’s soccer is second place in 1993.

As for experience from the BMO National Championships Nutrilite All Stars, both Quebec (U-16 Girls champions in 2009) and Ontario (U-16 Girls champions in 2008) should be considered favourites at the 2009 Canada Games. Quebec finished fourth in 2005 while Ontario finished third, both behind silver-medalist Alberta and gold-medalist British Columbia.

Men’s Competition
In the men’s competition, there are nine players that represented Canada’s men’s U-17 team at the 2009 CONCACAF Men’s Under-17 Championship in March. Those nine boys are:

Alberta’s Jordan Ongaro; Manitoba’s Ezequiel Lubocki; Ontario’s Justin Maheu; and Quebec’s Francesco Augustin, Felix Cardin, Hugo Lapointe-Senecal, Amine Meftouh, Karl Ouimette, and Abdoulaye Sylla.

Ontario serves as reigning champions from both the 2005 Canada Games and 2009 BMO National Championships Nutrilite All Stars U-16 Boys. Of note, Abraham Donzo won the Top Scorer award at this year’s Nutrilite All-Star Championship. At the 2005 Canada Games, Ontario finished first ahead of New Brunswick and Quebec.

With six players from Canada’s men’s U-17 team, Québec is considered the favourite for this year’s competition. All six national youth-team players also won gold at the 2008 Nutrilite All Stars U-16 Boys competition in Brossard, QC. Diderot Nana and Alessandro Riggi were also part of that 2008 gold-medal winning team.

Since 1967, nearly 50,000 athletes have participated in the Canada Games. From the women’s soccer tournament, Canada Games graduates include Andrea Neil (1993 gold), Karina LeBlanc (1997 gold), Erin McLeod (2001), Kara Lang (2001 gold), Robyn Gayle (2001 gold), Diana Matheson (2001 gold), Rhian Wilkinson (2001) and Kelly Parker (2001).

From the men’s soccer tournament, Canada Games graduates include Patrice Bernier (1997), Dwayne De Rosario (1997), Lars Hirschfeld (1997), Ante Jazic (1993), Nik Ledgerwood (2001 gold) and Adrian Serioux (1997). For more information please visit the Canada Games website.