Saturday, June 13, 2026 is the date Vancouverites will host their first of seven World Cup matches at BC Place with an expected attendance of 54,000. BC Place is the favourite venue for major sporting events in Vancouver, including big soccer matches such as the Women’s World Cup 2015 United States championship victory over Japan. While the games to be played in Vancouver are not known yet, we do know that Canada will play at BC Place on Thursday, June 18 and Wednesday, June 24. There will be five group-stage games, one game from the round of 32 and one game in the round of 16 for Vancouver. L ..read more

At the end of the upcoming 2024 outdoor soccer season there will be just one more season to go before the 2026 World Cup games arrive in 16 North American cities, 11 of which are in the United States, three venues are in Mexico and two at Toronto and Vancouver in Canada. A total 48 teams representing six confederations will play 104 games from a kickoff date June 11, 2026 with the opener at the well-known Azteka Stadium in Mexico City. The tournament will end on July 19 when the two finalists meet at the not so well-known MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The quarter finals will ..read more

While continuing to recognize and pay tribute to the more than 40 players in the Canadian Soccer League who played for their country, mostly Canada – the most recent being TFC captain Jonathan Osorio – and also those players who were not capped internationally but moved on to play at a higher level, we think of Skylar Thomas, centre back, who was signed by Charleston Battery and made seven appearances for Canada’s U-23 team, full back Dino Gardner went to Edmonton FC, made appearances for both Canada U-18 and U-20. We think of the well-travelled forward, the diminutive Allessandro Riggi who ma ..read more

Jonathan Osorio, the standout midfielder who won the Rookie of the Year award in the Canadian Soccer League in 2012, has now been named captain of Toronto FC. Osorio, who was the second leading goalscorer in that CSL that debut year was given the assignment by head coach John Herdman while training with the Toronto side at Palm Beach, Florida in preparation for the upcoming 2024 MLS season which kicks off February 21. Toronto’s opening match is against NY Red Bulls on February 24 following four exhibition games starting with the first against Nashville on February 2. Osorio, 31, Toronto-born w ..read more

Is the Canadian Soccer League changing its long-standing and successful practice of importing players from other countries to now focus on player development at home ? The answer is no, the CSL has never wavered in its position that the acquisition of players in a semi-professional environment belongs to the member teams. Signing a player can be on a professional registration agreement or a player can be signed as an amateur and the member club can sign a player or coach from anywhere in the world. Many member teams have favoured importing professional players and have benefited by improved pe ..read more

While Canadian international Atiba Hutchinson (York Region Shooters) is the most outstanding example of a player from the Canadian Soccer League being selected for his country, there were many more, including 40 players during the three seasons 2010 to 2012. Andre Manders (York Region Shooters) and Bermuda, Adam Janssen (Brampton City United) Canada U-23, Nikola Paunic (Serbian White Eagles) Canada U-20, Odaine Demar (Capital City) Jamaica, are just a few. “Playing for the Shooters definitely helped me get into the national team of Bermuda and probably helped me get into the starting 11,” he ..read more

The CSL is changing, is what we said almost a decade ago on November 20, 2014. That was two days after the CSL’s Rookie of the Year Jonathan Osorio entered the field for Canada at 62 minutes in an international friendly against Panama, a game that ended in a scoreless tie at the Rommel Fernandez Stadium in Panama City. Osorio was impressive in that debut 2012 season with the CSL’s Toronto SC, scoring 11 goals in 17 appearances, the second highest in the league. He was then quickly invited by Toronto FC to join the MLS team’s Toronto FC Academy. The Toronto-born midfielder of Colombian ancestry ..read more

With approximately one million registered players, the game of soccer continues to be the most popular sport in Canada in terms of participation. There is also an increasing demand for the indoor game with more facilities accommodating soccer during the off season winter months for a year-round activity for many. The Hanger, as it is known, is a longstanding spacious Toronto indoor soccer location known in earlier times a part of the Downsview air base for the Canadian Air Force and which was also for a period of time occupied by the military. its proximity to Pearson International brought an ..read more

Danny Dichio made more than 300 appearances for several top flight clubs in England and Italy before moving to Canada to sign for Toronto FC. He took part in the opening debut match, scoring for the history book with Toronto’s first MLS goal against Chicago Fire on May 12, 2007. Dichio ended his playing career in 2009, remaining with Toronto FC as a coach of the second squad and in 2021 he left Canada to take up coaching with Sacremento of the US-based United Soccer Leagues He was was then appointed to his first head coaching job with Detroit City, also of the USL. Lack of good coaching positi ..read more

Dragan Bakoč, president of the Canadian Soccer League and head of member club Serbian White Eagles, has always considered soccer to be the best sport in the world. It’s a safe sport and relatively inexpensive, he will reason. Bakoc is aware also that no other game has satisfied the spirit of competition more than soccer and more than any other sport soccer has helped to bring together countries kept apart for political reasons. In Canada, he knows soccer has more registered players than any other team sport, including ice hockey. But Bakoč, and his family, have also become engrossed in water ..read more