The first Northern Super League Final will never be forgotten, regardless of Saturday’s outcome. But it could be more memorable if host AFC Toronto and Vancouver Rise FC match the excitement of their respective paths to the Canadian professional women’s soccer championship.
After Vancouver clinched a playoff berth in its final regular-season game with a gritty 1-1 draw in Halifax on Sept. 27, attacker Latifah Abdu scored twice in a 2-1 win over visiting Ottawa Rapid FC to open a two-legged semifinal on Nov. 4.
From there, Rise FC prevailed 4-3 in a dramatic second leg at TD Place in Ottawa four days later when midfielder Sofia Hagman scored in the sixth round of penalty kicks after Vancouver attacker Holly Ward scored to force a shootout, with the aggregate score from the two semifinal matches at 3-3.
“The last game in that semifinal, we had some players step up,” Abdu told CBC Sports on Thursday. “We had [players come off the bench] and make an instant impact.”
Rise FC were fresh off an 11-6-8 regular season, highlighted by an eight-match unbeaten run through the summer, and placed third of six teams.
“We’re such a hard-nosed team,” Jessika Cowart, a midfielder with international experience for the Philippines and club stints in Sweden and Australia, told the Vancouver-based Georgia Straight newspaper in early October. “We literally put our bodies on the line for each other. That’s our identity — team first. And it’s not just words. It’s real.”
AFC Toronto finished atop the standings at 16-6-3 for 51 points, 12 more than Vancouver. It carries a five-game win streak into Saturday’s battle for the Diana B. Matheson Cup at 2 p.m. at BMO Field, and boasts eight wins and a draw over its past nine outings.
The NSL Final will be broadcast nationally on CBC and live streamed at CBC Sports and CBC Gem on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. ET. Match time is 2 p.m.
“Do or die, gotta put your body on the line, do whatever it takes to win,” said Toronto midfielder Emma Regan. “I think every person on our team has bought into that and we’re going to play for each other.”
On Monday, Toronto booked a spot in the Final with a 4-1 victory over visiting 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, the 26-year-old attacker who moved to Texas from Nigeria as a young teenager with her sister, scored three times in the first 26 minutes for an insurmountable 3-1 lead.
Jessica De Filippo lifts Vancouver Rise FC over AFC Toronto
On Nov. 1, it was goalkeeper Sierra Cota-Yarde’s time to shine as the 22-year-old Toronto native and her teammates blanked Montreal 2-0 in the first leg.
“I’d describe us as relentless,” midfielder Nikki Small, of Pickering, Ont., said in a story on the team’s website. “Everyone knows 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’re relentless in how we press, defend, score, and celebrate — it’s who we are as a team.”
Toronto hasn’t lost since Aug. 17, a 1-0 setback to Vancouver before 7,771 fans at BMO Field, where attacker Jessica De Filippo scored the lone goal.
“What comes to mind is the rematch of [that Aug. 17] game,” said Toronto head coach Marko Milanović. “We really wanted desperately to go back to that field because that’s one stadium that we haven’t won this year. Hopefully, we can do it on Saturday.”
Vancouver will also be seeking redemption following a 7-0 drubbing on Sept. 13 at the hands of Toronto, which became the first NSL club to clinch a playoff berth on that day while halting Rise FC’s four-game win streak and eight-game unbeaten run.
Kaylee Hunter and Okoronkwo paced the offence with two goals apiece.
“Esther … she’s a big-time player who always delivers in big moments. Hopefully we’ll see more of that in the final,” Milanović said.
Vancouver boasts a balanced attack. Abdu leads the way with 11 goals, followed by De Filippo and Ward with seven each. Midfielder Quinn, the two-time Canadian Olympic medallist who joined Rise FC after six seasons with the National Women’s Soccer League’s Seattle Reign FC, has six.
AFC Toronto scores 7 in a rout of Vancouver Rise
“It’s been an exciting season. It felt like 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 single player. We’ve got good depth.”
Each team won twice in the season series, and there was a 1-1 draw in their first meeting on May 11.
The NSL Final is expected to generate over $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 sport.
The game will cap a four-day festival celebrating women’s sports, with community events, concerts and conferences.
It’s been a little over seven months since Quinn scored on a penalty kick, helping the Vancouver to a 1-0 victory over the Calgary Wild in the inaugural NSL regular-season game.
Matheson, the league’s co-founder, has described the campaign in baseball terms as a ‘home run” after more than 275,000 people purchased tickets to see players from 19 countries. Now, there’s talk a seventh team could join the league in 2027, with a focus on Central and Western Canada.
“The hope was if we build it, they will come,” said Matheson, the former Canadian national team midfielder. “And the biggest question was would the players come, would the fans come? And it’s been an overwhelming yes. We’ve been so pleased with the quality of play.
“We want Saturday to be a celebration of women’s pro sport in Canada.”
