CS Saint-Laurent, Calgary Foothills SC win PDP U-17 Cup

CS Saint-Laurent and Calgary Foothills SC were the inaugural winners of Canada Soccer’s PDP U-17 Cup on Sunday Finals Day at the Bill Gilhespy Soccer Complex in Edmonton, Alberta. CS Saint-Laurent won the Boys’ Final 5-3 on penalties over Burnaby FC while Calgary Foothills SC won the Girls’ Final 5-4 on kicks over AS Laval. The Boys’ Final was 2-2 before penalties while the Girls’ Final was 1-1 before penalties.

As it worked out, all four Canadian Finals went to penalties on Sunday afternoon, with Ottawa South United 3-2 winners over Surrey FC in the Boys’ PDP U-15 Cup Final and CS St-Hubert 3-1 winners over AS Laval in the Girls’ PDP U-15 Cup Final.

Alongside the Canadian Championship for professional and semi-professional clubs, Canada Soccer delivers annual national amateur competitions in April (Futsal Canadian Championship), August (Player-Development Program Championship) and October (Toyota National Championships). Alberta Soccer will serve as the hosts and Local Organising Committee for the inaugural edition of Canada Soccer’s Player-Development Program Championship.

Canada Soccer’s Player-Development Program features a network of standards-based programs that represent high-level amateur youth soccer in Canada. Participating organisations, both clubs and academies, all meet the requirements for standards-based programming including recognition as an active National Youth Club Licensee.

In all, 50 matches were played across the four divisions at the Bill Gilhespy Soccer Complex, with the four championship matches played in succession on Sunday 18 August. The 28 participating teams qualified from a pool of 155 youth teams competing in the U-17 and U-15 age groups through the BC Soccer Premier League, the Alberta Player Development League, the Ontario Player-Development League, and the Québec Youth Soccer Premier League (Première Ligue de Soccer Juvénile du Québec). In all, 504 players took part in the competition.