Voyageurs Cup to be presented to 2009 winners

The Voyageurs Cup will be presented on Thursday night at Stade Saputo in Montréal. The trophy will be presented to the winners of the 2009 Nutrilite Canadian Championship, be it Toronto FC or Vancouver Whitecaps FC. Toronto FC will be in uniform against the Impact de Montréal while the Whitecaps will be watching from the sidelines with its fingers crossed.

This is the second year that the Voyageurs Cup will be presented to the champion of the Nutrilite Canadian Championship. From 2002 to 2007, the trophy was presented to the top A-League/USL-1 team in matches between Canadian teams. The actual trophy itself was donated by Canadian fans. The Impact de Montréal has won the Voyageurs Cup all seven times to date.

In 2008, the Nutrilite Canadian Championship was inaugurated to feature Canada’s three top professional clubs: Major League Soccer’s Toronto FC and USL-1’s Impact de Montréal and Vancouver Whitecaps FC. The champion qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League, which was also inaugurated in 2008. After winning the Voyageurs Cup, the Impact made it all the way to the 2008-09 CONCACAF Champions League quarter-final stage.

To date, Vancouver Whitecaps FC sit in first place with nine points and a +4 goal differential (Vancouver has played all four. Toronto FC can match Vancouver’s nine points with a win on 18 June, but it needs four goals to overtake Vancouver in the standings.

Along with the presentation of the Voyageurs Cup on Thursday night, the Nutrilite Canadian Championship will also award the George Gross Memorial Trophy to the competition’s Most Valuable Player. In 2008, the Impact’s Matt Jordan was the trophy’s first winner.