Whitecaps FC advance to Championship final

Vancouver Whitecaps FC have advanced to the final of the 2016 Amway Canadian Championship. The Vancouver club won their semi finals 3-2, eliminating Ottawa Fury FC after reversing an away 0:2 defeat on 1 June with a home 3:0 victory on 8 June.

Vancouver Whitecaps FC will face Toronto FC in the Championship final. Both legs of the 2016 Amway Canadian Championship final will be broadcast on TSN, with the first leg on 21 June in Toronto and the second leg on 29 June in Vancouver.

Vancouver Whitepcas FC are the defending national champions, having won the 2015 Amway Canadian Championship 4-2 over Impact Montréal FC. Vancouver lost to Toronto in the final in both the 2011 and 2012.

“We were very professional today, which is not taking anything away from Ottawa,” said Carl Robinson, head coach of Vancouver Whitecaps FC. “We needed to do it because we didn’t want to go out in the semi final stage (like) we did two years ago. We won it last year and it is our Cup; we want to try to defend it.”

In the first leg of the 2016 semi finals, Jonny Steele and Paulo Júnior scored for Ottawa. Steele (Ottawa) and Cole Seiler (Vancouver) were the stars of the match while Romuald Peiser (Ottawa) posted the clean sheet.

In the second leg, Pedro Morales (penalty), Nicolas Mezquida, and Octavio Rivero scored for Vancouver. Rivero (Vancouver) and Peiser (Ottawa) were the stars of the match while Paolo Tornaghi (Vancouver) posted the clean sheet. Tornaghi made two notable saves in the first half of the second leg, once tipping a Carl Haworth shot over the crossbar and later stopping Marcel de Jong on a shot from inside the box.

“We gave absolutely everything,” said Paul Dalglish, head coach of Ottawa Fury FC.

Attendance for the 8 June match at BC Place was 17,863. Of note, Vancouver’s Russell Teibert tied Jay Nolly for most matches in the Championship (15) while teammate Alphonso Davies became the youngest starter in the competition’s history (15 years old, one week after he debuted as a substitute on 1 June). Pedro Morales, meanwhile, became the first player to score in three different seasons of the Championship (2014-16).

The Amway Canadian Championship is Canada Soccer’s professional competition featuring clubs from Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montréal. The national champion lifts the Voyageurs Cup and wins Canada’s lone spot in CONCACAF Champions League on the road to the FIFA Club World Cup.