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L’Association canadienne de soccer (ACS) a annoncé aujourd’hui la nomination de Mme Carolina Morace au poste d’entraîneure-chef du programme national canadien féminin. Mme Morace, qui a été présentée aux médias aujourd’hui au cours d’une conférence de presse à Toronto, en Ontario, assumera le contrôle du programme immédiatement avant le camp d’entraînement de l’équipe nationale canadienne féminine senior, qui aura lieu en Californie à partir de dimanche prochain.
« Nous entamons une nouvelle ère dans l’histoire du soccer féminin au Canada », a déclaré M. Peter Montopoli, secrétaire-général de l’Association canadienne de soccer. « La nomination de Carolina Morace à ce poste souligne notre volonté de développer l’un des meilleurs programmes au monde. Mme Morace n’a qu’une ligne directrice : mener le Canada à la victoire. »
The field is set for the 2009 edition of the CONCACAF Gold Cup. With seven teams including Canada already qualified, the last five teams qualified through the Copa de Naciones Digicel de UNCAF (Central American championship).
Panama (Copa champions), Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua all qualified through the Copa de Naciones in Tegucigalpa. Those five countries join Canada, Mexico, USA, Cuba, Grenada, Guadeloupe and Jamaica for the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup. The schedule and venues for the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup have yet to be announced.
FIFA has released its 2008 match report with an incredible 1,426 international matches played. In all, men’s teams from 196 national associations played at least one game while women’s teams from 94 national associations played at least one game.
On the men’s side, Spain was the best team with an overall record of 15 wins, one draw and no losses. Spain scored 33 times and allowed just five goals against. Of note, Spain won the 2008 European Championship. CONCACAF nation Trinidad & Tobago was the only men’s team to win more games – it posted 16 wins, but in 28 games (16-7-5).
Canada’s men’s national team has announced that it will play an international friendly match against Cyprus this 30 May 2008. The match, which will take place in Cyprus, will be an important part of Canada’s preparations for the 2009 CONCACAF Gold Cup which takes place this summer. This will be the second international meeting between Canada and Cyprus. Canada played to a 0:0 draw with Cyprus on 30 October 1984. Further details on the 2009 match and the Canadian team will be announced in the coming months.
Canadian national-team member Kristina Kiss has been named the top Ottawa soccer player for the 2008 season. Ms. Kiss was recognized at the annual Ottawa Sports Awards on Wednesday night, claiming the Athlete of the Year prize in the sport of soccer. In 2008, the 27-year old Kiss played six games for the national team, three of which came as a starter. She scored one goal, the sixth goal in an 8:0 victory over Singapore. Earlier in the year, she helped Canada qualify for the Women’s Olympic Football Tournament for the first time in Association history. In August, she was name an alternate to the Olympic team.
The Calgary Callies won the Alberta Soccer Association’s adidas Golden Shoe Award as the province’s team of the year. The Callies won the award after collecting yet another gold medal at the 2008 BMO National Championships. The Callies have now won the Challenge Trophy in the senior men’s club competition four of the last nine years. The Callies were honoured at the Alberta Soccer Association Annual General Meeting. The event took place 16-18 January at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, AB. Other weekend award winners were referee Sal Romano for the Golden Whistle, volunteer Ivan Magdee for the Shield of Merit, Rob Savard for the Award of Merit, the Calgary Spirit Classics for the Fairplay award, Colin Innes for the President’s Award, Mike Traficante for the Life membership award, and outgoing ASA president Fred Kern for the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award.
The Alberta Soccer Association honoured two of its past presidents on Saturday, renaming its two senior club provincial trophies after Mike Traficante and Fred Kern. The new men’s trophy will bear the name Mike Traficante Cup while the new women’s trophy will bear the name Fred Kern Shield.
Mr. Traficante, a director at large on the Canadian Soccer Association’s executive committee, was the Alberta Soccer Association president from 2003-04. Mr. Kern followed him with a term from 2005-08. Mr. Kern was succeeded this year by incoming president Chris Billings.
Canada sits ninth within CONCACAF in the first FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings of the 2009 season. USA, meanwhile, maintained the top spot for the fourth-consecutive month with Mexico and Honduras in second and third place. The FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings looks at each country’s international results from the last four years. The ranking takes into account the result, the importance of the match, the strength of the opponent, the regional strength, the time period, and the number of matches per year.
The British Columbia Soccer Association announced its 2008 winners at the annual awards banquet on Saturday night. Defender Robbie Veenhof was named Senior Athlete of the Year while defender Derrick Bassi was named Youth Athlete of the Year.
Other award winners were Senior Official Michelle Pye, Youth Official Matthew Wynne, Senior Coach Julius Karpati, Youth Coach Spiro Pegios and Administrator Noel Estacio. Ron Joseph won the Presidents award, Joe Jhutty won the AC Sanford award, Alan Churchard was named a Life Member, and Jan Cox, Don Mangano, Chris Paige and Cees van Delft received Awards of Merit.
