OTTAWA (CIS) – The 41st CIS championship gets under way on Thursday at the University of Toronto's Varsity Stadium and culminates on Sunday with the gold-medal final set for 4:00 p.m. The CIS individual award winners and all-Canadian teams for the 2010 season will be announced prior to the event, on Wednesday evening.
All 11 games from the eight-team, single-elimination tournament will be webcast by
SSN Canada.
One year removed from their first-ever Canadian Interuniversity Sport men's soccer title, the Laval Rouge et Or are one of the top teams heading into this year's competition.
Joining Quebec champion Laval in Toronto this week will be the tournament host – and OUA champion - Varsity Blues, the Saint Mary's Huskies (AUS champions), UBC thunderbirds (Canada West champions), UQAM Citadins (Quebec finalists), York Lions (OUA finalists), Alberta Golden Bears (Canada West regular season champions), as well as the Western Ontario Mustangs (OUA bronze medallists).
The Rouge et Or kick off their title defence Thursday at 11 a.m. against York in the first quarter-final matchup of opening day. Saint Mary's is set to square off against Alberta at 1:30 p.m., UBC will battle Western at 4 p.m., and host Toronto takes on UQAM at 6:30 p.m.
The winners of the first round move on to Saturday's semifinals, while the losers resume play Friday on the consolation side of the bracket.
Laval enjoyed yet another solid campaign in Quebec this fall. The Rouge et Or easily took first place in the RSEQ standings with a 10-2 record – eight points ahead of their closest rivals – and avenged their only two losses of the season in the playoffs with a 2-1 semifinal win over perennial contender Montreal and a 2-0 gold-medal victory over UQAM, en route to their second straight RSEQ banner.
The Rouge et Or, who will make their sixth straight appearance – and sixth in history – at the CIS tourney this week, had been knocking on the door for a number of years at the national championship prior to their breakthrough performance of 2009. They had reached the Final Four three years running from 2006 to 2008 and their first CIS final in 2007, a game they lost 2-1 to UBC.
Following the Quebec title match against UQAM last Sunday, Laval head coach Samir Ghrib talked about his team's depth and how dropping two games earlier this fall might not have been such a bad thing.
“A coach never wants to lose, but when you do, you hope your players learn from it,” said Ghrib, named the CIS coach of the year in 2009 and once again the Quebec nominee this season. “A loss can sometimes be a good thing. It calms players who may get a little excited, a little ahead of themselves.”
“We won our two playoff matches without out two top goal scorers (2009 CIS championship MVP) Gabriel Moreau and Ilyes Benmiloud, who were both sidelined with injuries. It's a testament to the depth of our line-up.”
While the Laval mentor is satisfied with his pupils' season so far, he knows there is still work to be done.
“We still have three mountains to climb to reach the top,” said Ghrib, whose troops overcame a two-goal deficit to beat league rival McGill 3-2 in last year's CIS final.
The Varsity Blues are the only other returnees from the 2009 Nationals. Toronto was one of Laval's victims last November in Langley, B.C., losing 3-0 to the Rouge et Or in the semifinals before dropping a penalty kicks decision to Trinity Western in the bronze-medal match.
Even though they've known for months they would have another shot at the Davidson trophy this year, the Blues didn't want to get in thanks only to the host berth. They kept an impressive 10-1-3 record in conference play before adding three straight wins in the playoffs, including a 1-0 PK victory over York for their first OUA title since 2003.
The only previous time the U of T hosted the CIS tournament, in 1986, the Blues reached the final but had to settle for silver following a 4-0 defeat against UBC. Toronto claimed its lone national title two years later.
Four of the other six teams hoping to hoist the coveted trophy on Sunday have captured at least one CIS banner in the past including UBC and Alberta, both of whom boast mindboggling all-time marks at the event.
The Thunderbirds hold the record of 11 CIS titles – seven more than any other team – and have reached the national final 14 times in 15 previous appearances. They are 32-4-2 (.868) all-time at the competition.
“Our approach is going to be very similar this week to what it was at the Canada West Final Four. We want to play tight defensively and keep a clean sheet - that style makes it really hard to beat you,” said UBC head coach
Mike Mosher, whose T-Birds blanked Saskatchewan 1-0 in the conference final.
“The quality of the teams that have qualified looks to be very strong and there are going to be no easy games,” added Mosher, who has led UBC to six CIS titles, two as the head coach, one as an assistant and three as a player.
The Golden Bears are tied with Victoria for second place all-time with four Davidson trophy triumphs and have played for gold 10 times in 11 previous participations.
The Lions and Mustangs have each been crowned twice. While York went 31 years between titles (1977, 2008), Western won back-to-back banners in 1998 and 1999.
Saint Mary's has come oh-so-close on a number of occasions and has four silver medals to its credit. The Huskies have lost three CIS finals by a single goal with their most recent heartbreak coming in 2003, a 2-1 OT decision to Alberta.
Quebec finalist UQAM will play at the national level for only the second time in history. The Citadins claimed CIS bronze in their lone previous appearance in 1998.
UBC Thunderbirds (Canada West champions)
Head Coach:
Mike Mosher (15th season)
Regular season record: 8-3-3
Regular season standing: 2nd Canada West
Playoff record: 2-0
Playoff finish: Canada West champions
Final Top 10 ranking (Nov. 2): No. 7
Best Top 10 ranking (10 weeks): No. 2 (1 week: 4th poll)
Number of weeks in Top 10 (10 weeks): 10
Conference award winners: None
Conference 1st team all-stars:
Jason Gill (D),
Will Hyde (D),
Brandon Bonifacio (M),
Gagan Dosanjh (S)
Conference 2nd team all-stars:
Matt Allard (D)
CIS championship appearances (including 2010): 16
CIS championship all-time record: 32-4-2 (.868)
CIS championship all-time medals: 14 (11 gold, 3 silver)
CIS championship best result: CIS record 11-time champions (2007, 2005, 1994, 1992, 1991, 1990, 1989, 1986, 1985, 1984, 1974)
CIS championship last appearance: 2007 (champions)
CIS championship sequence: 3rd appearance in 6 years (2010, 2007, 2005)
-30-
