KUSC Women making their mark in Ottawa-Carleton

Last year, Bob Machin moved his top-level Kingston women's team from the Ontario Women's Soccer League (OWSL) to the Ottawa-Carleton Soccer League (OCSL) into the premier division, where they finished in third place behind the Falcons Fury and Gloucester, twelve points off the pace of the two leading teams.

After an off-season requiring replacements of almost half of the team's players, the team is ready to compete for the OCSL Women's Premier title in 2014.

KUSC Women's Premier to play in the OCSL

It would not be unfair to say that Bob Machin has been around the game of soccer his entire life. His father was one of the founders of the Kingston United Soccer Club (a men's club) in the late 1940s and his brother John was instrumental in the founding of the Pittsburgh Township Soccer Club. As such, it is extremely fitting that Bob finds himself belonging to the Kingston United Soccer Club (KUSC), a club formed in 2004 with the merger of the Kingston Youth Soccer Club and the Pittsburgh Township Soccer Club.

In 2009, Bob Machin, along with Aldo Popazzi and Dimitri Senis, formed the Kingston FC women's team as part of the Kingston Women's Soccer Club (KWSC) to be entered in the Ontario Women's Soccer League (OWSL). That year, they won the East Regional division.

GKSSA teams playing friendlies against Kingston FC

This coming Saturday, the GKSSA's A Division winning team, Soccer Plus FC, will be facing off again a squad of players from Kingston FC's lineup in a pre-season exhibition game, the first on Kingston FC's schedule.

A second game will follow next Friday against Portuguese Benfica, the 2012 Carmine Lanzo, Sr Cup and playoff winners.

CIS Men's Championship - preview

The 2011 edition of the CIS men's soccer championship begins this Thursday in Victoria, British Columbia on the University of Victora campus. All of the games will be played at Centennial Stadium in a single-elimination tournament.

The 2011 edition features eight teams, two from each of the Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, and Canada West conferences. The teams are the Saint Mary's Huskies (AUS playoff champions), Cape Breton Capers (AUS season champions), Montreal Carabins (RSEQ champions), McGill Redmen (RSEQ finalists), McMaster Marauders (OUA champions), Toronto Varsity Blues (OUA finalists), Albert Golden Bears (CWUAA champions), and the host team, the UVic Vikes.

Today we will briefly preview all eight teams involved and show the path that the OUA teams would need to traverse to reach the championship final to lift the Sam Davidson memorial trophy.

CIS Women's Championship - preview

The 2011 edition of the CIS women's soccer championship begins this Thursday in Montreal, Quebec on the McGill University campus. All of the games will be played at the Percival Molson Stadium in a single-elimination tournament.

The 2011 edition features eight teams, one from the Atlantic conference, two from Quebec (including the host team), three from Ontario, and two from the Canada West conference. The teams are the Dalhousie Tigers (AUS champions), Montreal Carabins (RSEQ champions), Queen's Gaels (OUA champions), Trinity Western (CWUAA champions), Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks (OUA finalists), Alberta Pandas (CWUAA finalists), Ottawa Gee-Gees (OUA bronze medalists), and the host team, the McGill Martlets.

Today we will briefly preview all eight teams involved and show the path that the OUA teams would need to traverse to reach the championship final to lift the Gladys Bean memorial trophy.

OUA Women's Final Four - Queen's 3, McMaster 0

The Queen's Gaels put on a masterful show in Waterloo today as they dominated the McMaster Marauders in their OUA semi-final matchup. Like the York v Toronto men's game earlier today, this one ended with the losing team down a player.

I had some troubles getting the online stream going and came into the game when there were close to ten minutes played. The Queen's starting lineup was almost the same as last week's lineup against the Carleton Ravens, with the exception of Breanna Burton starting in place of the injured Kelli Chamberlain.

OUA Men's Final Four - preview

This coming weekend, the OUA is holding the Final Four round for both the women and men's soccer playoffs. The women's round is being played in Waterloo at Wilfrid Laurier's University Stadium while the men's is being played in Ottawa at Carleton University.

Yesterday we took a quick look at the women's Final Four, and today we are taking a look at the teams involved in the men's Final Four.

On the men's side, the Carleton Ravens are the host team due to their first place finish in the OUA East. Joining them from the OUA East are the University of Toronto Varsity blues. Coming in from the OUA West are the first place York Lions and the second place McMaster Marauders.

OUA Women's Final Four - preview

This coming weekend, the OUA is holding the Final Four round for both the women and men's soccer playoffs. The women's round is being played in Waterloo at Wilfrid Laurier's University Stadium while the men's is being played in Ottawa at Carleton University.

Today we will take a quick look at the four teams involved in the women's Final Four, and tomorrow we'll take a look at the men's Final Four.

On the women's side, the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks are the host team due to their first place finish in the OUA West. Joining them from the OUA West are the McMaster Marauders. Coming in from the OUA East are the first place Queen's Gaels and the second place Ottawa Gee-Gees.

OUA Women Playoff preview: Queen's v Carleton

The Queen's Gaels women begin their playoffs this Sunday afternoon at 1pm when they face the Carleton Ravens at Richardson Stadium's new north turf field.

The Gaels earned a bye through to the OUA quarter-final round due to their first place finish in the OUA East with a regular season record of 13-1-2, good enough to be ranked 4th overall in the CIS. The Carleton Ravens are coming off of a 5-0 demolition of the Laurentian Lady Vees in the opening round of the playoffs. The Ravens had to play this game due to their fourth place finish in the OUA East with a record of 8-6-2.

Carleton will be coming into the game feeling good about themselves as the Queen's Gaels were only able to play the Lady Vees to a 2-2 draw last Sunday afternoon. Having said that, taking a look at the games between these two teams and the way that they match up, the Ravens have a big task ahead of them if they want to get to the OUA Final Four being played on the weekend of November 5th and 6th.

CIS Men Playoff preview: Queen's v Laurentian

Over the last ten days, the Queen's Gaels and Laurentian Voyageurs have played each other twice. Both games were hard fought, both were decided late, and both ended in draws.

This Wednesday, October 26th, they face each other again, this time in a sudden death playoff game, with the winner likely getting to face the University of Toronto on Sunday afternoon.

Playing each other three times in such a short period of time is going to give the two teams a good understanding of each other and is almost certain to cause a bit of bad blood between players based on the events of those prior games and the way that things fell out.

I'm going to take a brief look at the past two games between the teams, how they matched up, and what might be expected tomorrow afternoon.

Weekend preview - Oct 22/23

This weekend features the final rounds of the CIS men's and women's soccer in the OUA. Several things are on the line for both Queen's teams and their players as the Laurentian Voyageurs and Nipissing Lakers come to Kingston to play against both the Queen's Gaels and RMC Paladins.

On the college front, there was a disappointing end to the season this week for the St. Lawrence Vikings women's squad. After their big win last Sunday, they held down the final playoff spot in the OCAA East Division, but the La Cite Coyotes managed to get by Fleming Knights with a goal in the 60th minute to win the game 1-0 and jump past the Vikings for the final spot in the OCAA playoffs.

World Cup Qualifying: Canada visits St. Lucia (Updated)

Tomorrow evening at 6pm ET, the Canadian men's national team (CMNT) will be playing their third game of the second round of CONCACAF qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. The game is being played down in St. Lucia, and Canada beat them in Toronto on the 2nd of September by a 4-1 scoreline. Canada won both of their qualifiers to date by scores of 4-1 and 3-0 (at Puerto Rico) and can eliminate St. Lucia with a win.

Unfortunately, the game is not being televised due to a lack of broadcast facilities at the source, but Canada Soccer will be tweeting a commentary of the game for people to follow along with. Rogers Sportsnet has sent down a small camera crew to do interviews and collect highlights to be shown later.