Here's a trivia question for you: what is the largest attendance to witness a soccer game in Canada this year (i.e., since January 1st, 2009) and who played whom?
For the answer, here's a link:
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/soccer/stor...os-impact.html. Check out the video provided at the link.
This year's version of the Nutralife Canadian Soccer Championship is halfway complete, with Toronto FC leading after 2 games played. The Whitecaps are second after having defeated the Impact in Montreal this evening, 2-0.
http://www.canadasoccer.com/news/vie...?Press_ID=3638 The Impact bring up the rear with zero points after losses to Vancouver and Toronto.
The winner of the 3-team round robin tournament will earn Canada's guaranteed berth in the group phase of the CONCACAF Champions' League (similar in structure to the European Champions' League tournament). The Impact won the competition last year, finished in the top two in their group during the Champions' League and hosted Santos Laguna (one of Mexico's top clubs) in the quarter-finals at Olympic Stadium in Montreal in late February. In front of more than 55,000 fans, the Impact defeated Santos Laguna 2-0 in the first leg only to give lost 5-2 in Mexico on the return leg to fail to reach the semi-finals. If the Whitecaps end up winning their first Nutralife Championship, they could very well replicate Montreal's success and host a February quarter-final match in front of (hopefully) a full house at BC Place stadium. (When do the Olympics end?)
Anyway, Vancouver has yet to play its home games against Montreal (May 27th) and Toronto (June 2nd). If they win both, they'll be sitting pretty and all it would take would be a Montreal tie against Toronto to hand the Whitecaps their first ever Nutralife Championship and a spot in the CONCACAF champions league.
Here are some links of interest:
Voyageurs' website-put together by Canadian Soccer enthusiasts:
http://www.canadian-soccer.com/forum...sp?FORUM_ID=21
The Canadian Soccer Association website:
http://www.canadasoccer.com/home.asp?lang=en
The CONCACAF Champions' League website:
http://www.concacaf.com/competitions...gue/index.aspx