MLS Teams Dominate NASL in Nutrilite Canadian Championship 1st Leg

2011 April 28
by Brian Quarstad

The Nutrilite Canadian Championship kicked off Wednesday evening with the first leg of the newly formatted tournament.

Toronto FC dominated 1st year second division team FC Edmonton by a score of 3-0. Edmonton had their chances but a straight red card to Shaun Saiko for a studs up lunge at Reds’ midfielder Oscar Cordon didn’t help the underdog, who were playing their first home game of the year.

The Montreal Impact fared better than Edmonton but only slightly. They too were defeated by an MLS team last night in the first leg of the Voyageurs Cup. Vancouver defeated the Impact by a score of 1-0 with the lone goal coming from a header by Terry Dunfield in the 67th minute mark.

Edmonton will now travel to BMO Field and Montreal will travel to Empire Stadium for the second leg teams. Both games will be played on May 4th.

FC Edmonton v Toronto FC Video Highlights

Montreal Impact v Vancouver Whitecaps Video Highlights

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9 Responses
  1. April 28, 2011

    Ugh. “Away goals count for double”. Grrrr

    I hate that phrase.

  2. Strikers Return permalink
    April 28, 2011

    Any note on attendance in Edmonton?

  3. April 28, 2011

    5,781 in . I tweeted it earlier and I think it’s still in the sidebar tweets along with a link.

  4. ERic permalink
    April 28, 2011

    Nice attendance in Edmonton. And that’s a nice stadium.

  5. April 28, 2011

    Yes, but not where they will be playing their games this season. That venue is Foote Field.

    Foote Field

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foote_Field

  6. WSW permalink
    April 28, 2011

    FC Edmonton played with 10 men due to a harsh red card.

  7. April 28, 2011

    WSW, the video is right there. It looks pretty nasty to me. I know Sinkgraven didn’t think it was a red but he did say Saiko should never have flown in with the ball on the TFC side of half. It was the time for discretion, not aggression. “It wasn’t a smart tackle.”

    http://the11.ca/2011/04/28/red-card-condemns-fc-edmonton-to-defeat-against-toronto-fc/

  8. April 28, 2011

    That red hurt us so much. It was deflating and just plain devastating. I really wonder how the game would have turned out if we weren’t a man down for so much of the game (also considering who it was we lost). I figure we still would have lost, but not 3 – 0. That Baart blunder was horrible to witness. I say that because I know how good of a keeper he is.

  9. April 29, 2011

    Thanks for the link. The red card, no matter your opinion if it was a harsh call or not, didn’t just reduce Edmonton to 10 men. Saiko is the team’s best player. He is the engine of the team.
    Reason they used Commonwealth instead of Foote Field is because the Canadian Soccer Association forbids a game to be played on a field that has the football lines on it. That’s the case at Foote Field. The University of Alberta plays (Canadian) football at the stadium. So, you will see the yard markers and end zones when FCE plays Montreal Sunday night.

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