Northern Super League (Canada)

The first game of week 2 took place on Saturday, with the Tides hosting the Wild:



In case anyone is wondering, the replica version of the Wild's away jersey is listed here.

(Speaking of away jerseys: in case anyone missed it the first time around...)

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Going forward, a number of the matches yet to be played - as in, those marked on the schedule as being streamed on the league website - have now also been scheduled on the leagues YT channel.

Of these, the first to be live streamed there is Sunday's match between the Rise and les Roses:



Two hours before this, however, the last of the six teams to begin play, Rapid FC, are set to host AFC Toronto.

 

Sunday's Week 2 games saw one new team, and two new-to-the-league stadiums, enter the scene.

First up was le CF Rapide d'Ottawa making their home debut at TD Place Stadium against AFC Toronto:



After this, Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, BC - a province still coming to terms with the tragic events which took place in Vancouver over the weekend - hosted its first ever NSL match, between the Rise and les Roses:



Or, for those who prefer to hear it in French:



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Meanwhile, the NSL YouTube channel has begun to archive full match broadcasts which had been aired in English on other platforms. For example, here's one of the matches from back in Week 1:



No sign on where - if anywhere - the French match broadcasts are to be archived just yet, however.

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Going forward, Week 3 shall see the first "midweek" match, and the first match hosted at York Lions Stadium, as AFC Toronto welcome the Wild this Thursday.

On Saturday, another new venue is activated, as le Centre sportif Bois-de-Boulogne on the island of Laval (north of the island of Montréal proper) sees les Roses play against the Rapid.

Then, on Monday - which, technically, might count as Week 4, perhaps - the Rise play host at Swangard once again, this time for a coast -to-coast matchup against the Tides.

 

Actually, so far as I'm aware, only two of the six teams have official French names to date - though it would be welcome for the other four to follow suit someday.

For example: the "association football club" part of AFC Toronto's English name could be translated a number of ways into French. Might one of them be «club de football association», to turn it into le CFA de Toronto or somesuch?

 

If anyone wants to watch today's match between AFC Toronto and Calgary Wild FC, one option is to tune in here:



Also, the Week 2 matches have been archived on the league's YouTube channel.

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Aside from the league's own YT channel, there are channels for a number of individual teams, though some are more active than others.

For example, here is a press conference by AFC Toronto, in anticipation for today's match:



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In terms of future expansion, I would sooner expect the NSL to focus on cities within Canada.

Even prior to the current historical moment, Canadian-based leagues have had mixed fortunes trying to expand into the United States: the failed efforts by the Canadian Football League are a noted case study for this.

Plus, I'm not sure that the CSA, USSF, CONCACAF, and/or FIFA would be in a hurry to sanction such a move - not least when the NWSL is itself still looking to expand.

Speaking of which: now that the NSL exists, I would expect that the odds of any Canadian teams being added to the NWSL have dropped to somewhere at or around zero percent. So long as this league continues to function, of course.

And in any case, there are still a few places - such as Hamilton, Ontario and Vancouver Island, British Columbia - which have CPL clubs, but no NSL club, at this time of typing.

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All that said, once CONCACAF gets around to providing more details on how, and/or when, NSL clubs might be able to qualify for future iterations of the W Champions Cup, there'd then be an opportunity for them to compete with NWSL, Liga MX Feminil, and other regional league clubs in an official capacity.

Let's hope that it won't take too much longer for such an announcement to be made...

 

So, how did yesterday evening's match go?

TOR-CGY v1 (open) TOR-CGY v1 (close)

The title of SFOTM - for Super Falcon of the match - went to Esther Okoronkwo, who scored both goals for the home side in a 2-1 win over the Wild.

This marks the first time that AFC Toronto has taken the lead in a competitive match, and the first time they have held onto it through to the final whistle.

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Both of the next two matches are going to be live streamed on YouTube also:

 

The new home stadium for les Roses in Laval has been officially named as le Stade Boréale.

Unfortunately, there was a sound issue for the first few minutes of the English-language broadcast, but it cleared up after that. (I can't speak to how the full French-language broadcast went, by comparison.)

What I can do is post the highlights from this match:

MTL-OTT v1 (open) MTL-OTT v1 (close)

Despite conceding a goal in the first half, two goals by the home side in the second half were enough to turn this around and give les Roses three wins out of three.

With this, they are the last remaining undefeated team in the inaugural NSL campaign - though, of course, there are plenty more matches left to be played...

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Meanwhile, here is the post-match press conference from last week's game between Toronto and Calgary:



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As a reminder, this evening's match between the Rise and the Tides kicks off at 10pm EST, or 7PM local (Pacific) time.

 

Thank you kindly.

But, of course, if anyone else wants to post such updates here, I wouldn't overly complain...

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Speaking of highlights, here is what yesterday evening's Rise-Tides game looked like:

VAN-HFX V1 (open) VAN-HFX V1 (close)

The game itself was settled by a goal in the second half by the home side, leading to a 1-0 final score.

This result means that Halifax are still in search of their first point for the 2025 campaign.

The Rise used the occasion to debut their new "Rise by Moonlight" secondary kit, despite it being a home match.

This leaves Ottawa as the only team who have yet to display their away jersey at this time of typing.

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Week 4 continues with three more matches.

On Saturday, the Tides stay on the road, arriving in Laval for a match against les Roses. This game is being broadcast on Radio-Canada in French, and live streamed at the link below:



The first match on Sunday is at York Lions Stadium, where AFC Toronto host the Rise for the first time:



The second match on Sunday is at McMahon Stadium in Calgary - which, for the time being at least, is still in Canada; it'll see the Wild host the Rapid. This game is to be broadcast in English on TSN.

 

Here are the highlights from yesterday's match between les Roses and the Tides:

MTL-HFX V1 (open) MTL-HFX V1 (close)

It had to happen sometime: the first scoreless draw took place here, with both sides missing their chances to avert a 0-0 result.

Still, this marks the first point earned by the Tides in this regular season.

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As for today's match between AFC Toronto and Vancouver Rise FC:

TOR-VAN V1 (open) TOR-VAN V1 (close)

Another moment of note for the Northern Super League: the first score draw in league history.

Both sides left it late to hit the back of the net; both goals were scored after the 80th minute, for a 1-1 final result.

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This still leaves the Week 4 match between Calgary Wild FC and Ottawa Rapid FC - which is going to be on TSN2 in about half an hour's time.

 

Speaking of which:





Personally, I might wonder if it would have been better for the Wild to play at least some of their home games at ATCO Field at Spruce Meadows, the home of the Canadian Premier League's Cavalry FC.

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Also, you might notice in the above clips that the Rapid were wearing their new away jersey. It still has yet to be made available at the team online store, however.

Which means we now have home and away jerseys shown for all six teams. Anyone want to take a shot at ranking them in order of preference?

Personally, I find the away jerseys to be better than the home jerseys, on average at least.

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Going forward, here is what Week 5 has lined up.

On Thursday, the Rapid host the Rise:



On Saturday, the Tides host AFC Toronto; this match is to be broadcast on TSN in Canada.

While on Sunday, the Wild host les Roses in Calgary; the English broadcast is to be live streamed here:



So, unless I'm mistaken, this should mean that, by the end of this week, all six clubs shall have played at least one match against each of the others.

 

So how did yesterday's match in Ottawa go?

OTT-VAN V1 (open) OTT-VAN V1 (close)

In a stark contrast to last week's set of matches, goals were far from in short supply here - for the home side, at least, who won by three goals to nil.

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Also, to correct a note from my previous post:

Even after this week's matches are done, both Ottawa and Halifax shall have still only played four matches overall, to the other teams' five.

I haven't looked closely enough at the full season schedule to figure out when the "matches played" number is set to even out for all six clubs, though...

 

At the risk of Oeguk-in-splaining, I should note that the two Hangeul character blocks in Lee-seonsu's given name (민아) are pronounced "Min" (as in, "Daehan Minguk"), and "a" (as in, "Ah, what a goal!").

So "Min-a", as opposed to the "Mi-na" pronunciation that is, alas, all too commonly being used in this league's English broadcasts...

Interesting aside: technically, under the rules of Revised Romanization, the family name (이) would be transliterated as "I", rather than "Lee". However, when the South Korean government implemented this new system, an exception was made for Korean family names; since it would have involved changing too many passports, identity papers, and other things - and, indeed, of keeping track of whose name got changed to what! So, those are still typically handled by the McCune-Reischauer system.

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So, as for Saturday's game in Halifax:

HFX-TOR V1 (open) HFX-TOR V1 (close)

The Tides continue their search for a first win - or, indeed, for their first point earned at home - as they lost by a single goal to AFC Toronto in this match.

I'm not entirely sure how soon into the season one ought to be concerned, but it has been a particularly difficult start to 2025 for the Tides thus far.

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And for Sunday's game in Calgary:

CGY-MTL V1 (open) CGY-MTL V1 (close)

This "Wild-Rose Derby?" saw the visiting side accrue their first loss of the season, as their hosts won by one goal to nil.

While Les Roses are still top of the table for now, they are now only three points ahead of four other teams - and of those, the Rapid still have a game in hand...

 

No fewer than four games are set to be held in Week 6 - and each one is to be live streamed (in English) on YouTube!

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First up on Wednesday is a rematch between the Rise and the Tides, once again to be hosted at Swangard Stadium:



On Thursday, les Roses host AFC Toronto for the first time in Laval:



On Saturday, the Rise stay at home to host the Wild at Swangard for the first time:



While on Sunday, le CF Rapide renew hostilities against les Roses in Ottawa:

 

There are more than a few Irish place and personal names which many over in England - even with the best of intentions - can oftentimes struggle to get a handle on.

This might not be entirely different to such challenges faced in much of Japan, when dealing with certain Korean names.

One might wonder if there were any historical parallels involved in such cases...

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That said, there are a few factors which might also be in play here.

On the one hand, most South Koreans have both Hangeul and Hanja (Chinese character) versions of their names. Since Hangeul, like hiragana and katakana, is an entirely phonetic script, the use of Hanja allows for the characters chosen to have "meaning" in ways they might otherwise lack.

Indeed, in places like Taiwan and mainland China, those same characters can be read "natively": according to this page, the Chinese characters used for Lee-seonsu's name are "李玟娥", and read in Mandarin as "Lǐ Wén'é".

On the other hand, however, since 1945 there has been a noted... reluctance in Japan to read certain Korean names "natively" in the same way, due to the negative connotations this practice had accrued before then - and, indeed, due to Japan's "unique" position relative to both North and South Korea in the present day.

I'm not sure exactly where the various katakana renderings of this given name in Japanese fall in the midst of all of this, however - only to say that "ミンア" would appear at first glance (from this "gaijin-splaining" perspective, at least) to be the more "correct" option.

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As for her given name, as it is often being rendered in the English NSL broadcasts:

There are at least three different versions of "Mina" which exist in different parts of the world outside of Korea.

Perhaps one or more of those is being thought of in this case?

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I have to say, I'm not entirely sure I had this kind of side topic marked on my Bingo card - or would that be a BigSoccer card? - for this thread...

 

On a separate note:

If anyone here is looking for an English-language podcast covering the Northern Super League, there appear to be a few options available.

One of these is on a Canadian YouTube channel called Footy Prime, which has semi-regular "Broadscast" episodes looking at all things NSL.

I mention this one since, conveniently, two of the on-air commentators you might see and hear in various official English-language NSL live streams - Canadian women's national team alumni Amy Walsh and Dr. Clare Rustad - are often present here also:



If anyone can recommend any French-language podcasts for la Super Ligue du Nord, please post about them here!

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On an even separate-ier note:

it looks like someone has set up a Chinese Wikipedia page for the NSL!

I'm not sure if the team name translations there have any sort of official status, though it is interesting to see them nonetheless.