Ottawa Fury Press Release – www.ottawafury.com
Friday, March 20, 2009
OTTAWA, ON – The Ottawa Fury Soccer Club in cooperation with the Thunder Bay Chill, Toronto Lynx and Forest City (FC) London are pleased to announce the schedule for the inaugural Victoria Challenge Cup, an annual pre-season tournament involving the provinces four United Soccer Leagues Premier Development League clubs. The tournament will be held in Ottawa from Friday, May 15 through Sunday, May 17.
The Fury will play host in the tournament’s inaugural year, kicking off against the reigning Premier Development League Champion Thunder Bay Chill on May 15. That match is set to begin at 7:30 PM at the Algonquin College Soccer Complex.
The Thunder Bay Chill is coming off their best season in franchise history, finishing the regular season with a 13-2-1 record to win the Heartland Division. They would go on to capture the Central Conference Title and then defeat the Laredo Heat to become the first Canadian Club to win the PDL title. 
“This tournament is going to be very important to us as we are limited to the amount of pre-season games we get in Thunder Bay,” commented the Chill’s GM Tony Colistro whose team suffered a loss and a draw to start last season against teams who already had several quality games under their belt.
“This will be an important weekend to prepare us for league games giving us an opportunity to try different systems and players,” noted Colistro, who believes that the tournament is “a great opportunity to celebrate the fact that we have four Ontario Premier Development League teams. Hopefully this event will establish itself as a recognized event.”
Also coming off their best season in club history, the Ottawa Fury finished the regular season with a 9-4-3 record, but missed out on the post-season on a head-to-head tiebreaker with Newark.
“The US-based PDL teams play in early season qualifying games for the US Open Cup in May and get a head start on the teams from Canada,” said Fury CEO and Owner John Pugh. “This tournament will provide us with great preseason competition for our fans with a title at stake. It will also ensure we are ready to compete come opening day of our PDL season. [The Victoria Challenge Cup] is a chance for the Ontario teams to play each other, as we are currently spread over three different PDL divisions.”
Not to be outdone, the Toronto Lynx too are looking to improve on their best season since 2000. The Lynx posted an 8-6-2 record and made the playoffs for the first time in that same time span after spending some of those years playing in USL First Division. New to the PDL league in 2009 is the FC London franchise, who will play in the Great Lakes Division with the Toronto Lynx.
The four clubs will play each other in round robin style to determine the 2009 champion. Toronto and London will not face each other while in Ottawa, but their early opening season divisional match will complete the tournament schedule.
During the USL AGM this past November, many Canadian Clubs were discussing the prospects on participating in a Cup tournament similar to the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, which is open to all US Clubs in the USL and MLS. While the CSA has put together the Nutrilite Canadian Championship, it is currently exclusive to Toronto FC (MLS), Montreal Impact (USL-1) and Vancouver WhiteCaps (USL-1) and so the four Ontario PDL Clubs decided to put together their own tournament and will rotate hosting the event from year to year.
The tournament schedule is as follows:
Friday, May 15
7:30pm: Thunder Bay Chill v. Ottawa Fury
Saturday, May 16
3:00pm: Forest City London v. Thunder Bay Chill
6:00pm: Toronto Lynx v. Ottawa Fury
Sunday, May 17
2:00pm: Forest City London v. Ottawa Fury
5:00pm: Thunder Bay Chill v. Toronto Lynx
*All games will be played at the Algonquin College Soccer Complex
