Australian wanting to know about Canadian soccer

[Solskjaer!]

Hi there!

I'm a soccer fan (or football fan, as I prefer to call it) living in Sydney, Australia.

As much of a fan of the beautiful game as I am, as it stands I know absolutely nothing about Canadian football.

I've ventured to these forums to see if I can find someone to enlighten me.

I'm going to be in Canada for around 3 weeks in about 2 weeks time. The majority of my time will be spent in Toronto.

I would like to learn about Candadian soccer.

Is there a national league? Is it a professional league? Where can I find out about this league and its participating teams?

There's a lot I'd like to know, is there anyone who might be able to help?

Thanks in advance.

[Joe MacCarthy]

The highest level of play in Canada right now is the USL first division (North American second division)
http://www.uslsoccer.com/

There are three Canadian teams in that league: Toronto Lynx, Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps. Toronto will have a team in MLS (North American first division) next year and is presently building a stadium for that. See threads below.

It is likely Montreal and Vancouver will follow Toronto into MLS in three to five years as they each have excellent organizations and ownership and both have plans to build SSS.
http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/index.jsp

There is now the Canadian Soccer League formerly CPSL which is a semi pro regional (Ontario) league and not much of a player on the Canadian scene.

For reasons too long to go into there is no high level truly Canadian soccer league at present. Finances, travelling distances, fan/investor interest being core issues.

The national soccer association (CSA) is looking at a triangular model with the three big cities above playing at the highest level in North America (MLS) with the next 5 or so largest Canadian cities playing in the USL Division One.

Better stick to the word soccer in Canada. We have interest in Canadian football (Toronto Argonauts) and their latest acquisition Ricky Williams and people in Toronto also follow American football (NFL primarily Buffalo Bills)

This forum is mostly a repository for Canadian soccer info, (articles and press releases). Almost everything you need to know about Canadian soccer is posted here. My favourite is the Canadians Abroad thread which is stickied at the top.

[Solskjaer!]

Thank you, that was much appreciated.

It seems I wouldn't be wrong in saying Canadian soccer faces similar problems to those which Australia faced not too long ago.

I'd be happy in telling you about the highs and (mainly) lows of Australian soccer if you wanted.