High-quality soccer returns to Winnipeg

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 14/12/2010 (5724 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tune up those vuvuzelas soccer fans, the United Soccer League is coming to town.

Monday afternoon, in one of the Hotel Fort Garry’s magnificent ball rooms, Eduardo Badescu, announced that his dream had come true.

“I am a very happy man today,” said Badescu, who along with partners William Rosales and Costas Ignat, unveiled the Winnipeg Soccer Academy, Winnipeg’s entry into the Premier Development League of the USL. “I have been waiting for this day for a long time, but the last six months was really a hard time for us to get all things together.”

Badescu, president of the WSA, says the calibre of play will be a notch higher than university level, and that they already have a pool of players they are scouting. “We have a group of 47 players that we are going to have a look at. Hopefully in January we will start practicing at the University of Manitoba indoor facility. We will have a tryout date later on, and I think I will be able to name a team by the end of April.”

The USL is made up of 64 teams, broken down into four conferences, consisting of eight regional divisions. Winnipeg will play a 16-game schedule in the Heartland Division of the PDL, the top under-23 men’s league in North America.

The teams who will make up the Heartland Division along with WSA are Thunder Bay, Minneapolis, Springfield, Des Moines, Kansas City and Colorado.

“This a great opportunity for the young players in Manitoba to look at something to strive for,” commented Hector Vergara, executive director of the Manitoba Soccer Association. “We are developing the youth players through the youth club system and there is also the provincial program at the MSA with the Regional Training Centre program, and the National Training Centre programs.”

Vergara says that once a player in Manitoba reaches the age of 17-18, and hasn’t made a national team, there isn’t anything for them to strive towards with regards to continuing development toward the possibility of a professional or university career. “This will help us in the long term to bring in semi professional and professional soccer in to Winnipeg. If that is out there, players in the system will continue to play, and work hard to make it to make a team like this.”

As an official, Vergara has had the opportunity to see PDL soccer up close, and likes what he saw. “We’ve had PDL teams play exhibition games in Winnipeg before. It is a quality soccer, and our top senior men’s teams have been competitive. So what you will see now with having a PDL team, and other PDL teams coming to Winnipeg, is some high level soccer on a consistent basis.”

The PDL season, which will run from May to August, consists of 16 regular-season matches for each team, eight home and eight away. Winnipeg’s entry will call the Winnipeg Outdoor Soccer Complex home.

Announcements with regards to coaching, tickets, schedule and official team jersey will be forthcoming.

For more information go to www.wsawinnipeg.com.

allan.besson@freepress.mb.ca