TORONTO - Quebec semi-pro side FC Laval learned a painful lesson Tuesday in its second-ever trip to the Telus Canadian Championship.
“The learnings are simple,” said Laval coach Amro Radwan. “At the top level, you can’t take a break for half a second, even if you think the ball is far away from you and it’s not dangerous. That’s the difference between being a pro and an amateur player.
“We have to learn from this that, no matter what, we have to be disciplined for 90 minutes in everything that we do. If not we get punished.”
York United FC administered the punishment, cruising to a 5-0 win in preliminary-round play.
Julian Altobelli, Max Ferrari, Adonijah Reid, Bryan Rosa and Massimo Ferrin scored for the Canadian Premier League team at York Lions Stadium.
The well-drilled Quebec Ligue1 champions defended well until York struck twice on the eve of halftime. Things went downhill from there.
“When you (give up) two goals so late (in the half), it changes everything,” Radwan lamented. “And then you have to open up. And when you open up against opposition like this, they don’t need big chances to score. It’s heartbreaking. It’s tough. I don’t think the boys deserved that score line.”
Altobelli opened the scoring in the 45th minute after captain Oswaldo Leon found him in the penalty box with a gorgeous left-footed feed from distance. The ball floated over the head of a defender to Altobelli, who pivoted and knocked the ball home.
Altobelli, a former º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøFC 2 player, has had a dream start to life in the CPL with five goals in five games before Tuesday.
Three minutes later, Ferrari headed home Orlando Botello’s cross to make it 2-0. Laval’s French-born goalkeeper Martin Cantona, the nephew of former Manchester United star Eric Cantona, got a hand to the ball but could not keep it out.Â
York outshot Laval 11-3 (6-1 in shots on target) and had 59 per cent possession in the first half.
Reid upped the lead to 3-0 in the 52nd minute on a pretty goal. Ferrari started it on the right flank, beating a defender before sending in an accurate cross to the far post that Ferrin chested down for an unmarked Reid to poke home.
Rosa, bursting past two Laval defenders, beat Cantona with a low shot for a 4-0 lead in the 64th minute. Ferrin then scored from the penalty spot in the 79th minute.
York will face CPL-leading Atletico Ottawa in the quarterfinals.
The win was welcome to York coach Mauro Eustaquio, whose 1-3-1 team currently stands sixth in the eight-team CPL and is winless in four league outings (0-3-1) since a season-opening 2-0 victory at Vancouver FC on April 6.
“We knew that the goals were coming,” said Eustaquio. “I think the players needed this win. The club needed this win. And I’m happy to be part of it.”
In the late cup game Tuesday, visiting Vancouver FC defeated Pacific FC in a penalty shootout (4-2) after the game finished tied at 1-1 in regulation time.
On Wednesday, it’s Halifax Wanderers at Forge in another CPL showdown in Hamilton, and League1 B.C.‘s TSS Rovers visit Winnipeg’s Valour FC.
Four teams had already made it to the two-legged quarterfinals, including the MLS-leading Vancouver Whitecaps who received a bye into the final eight as defending champion.
CF Montreal dispatched º£½ÇÉçÇø¹ÙÍøFC in a penalty shootout, CPL champion Cavalry FC blanked League1 Alberta’s Edmonton Scottish 6-0, and CPL-leading Atletico Ottawa downed League1 Ontario’s Scrosoppi FC 2-0.
Laval lost 3-0 at Forge FC in preliminary-round play in 2023 in its only other trip to the cup competition.
Laval, which topped Ligue1 Quebec last year with a 12-5-3 record, has had just one league outing to date this season — a 3-1 win at CS St-Hubert on April 25. But Radwan says the team has been training since January.
Laval, which only has a couple of holdovers from the 2023 squad that played in the cup competition, gets together three or four times a week in advance of matches.
The young talent on the Laval squad includes forward Ibrahim Conde, the lone Canadian invited to the MLS College Showcase in San Diego in December. Conde is a good friend and former college teammate of Canadian international defender Moise Bombito at Iowa Western Community College and the University of New Hampshire.
Laval was captained by midfielder Quentin Paumier, who won the U Sports men’s soccer championship with the Montreal Carabins in 2021 and was runner-up to UBC last November.
Eustaquio made four changes to the starting 11 that lost 2-1 to visiting Cavalry on Friday with Botello, Ferrin, Rosa and Frank Sturing slotting in.
York exited in the preliminary round of the cup last year, beaten 3-1 at Forge. York made the semifinals in 2022, winning penalty shootouts at Atletico Ottawa and Pacific FC before losing 2-1 at the Vancouver Whitecaps.
The Canadian Championship winner hoists the Voyageurs Cup and wins $50,000 and a berth in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, the elite club competition in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2025.
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