From August 11th – August 13th in Langley, British Columbia, League 1 Canada hosted their 2nd annual Inter-Provincial Championship This year’s competition featured the champions of League1 BC (NDC-Whitecaps) , League1 Ontario (Alliance FC) , and League1 Québec (PEF Quebec) & wild card addition/ League 1 BC runners up Unity FC.
The first semi-final took place on Friday August 11th 2023 between PEF Quebec (the youth national development centre in Quebec) & Unity FC (mostly made up of Trinity Western University players), while the second semi-final took place between NDC-Whitecaps (the national development centre in British Columbia) and Alliance FC (mostly made up of the University of Toronto players).
Results
Semi-Final #1: PEF Quebec (6) vs Unity FC (4)
Semi-Final #2: Whitecaps NDC (2) vs Alliance FC (1)
Bronze Medal: Unity FC (2) vs Alliance FC (0)
Gold Medal: Whitecaps NDC (5) vs PEF Quebec (0)
Below is our Playbook recap of the event and the players who stood out to us throughout the tournament.
Esther Brossard #9 (PEF Quebec):
We open up the article with Esther Brossard from #9 PEF Quebec. The striker was fantastic for PEF in game #1 scoring a hat-trick in what turned out to be to be a 6-4 thriller in semi-final #1 vs Unity FC. For those who follow FTF closely Esther’s name might sound familiar as she has attended a few of our combines and currently sits #4 overall in the class of 2024. Brossard is also fresh off the Ligue 1 Quebec golden boot where she scored an amazing 18 goals with 2nd place in only being 8 goals scored. Plain and simple Esther scores goals and was definitely a joy to watch at the event.
Laren Spiller #8 (Unity FC):
Next up in regards to standout performances was Unity FC winger Laren Spiller. Laren had 1 goal and 1 assist in the semi-final match and showed her dynamic play from wide areas routinely versus PEF Quebec. Here at FTF/ The Playbook we know Laren very well as she was a former Top-60 Camp attendee and was ranked #19 in the country for our 2023 Grad Class Rankings. This year Laren is starting her first year at Trinity Western University and USPORTS teams can consider this performance as an early warning for what’s to come from Spiller.
Kierra Blundell #9 (Whitecaps- NDC)
Kierra was a force to be reckoned with all weekend for Whitecaps-NDC. The Arizona State commit is a classic #9 target striker with a pure nose goal. In her first match Blundell scored two goals to lift the Caps past Alliance FC 2-1 in a performance which was pretty dominant from the caps. In the final Blundell opened the scoring for the Caps with a calm finish and from that moment forward they didn’t look back. If we had to pick an MVP from this Inter-Provincial Tournament Kierra would have been our clear cut number one choice.
Lea Larouche #11 (PEF Quebec):
Larouche was fantastic in the opening game for PEF Quebec, constantly causing problems in attack for any defender she faced. Even though Brossard gets lots of the attention for PEF, Larouche is equally as impressive scoring 2 goals on the day and creating a ton of chances. The same couldn’t necessarily be said on Day 2 as PEF was completely played off the park by Whitecaps-NDC in the final but still a very good showing from Lea.
Emma Yee #18 (Whitecaps-NDC)
Whitecaps were very comfortable in possession for much of the tournament and the main reason for that was due to their outstanding midfield, but a main cog in that system is Illinois University commit Emma Yee. Yee was fantastic in this event and played what seemed like mistake free football from the first whistle to the last. In the “big matchup’ versus PEF in the final Yee had multiple assists and was pulling all the strings for Whitecaps who ended up winning 5-0 in the last game. To this point Yee hasn’t been called up to any youth national teams but with continued performances like these in the Big 10 Conference come next year, don’t be surprised if she’s a name that appears in future Canada U20 rosters.
Joy Kimewemwe #13: (Whitecaps-NDC)
Joy was a “joy” to watch at the event for Whitecapt-NDC. The electric winger was consistently running at defenders and using her pace/ agility to press and cause problems in both the semi-final and final. The University of South Florida commit had by her standards an “average” game in the semi-final but really turned it up in the final scoring 2 goals and providing 2 assists in what turned out to be an absolute demolition in the Inter-Provincial finals. Joy might have been the fastest person in the event and similarly to Yee very surprising to see that she hasn’t been called to any youth national teams as of yet, but definitely one to keep on the radar for future calls with the U20’s.