Futsal Community Gathers This Weekend To Crown MCAC's Copa Champions
The Copa de la Paz began as a one weekend tournament in 2012 and has quickly grown into a complex four stage competition endorsed by the Manitoba Colleges Athletic Conference and the Manitoba Soccer Association.
"The sport provides our players with a very technically-focused form of indoor soccer that is rapidly growing in popularity around the globe," said Russell Willms, who began the tournament with the one weekend format. "Everyone who participated was so engaged with the sport and wanted to host their own weekend tournament so we simply decided to join together and create an extended round-robin format with a final round championship."
The sport of Futsal was developed in South America in the 1930s and is the only form of indoor soccer endorsed by FIFA, the world's governing body of soccer. Like its parent sport of 11 versus 11 outdoor, the sport of Futsal has professional leagues in various European, South American and Asian countries with a new professional league developing in the USA. Pro clubs compete in their own domestic leagues and league winners compete in Champions Leagues across their continent. Internationally, Futsal has a World Cup that is played for every four years in both men's and women's competitions.
The MCAC is not the only post-secondary sport conference in Canada who have developed the international five aside form of indoor soccer. The Alberta Collegiate Athletic Conference was actually the first nationally recognized conference to offer the sport. The ACAC gathered last weekend in Lloydminister to award their 2015 Futsal Champions; in men's Keyano College and in women's Medicine Hat College.
After three round robin stages, the top seeds in Manitoba finally emerged in the third stage played in Otterburne earlier this month. Red River's draw against Assinibione in the final stage allowed Providence to bounce above the Rebels and claim the top-seed for women. Providence will face CMU, whose win over University of St-Boniface allowed the Blazers to qualify as the fourth seed and eliminated Les Rouges from championship contention.
After dropping their first match of the first leg to Assiniboine Community College, the CMU men went on to take points out of all remaining matches to claim the top seed after a thrilling come from behind 5-5 draw against the Red River Rebels in their final match. The Blazers will face Providence in the first men's semifinal, as the Pilots slipped in as the fourth seed.
The other semifinal is expected to be a wild one. The three-time defending Champions from USB will put their title on the line against Red River who despite some ups and downs in the round-robin stage, are proving to be a very dangerous opponent capable of knocking off the second-seeded Rouges and possibly capturing their first Copa de la Paz Championships.
El Campeonato, The Championships are hosted in the Loewen Athletic Centre this weekend this Saturday and Sunday at CMU.
2015 COPA DE LA PAZ SCHEDULE
SATURDAY
11:00AM WFUT SEMIFINAL 1 | #1 PROVIDENCE v #4 CMU
12:30PM MFUT SEMIFINAL 1 | #1 CMU v #4 PROVIDENCE
2:00PM WFUT SEMIFINAL 2 | #2 RED RIVER v #3 ASSINIBOINE
3:30PM MFUT SEMIFINAL 2 | #2 USB v #3 RED RIVER
SUNDAY
2:00PM WFUT FINAL | WINNERS OF SEMIFINAL 1 & 2
3:30PM MFUT FINAL | WINNERS OF SEMIFINAL 1 & 2
Print This Article
