Allez Canada, Colombia flying, Euro semis, Muskoka United, Huntsville women’s league, and more.

For more than a few reasons, including playing Friday night, coaching two games on Saturday, and all the soccer taking place yesterday, this column is coming a day late.

Those wanting to see the Muskoka news, just scroll down – there was a fantastic festival of youth soccer held in Bracebridge on Saturday and our teams did very well.

Now onto the column . . .

“What a tournament! Great job Canada! It was nice while it lasted!”

Those were but a few of the texts I received, and admittedly things I was thinking, after Canada beat Venezuela in penalties on Friday night.

No one predicted that the Canadians would find themselves in the Copa America semi-finals ahead of the tournament.

After all, they had to qualify via last chance playoff after falling to a less talented Jamaica side (at home) and had been on an uneven (perhaps downward spiral) since the Qatar World Cup.

But they found a bit of a groove, a touch more grit, and they survived their way through to a semi-final match-up against the defending World Cup and Copa champions from Argentina.

The thing is, the Canadians and Argentinians played in the tournament opener (a deserved 2-0 win for Lionel Messi and co.), but Canada didn’t back down and can take confidence from that.

We’re all cheering for an unlikely Canadian win on Tuesday (8 p.m. on TSN), but more than anything, we’re cheering for a great performance by Les Rouges.

Win or lose, if they can at least show they’re not overmatched, it bodes well in the coming years – particularly 2026 when Canada co-hosts the World Cup with the U.S. and Mexico.

The truth is the winner of the other semi-final is going to be a very, very difficult opponent for whichever side they play in the final.

Uruguay have been solid throughout the tournament and held on to beat Brazil in penalties on Saturday night despite going down to 10 men in the 74^th minute.

Meanwhile Colombia has looked like the best team in the world for the most part.

I wrote ahead of the Copa that the Colombians remind me of the Italians that won Euro 2020 (held in 2021) because of their team-first mentality and long unbeaten streak (27 games and counting).

This Colombia team is looking even better than those Italians (though to be fair the European champs played a lot tougher competition during their streak), which includes a 5-0 thrashing of lowly Panama on Saturday night in the Copa quarters.

Realistically, the winner of the Uruguay-Colombia match-up (8 p.m. Wednesday on TSN) should become champions.

Though I have to say, if the script was written ahead of time (some people feel it has been) it will be Uruguay-Argentina as those two nations are tied for the most Copa titles with 15 a piece.

Euro 2024

The referee performance in the Germany-Spain match, which Spain won 2-1 late in the second half of extra time, was quite poor.

Yellow cards not given when they should be. Yellow cards given when they shouldn’t be. A handball by a moving arm in the box that should have been a penalty kick (though it wasn’t given). Really a poor and inconsistent performance.

The funny thing is from what I saw, it looked like the English referee Anthony Taylor (who isn’t really one of the top refs available) was favouring the Spanish but reports in the media pointed out times when his calls were favouring the home side.

That tells me, he was not doing a good job and that the English media are vastly anti-German.

The Spanish will now take on an unconvincing France team, who despite not having any quality performances have owned goaled and penalty kicked their way into the Euro semi-finals. The Spanish are going to win at least 2-0 (but likely 3 or 4 to nothing) on Tuesday at 3 p.m. (TSN).

In the other semi-finals, the Netherlands will take on England and that will either be one fantastic match or a super-duper boring one (it’s really up to the English). The Dutch have been a pretty fun and exciting team to watch, but the English not-so-much.

We’re all certain the English will waste their talent again and not win the trophy – it’s a matter of when and not if.

Here’s hoping they come out swinging like a champion on Wednesday at 3 p.m. (TSN) to make a interesting match for neutral fans.

Muskoka United FC

As mentioned in the note above, there was a huge festival hosted at Gostick Park in Bracebridge featuring every HDSL boys and girls’ team from ages U9 through U12 taking the pitch throughout the day.

The U12 girls had mixed results on the day, starting off with a 3-0 loss to North Bay in a match where MUFC started slowly but came into their own as the game progressed and deserved at least a draw.

In their second game against Barrie, the U12 girls won 1-0. It could have been a much bigger scoreline if not for some good goalkeeping by Barrie. Paulina Juszczak scored for Muskoka, while she also played goal in the first half. Piper Heffernen then stepped in goal for the second half and combined for the clean sheet.

Muskoka has two U11 girls teams and both had a wonderful festival. The MUFC U11G red team won their first game of the year, 3-1 over North Bay, while the U11G Blue team had a tie and a win.

The Blue team tied South Simcoe 0-0 with Sadie Collins and Patricia Mann combining for a clean sheet, then they beat North Bay 3-1 with Camryn Kent scoring twice and Georgia Ewald adding the other.

The U10 Girls had a solid day as well, with a 5-2 win over North Bay and a 1-0 loss to Collingwood.

The U10 Boys kicked off the festival with an outstanding effort in a 1-1 draw against the North Simcoe Rangers. They carried the play and were rewarded when Lincoln Stephens scored to go ahead 1-0. North Simcoe battled hard and tied the game late. The second match of the day saw great team defense and shot stopping as goalkeeper Lukas Lawason earned a cleansheet in a 0-0 draw with Wasaga Beach.

The U9 Boys red team beat Innisfil 3-2 and tied South Simcoe 1-1.

In competitive action, the U13 girls were full value for their 2-0 win over Barrie on Friday night with Kaley Verheye and Claire Feltis nabbing the goals for Muskoka.

On Wednesday, the U14 Girls won 4-0 over the Bradford Wolves with Andi Stevenson and Esperanza Coulson both scoring twice.

Meanwhile, the U18 boys had a rough week, drawing 1-1 with Orillia and suffering their first loss on the season, 3-2 to Barrie. Still, the boys are having a solid year and are sure to rebound this week.

Jumping up a whole bunch of decades, the Muskoka O45 team were in action on Friday night against the Barrie Packers in Innisfil. Muskoka was stuck down 1-0 for most of the match, despite Brendan Rasmussen hitting the cross bar and Steve McCallum nearly tucking a free kick home.

Eventually, the relentless effort by the Muskoka boys shone through and a lovely Tiki Taka passing play left some guy named Chris O open for a shot that found the net. While Chris scored, it was a completely team-oriented goal to tie the match.

Not long after it was Chris O again, but this time very fortunate, as his cross body, left foot shot snuck by the keeper then hit the post before crossing the goal line.

A tough 2-1 win for Muskoka, but a solid team effort.

NOTE: If you don’t see your team’s results or goal scorers here, it’s because the coach or manager didn’t send them to me in time for publishing – or at all – if I get them later, I can always add the result to the next weekly column. Also, sending pictures (like my U10 friends do) is also helpful. Please remind them to do so if you want to see them here.

Huntsville Women’s League

Week 7 of the 2024 Huntsville Women’s Soccer League provided an unexpected twist to the campaign, tightening up the table and setting up a potential closer race than first thought.

On The Docks Pub upset the first place Muskoka Tea Company 4-3, while second place Muskoka Marshmallo Company fell to the SportLab by a 4-1 tally.

There were plenty of achievements worthy of ‘Player of the Match’ honours, but the awards went to Emily Napper, Louise Azzara, Becky Herbener and Sandra Bauer Heinz.

Meanwhile the weekly draw for the coveted Annie’s Lasagna, courtesy of That Little Place By the Lights, went to Grace Gaughan.

Toronto FC

I have no comment at this time on the six-game losing streak (winless in nine) after the 4-0 loss to Columbus on Saturday. I will reserve commentary until after the Copa when two key pieces return (Jonathan Osorio and Richie Laryea) and the club (as they are promising) make some moves.

That’s it for this week. Stay tuned next week for more thoughts on Euro 2024, Copa America, Toronto FC, Muskoka updates, and more. Thanks for reading and don’t forget to subscribe below.

Ciao for Now!