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The 2024 Canadian Championship’s first David versus Goliath battle will be at BMO Field, as League1 Ontario champions Simcoe County Rovers visit the tournament’s most successful club, eight-time Voyageurs’ Cup winners Toronto FC.
This clash will mark the first time TFC have played a semi-professional side in the competition, as well as the first time a League1 side has played against its province’s Major League Soccer team.
Simcoe County will be hoping to kindle a little magic akin to other domestic cup tournaments around the world, as they go toe-to-toe with side two levels above them in TFC. The Rovers squad will not be heading down Highway 400 alone, though, with over 2,000 fans expected to make the trip down to Toronto along with them to provide a raucous away end at BMO Field.
Founded in 2021, the Rovers earned their spot in this year’s Canadian Championship by winning the L1O championship last year, defeating Scrosoppi FC 4-2 in the final. According to the club’s president and CEO Peter Raco, they’ve retained the bulk of that title-winning team’s core, including nine of the 11 starters, although head coach Zico Mahrady has taken over the reins for 2024 after operating as an assistant under Jason Beckford last season.
There’s plenty of connection between the Rovers and TFC. The League1 club is co-owned by several icons of Canadian soccer, including men’s national team legends Julian De Guzman, Atiba Hutchinson, Cyle Larin and Doneil Henry as well as women’s team star Janine Beckie.
Henry, of course, was TFC’s first ever academy graduate to the first team and won three Canadian Championships with the club. He, along with Hutchinson, Larin and Beckie, is also extremely familiar with TFC’s head coach John Herdman from the manager’s time with the Canadian national teams.
“I’m proud of what those players have done,” Herdman said this week about his former Canada charges. “These people have been trying to leave a legacy for this country, a lot of what they were doing behind the scenes at Canada Soccer, no one will ever know. … They were always pushing to do the right things and leave a legacy, so to see them owning a club, I just wish it wasn’t us they were playing. I’m proud of what they’ve committed to Canadian football.”
Speaking of TFC academy products, the Rovers have a handful in their squad for this game too, with players like Ijah Halley and Javier George previously spending time in the club’s youth system.
Toronto, meanwhile, are aware of the pressure on them as they begin this year’s Canadian Championship. They may have won the Voyageurs’ Cup eight times, but they haven’t done so in a full-length tournament since 2018. They won the 2020 title in the one-off final match against Forge FC, but they’ve failed to lift the trophy in the last four full competitions which is the longest drought in club history.
The Reds might be starting to find their footing in 2024, though. After finishing at the bottom of the MLS table last season, they’ve started this year in better form. Through nine games they’re 4-1-4, with three wins and one loss in their four home matches, and they sit fifth in the Eastern Conference.
No League1 Canada club has ever defeated an MLS side; Vaughan Azzurri had a good crack at CF Montréal last year, but they still ultimately lost 2-0. Awaiting the winner of Wednesday’s game at BMO Field is a two-legged quarter-final tie against either Halifax Wanderers FC or Ligue1 Québec champions CS Saint-Laurent.
The odds are stacked heavily in favour of TFC, who haven’t lost a Canadian Championship match to a non-MLS team since 2017.
Odds, however, are for bookmakers. On Wednesday, Simcoe County Rovers will be dealing in the business of dreams.
All CPL and Canadian Championship matches will be broadcast live on OneSoccer, available as a linear channel on Telus’ Optik TV (Channel 980) as well as online at OneSoccer.ca, through the OneSoccer app and on the fuboTV Canada platform.
First meeting between these clubs.
“Watching cup games, what you always know is there’s a few banana skins in those opening rounds, there’s always upsets and surprises. If I’m sitting in the Simcoe camp they’ll be pretty excited and hoping for one of the biggest upsets in Canadian football history. You either look at that as a curse or an opportunity, and it’s probably a little bit of both. For us it’s about advancing to the next round, winning the cup is on the agenda for this group of players.” — Toronto FC head coach John Herdman
“Now they get to go against the big boys in Canada, now they get to go skin for skin, body for body, blood, bones, whatever you want to call it. They’re going to see where they are and how far they are from becoming a professional. This is the ultimate test. You can tell them everything, you can let them see it, they can watch it on TV, but until they get to step on the field and earn that right, ultimately it means nothing. This is going to be where they get to see where they are, and if this is their dream, how much more sacrifice they’ll have to give.” — Simcoe County Rovers co-owner Doneil Henry
