The Other Side of the Cereal Box

My June visit to Montreal happily coincided with a cup weekend in Quebec’s semi-pro soccer league, the Première ligue de soccer du Québec or PLSQ. You seldom see it discussed in the English-language media; even the English section of their official website is in French. Yet despite its lower profile than League1 Ontario the PLSQ is in fact older, playing its first season in 2012. It’s not just the language barrier that’s kept the PLSQ relatively obscure: Ontario has developed young players while Quebec’s stars have been its veterans, seldom catching an out-of-province eye, and Ontario has higher-profile established clubs like TFC Academy and Sigma FC. So despite reasonable success the PLSQ can be overlooked even by die-hards.

But if the much-ballyhooed British Columbia semi-pro division ever happens the PLSQ model might be the one to follow. While L1O has a developmental mandate PLSQ teams operate more like, well, competitive clubs: young players appear, many clubs have youth setups, but first-team stars are the best players available. It’s akin to British Columbia’s existing teams in the VMSL, FVSL, VISL, and PCSL, some of which could already give the Quebec semi-pros a run for their money. An attractive, competitive league is important because the PLSQ is geographically almost as spread out as British Columbia. Two teams in Ottawa-Gatineau join five teams spread very broadly around greater Montreal and, starting in 2016, an expansion club in Quebec City. At such distances travel costs become an obstacle and you better be able to draw fans.

The game I saw would have brought ’em in. Powerhouses CS Mont-Royal Outremont, based in the picturesque community of Mont-Royal, hosted FC L’Assomption, mid-table make-weights representing a farming community of about 20,000 people, for the first leg of the PLSQ Cup semi-final. Familiar names abounded. The most famous was L’Assomption head coach Eduardo Sebrango, ex- of the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Montreal Impact, Quebec soccer legend, and leading goalscorer in Voyageurs Cup history. In 2013, aged 40, Sebrango scored five goals for L’Assomption, second on the team behind indoor legend Frederico Moojen. The next season saw Sebrango finally hang up his boots and move to L’ACP Montréal-Nord as coach and technical director. Montréal-Nord finished tied for last and folded at the end of 2014, so Sebrango returned to L’Assomption as head coach for this year.

Nor was Sebrango the only Impact alum. Forward Pierre-Rudolph Mayard, so recently signed he wasn’t on the program, played three years alongside Sebrango on the pre-MLS Impact and saw time in 2014 with the NASL’s Ottawa Fury. Mayard was influential at the beginning of the game, though he wasn’t fully match-fit and seemed to think he was above this calibre of league (he was wrong). Starting goalkeeper Greg Walters was a random sighting: an American who spent some time in New Zealand and on the USL-1 Carolina Railhawks in 2008, now coaching at McGill. Some players other than the ex-pros impressed too: midfielder Bilal Lachoury was a sly, creative presence, and right back Julien Beauséjour was much more active and aggressive than you sometimes see at this level, eager to get involved and more than able to spread the attack.

The home team boasted ex-professionals as well. The most notable was Moojen, far and away the leading scorer in PLSQ history, who joined CSMRO in 2015 after three successful years at L’Assomption. He did not start but skipper Abraham Francois did, a great veteran of Canadian soccer who played A-League in Toronto and Montreal, a couple years of Ontario semi-pro, a couple years of indoor, and had brief stops in Vietnam and Paraguay. Francois had turned 38 a week before the game but was in fine fettle. Midfielder Dimitrios Anastasopoulos had a brief career in the Greek leagues, and a couple other players spent time on nowhere teams in France. Despite running a few imports the large bulk of the CSMRO squad, as usual at this level, was from the region, and it had worked out for them with championships in 2013 and 2014. One of those locals was winger Adama Sissoko, 22 years old and a former CIS player at the Université de Montréal. Crafty and fast, just the sort of player who should get chances in these leagues; he sure took this one.

The ground at the Parc de récréation Mont-Royal was modest but very attractive. I am told CSMRO’s field is the finest in the league and it made for picturesque viewing: sitting in front of the ivy surrounded by suburban peace, the players on new-ish and well-lit artificial turf, plum on the corner of Churchill Street and Montgomery Avenue, sun setting through the clouds. Tickets were five bucks and a few steel bleachers provided seating, though some fans preferred to sit on the boundary or pop out to a barbecue run by volunteers; I estimated attendance of around a hundred. Kids were kicking a ball around on the touchline and the linesman had to gently warn them for encroaching. The crowd was quiet but knowledgeable, save one old man who gave no fucks and shouted fake “man on!“s to discombobulate L’Assomption. It couldn’t have been better calculated to appeal to my sensitivities, and when I think of similar grounds around British Columbia my hopes go up.

The game, especially in the first half, was rousingly high-paced with speed down the flanks prominent for both sides. Sissoko was the early star, having a great chance for CSMRO then setting up another for midfielder Renan Dias, but both shots were poorly hit. Mayard had a dangerous free kick for L’Assomption nicely saved by CSMRO goalkeeper Nizar Houhou, and a promising run into the CSMRO area was snuffed out when Anastasopoulos stripped the ball cleanly off Mayard and, seemingly knowing he was safe from what passed for Mayard’s tackling, merrily strolled out of his own eighteen without a care in the world. L’Assomption struck first when CSMRO’s Samuel Thomas stuck an arm out to knock down a cross in the eighteen and the penalty was given. L’Assomption captain, and centre back, Jean-François Fournier took a sly penalty to put the visitors up 1-0.

Clutch play by the skipper but Fournier almost immediately gave it back, fouling Armel Dagrou millimetres from the corner of his own eighteen-yard box. Anastasopoulos took the free kick, direct, and planted it past L’Assomption’s Walters. At once the flag went up and the CSMRO players went mad with outrage: offside off a direct free kick? A rare call! The referee consulted with his linesmen, surrounded by protesters… and the goal was given. 1-1. Now it was L’Assomption’s turn to shout, this time to no effect. In truth the referee made few bad decisions but he didn’t have an easy game: physicality abounded and there was more controversy to come.

Those goals, just past the half-hour, were the signal for attack. Not always accurately: three balls were shot clean out of the park and CSMRO’s Dagrou blasted a shot way high but so hard it rebounded off the fence and lodged itself between the chain links and the fencepost. Sure, it was no technical masterclass, but it was great fun, and even a polite suburban audience could get into it. The game went into the interval tied at one, with L’Assomption already having made two subs that included removing Mayard for Jean-Lou Bessé (the PLSQ, at least in the cup, appears to play the five-from-seven substitution rules used in USL).

In the second half, with fresher legs from Sebrango’s early substitutions, L’Assomption went on the attack. Bessé stung a shot that was parried by Houhou, but he spilled the rebound and the second bite at the cherry was only just blocked. For Mont-Royal Sissoko remained the most potent threat, turning playmaker and creating two first-rate chances for Felipe Costa de Souza, the first superbly saved by Walters, the second a wide-open header that glanced wide. Felipe was consistently getting into dangerous areas and receiving good service, and consistently failing to finish. L’Assomption might have been put away before the hour mark had his sights been straight.

But CSMRO had quality. Forward Dagrou was on the verge of being substituted off, his number was on the board, waiting for a stoppage. Maybe he noticed. Felipe’s low dagger of a pass picked the broad attacker out at about twenty-five yards, Walters came off his line but caught himself in no-man’s land, and Dagrou launched a magisterial 25-yard chip that just got in under the crossbar, a first-rate finish that would enthuse any crowd and put CSMRO up 2-1. Dagrou wasn’t subbed off.

In contrast to the speedy first half, the second half was a trench fight. No challenge too aggressive, artificial turf and all (so much for soft Quebec soccer). A number of players, including L’Assomption goalkeeper Walters, got their bells rung and had to shake it off or help themselves to one of the many substitutions. CSMRO held onto their lead and, getting into the 80th minute, expanded on it: L’Assomption fullback Stuardo Bonilla may or may not have clipped Johann Loe, but Loe made a meal of it and the penalty was given. Felipe went to the spot, took a stutter-step, and buried the spot kick top left. It didn’t get much better than that for the home team: 3-1 up, ten-ish minutes left, what could go wrong?

Well, in Canadian soccer, there’s always something. Five minutes later, CSMRO’s Thomas was burned for the second time when down in the area to block a cross and may or may not have handled it again. FC L’Assomption protested and, after a moment, the referee pointed to the spot. That got CSMRO’s dander up, vociferously getting into the referee’s face, players on both teams getting into it with each other even as Fournier prepared to take the penalty. Anastasopoulos gave Bessé a shove right in front of the referee. The referee sternly warned Anastasopoulos, who promptly shoved Bessé again. Anastasopoulos saw a yellow card. I’m not sure what he thought was going to happen. With both teams melting down, Fournier kept his head at the spot, showed why he was FC L’Assomption’s captain, and stroked a too-central shot just beneath a diving Houhou, who buried his head in his hands. It was a stoppable penalty and CSMRO’s lead was down to one.

Houhou kept his spirits up. As soon as play resumed the aggressive keeper was back charging down crosses and playing gung-ho. His teammates kept the tempo up, and it was they who got the last chance of the match: Loe busted in on a half-break and got a good shot off, but Walters barely tipped it wide. CSMRO held on for a 3-2 win in front of their home fans, and richly deserved. On July 12 they took the second leg 3-1 in L’Assomption to win 6-3 on aggregate and advance to the PLSQ Cup final against AS Blainville. The man of the match, CSMRO’s Adama Sissoko, deserved the honour, though FC L’Assomption captain Jean-François Fournier was also strong. More important than individual honours, both teams played a very entertaining game, well worth my $5, and I would encourage anybody able to see PLSQ soccer to find out for themselves.

I hope someday we in British Columbia have the same opportunities.