Open Canada Cup

Open Canada Cup

Founded	1998
Abolished	2007
Region	Canada
Most successful club	Toronto Olympians (3 titles)

The Open Canada Cup was a Canadian soccer competition, similar in concept to tournaments such as the English FA Cup, the Coppa Italia, and the US Open Cup. The competition was held starting with the CSL's first season in 1998 until 2007.

The competition was open to all professional and amateur soccer teams in Canada. Prior to 2007, it had generally been entered only by the teams of the Canadian Soccer League (formerly the Canadian Professional Soccer League) and a handful of amateur teams from Ontario. A notable exception was the 2006 entry of the Toronto Lynx, then of the USL First Division.

In 2007, teams from British Columbia also participated in the event. The British Columbia teams had their own regional qualifying matches with the overall provincial winner travelling to meet its central Canadian adversaries in the tournament's final weekend.

In central Canada, cup ties were played on a one-game knock out basis and were held over the Victoria Day, Canada Day, Civic Holiday and Labour Day long weekends. The British Columbia regional games were held in early August with the winner participating in the Labour Day tournament finale. Drawn matches went directly to extra time, and if necessary, a penalty shootout.

2008 Cup Cancelled

On April 29, 2008, it was announced that the 2008 edition of the Open Canada Cup would not take place as originally scheduled.^[1] The CSL was evaluating the relevance of the competition in light of the creation of the Canadian Soccer Championship.

Cup Lapsed

The announcement that the 2008 edition of the Open Canada Cup had been cancelled also suggested that the Cup might return in 2009. Although no formal announcement has been made, the success of the Canadian Championship and the fact that no Open Canada Cup competition was held in 2009 suggests that the competition has ended for good.

List of winners

Year	Winner	Score	Runner-up
1998	Toronto Olympians Gus Kouzmanis  44',  66' Eddy Berdusco  66'	3-0	St. Catharines Wolves
1999	Toronto Olympians Chris Handsor  40' Elvis Thomas  62',  66'	3-0	Toronto Croatia
2000	Toronto Olympians Elvis Thomas  4'	1-0	St. Catharines Wolves
2001	Ottawa Wizards Abraham Osman  9'	1-0	Toronto Supra
2002	Ottawa Wizards Kevin Nelson  66'	2-0	Toronto Croatia
2003	London City Eris Tafas  30'	1-1 aet 4-2 on penalty shootout	Metro Lions Craig Patton  84'
2004	Windsor Border Stars Tati Errecalde  25'	1-1 aet 4-2 on penalty shootout	Ottawa St. Anthony Italia Egar Soigo  11'
2005 Details	Windsor Border Stars Radek Papiez  49', Steve Merker  51' Aaron Byrd  82'	3-0	London City
2006 Details	Ottawa St. Anthony Italia Abraham Osman  55',  81'	2-0	Toronto Lynx
2007 Details	Trois-Rivières Attak Nicolas Lesage  53' Danny Anderson  74',  81'	3-0	Columbus Clan FC

Performance by Club

Club	Winners	Runner-Up	Winning Years
Toronto Olympians	3		1998, 1999, 2000
Ottawa Wizards	2		2001, 2002
Windsor Border Stars	2	0	2004, 2005
London City	1	1	2003
Ottawa St. Anthony Italia	1	1	2006
Trois-Rivières Attak	1	0	2007
St. Catharines Wolves	0	2	-
Toronto Croatia	0	2	-
Toronto Supra	0	1	-
Metro Lions	0	1	-
Toronto Lynx	0	1	-
Columbus Clan FC	0	1	-

References

1. ^ http://www.canadiansoccerleague.ca/news2.php?news_id=89208

1. http://www.canadiansoccerleague.ca/news2.php?news_id=89208 (retrieved on April 30, 2008)