‘No better ending’ than a historic national title for OSU Force, with some players departing to pro soccer academies

By Kaitlyn LeBoutillier

There’d never been a bigger stage for goalkeeper Aidan De Hartog. His Ottawa South United Soccer Club had the chance to compete for a national title for the first time in a decade at the first-ever Canadian Player Development Program Championship, and the tournament final was headed to a penalty-kicks shootout.

“It was a crazy feeling that I don’t think I’ll ever feel again,” reflects De Hartog.

The OSU Force under-15 boys’ soccer team was in Edmonton for the inaugural edition of the PDP youth soccer nationals from Aug. 14-18.

OSU had played in the Ontario Player Development League since it was created in 2014, when the former promotion/relegated system was replaced with a circuit where only clubs that meet admission standards for high-performance training are granted membership.

Force teams collected provincial titles at the pace of roughly two per season in the OPDL, but they’d never had the chance to compete for a national crown until Canada Soccer organized the first PDP under-15 and U17 Cup tournaments this year.

Top teams from Ontario, Quebec, Alberta and British Columbia – the four provinces that run similar player development leagues – played four matches apiece over the five days of competition.

De Hartog says the team’s March trip to Dallas for a tournament helped prepare the Force for long travel and a condensed schedule, “but it’s definitely a little different” when a national championship is on the line.

OSU started off strongly in its first group match with a “very mature” 2-0 win over Blainville, showing “a good soccer style and discipline defensively to maintain the clean sheet,” coach Emilio Millan details.

The Force were “in the mood” during a dominant 5-0 victory over the Calgary Villains, and then earned the single point they needed to win their group and advance to the championship game with a 2-2 draw against Surrey United.

OSU’s final against Surrey FC was everything you would hope for from a spectator perspective, and exactly what you dread from a coaching and playing one. It was back and forth, and despite never being behind, OSU rarely felt comfortable.

“We always went ahead on the scoreboard, but our opponents kept drawing the game by taking advantage of our mistakes constantly,” Millan underlines.

Myles Knelsen gave OSU its first lead by converting a rebound off the crossbar. Then Surrey FC equalized.

Knelsen set up Isaia Rajakoba just above the penalty spot for OSU’s second goal. Then Surrey FC equalized again.

Following a great team build-up, Rajakoba returned the favour with a feed to Knelsen for a tap-in goal to pull OSU ahead 3-2. And then Surrey FC equalized once more to send the game to penalties following the 3-3 regulation.

Aidan De Hartog was named MVP of the Canadian PDP U-15 Boys’ Cup. *Photo provided*

“Going into it, the first five or 10 minutes, you feel comfortable,” recalls De Hartog, who felt his side was the stronger team. “Then near the end, the nerves start ramping up again, especially with being tied and all that.

“But in that moment, it’s just about being able to stay focused.”

As the goalkeeper in the shootout, with a historic championship title hanging in the balance, it was the high-stakes moment of De Hartog’s young soccer career.

“Penalties are pretty much 50/50 on what team is going to win, and you just have to be lucky,” signals the keeper who recorded 13 of his team’s 14 clean sheets out of 20 games in last season’s OPDL championship run.

“But I felt confident,” he adds. “I believed in myself. I believed that I could save the penalties.”

Surrey FC hit the crossbar with its first attempt, De Hartog made a relatively easy stop on a well-positioned but weak Surrey FC second shot, and then made a gorgeous diving save for his third stop in a row.

Missing three consecutive penalties is usually a death sentence in penalty kicks, but OSU’s shooters were struggling as well, with only Knelsen converting the first of four Force attempts.

“Aidan kept us alive when we were in the worst position to be,” Millan recounts.

De Hartog got a hand on Surrey FC’s fourth shot, but the ball bounced in, and when he guessed the wrong way on the fifth shot, OSU was facing a do-or-die scenario to keep the shootout going. Rajakoba nailed it with a shot down the middle, and then De Hartog came up with another mammoth diving save on Surrey FC’s sixth attempt to give his team a chance to win it.

Aidan De Hartog makes the final save of the Canadian PDP U-15 Boys’ Cup final. *Photo provided*

With De Hartog encouraging the Force supporters off to the side of the pitch, OSU’s Alain-Christian Louima stuttered on his approach and deftly punted home a left-footed kick to set off the championship celebrations.

De Hartog says it was a “surreal” feeling in the moment and that it took time for it to set in that they were “the best team in Canada.” But what made the championship even more special was the group of boys that he won it with.

“I’ve known a lot of these people ever since I was young,” De Hartog underlines. “To do it with the people that I did it with was just amazing.”

Ottawa South United Force national-champion U15 boys’ soccer team. *Photo provided*

Millan joined the group as coach from Spain in December 2021 in advance of its first foray into the OPDL. The Canadian title was the signature product of their work together, and it was also a bittersweet moment in a way since several players are moving on to join professional teams’ youth academies.

Knelsen, who averaged better than a goal per game in the team’s 2023 OPDL championship season, scored two goals, one assist and converted a penalty kick in his finale for OSU at the nationals before heading on to join CF Montreal.

“Thank you Ottawa South United for everything. I have been there since I was 6. They have done everything to build me as a player and help me to be the player I am today,” Knelsen wrote on Instagram, while thanking Millan and his coaches for believing in him and helping build him up technically and mentally. “I also have to thank my family for coming to support me and also to drive me everywhere every weekend.”

A few more players have planned moves to Toronto FC and Spanish program La Escuela Huesca, which held a camp in collaboration with OSU locally this summer, as well.

“It was such an emotional moment since we have been together for almost three years building our foundations, our style, our camaraderie,” Millan highlights. “We couldn’t have had a better ending.”