By Keiran Gorsky
It took a little time for scoring champion Cindy Yang to get a feel for her singular and explosive talent. When the dynamic forward made the move into the Ottawa South United Force Academy from West Ottawa Soccer Club five years ago, she realized she still had a long way to go.
“I would say I was one of the [worst] on the team, honestly,” Yang recounts. “It took me a few years to sort of find the way I wanted to play.”
Although she hasn’t yet got the chance to play for Team Canada like her long-time club coach believes she deserves, Yang’s construction of an undeniable resumé continued with multiple spectacular additions this summer.
Competing against women scattered across North American collegiate soccer in her first season with OSU’s senior team in the top Quebec Ligue 1 women’s division, the 16-year-old was stunned to find herself tied for the league lead in goals with 10 in 13 matches for her 5-6-2 squad.
Yang also posted the best goals-per-match average and was third overall in the U21 espoir scoring race despite only appearing in 11 of OSU’s 16 regular season games.
Then she was lethal again to top the scoring chart in the U21 playoffs and added a championship trophy to boot.
Yang scored a hat trick in the Force’s 4-0 win over Royal Beauport in the semis, following up with OSU’s only goal in the final against CF Montreal’s academy team. She went on to score in the subsequent penalty shootout as OSU took home the league’s inaugural trophy.
The hopping from team to team made for a congested summer schedule, especially with what Yang has waiting on the horizon. Last September, she accepted an early offer to join the Yale University Bulldogs in the NCAA’s Ivy League Conference.
With exams and the SAT looming at the end of last school year, Yang was forced to miss a few regular season matches to catch up on her studies. Somewhat frustratingly, Yang doesn’t have quite as concrete a goal to shoot for at school.
“You know, Yale’s very big on academics,” Yang all but states the obvious. “The coaches just say try to keep your grades up as much as possible. It’s very vague.”
Still, Yang maintains, it’s been a comfort to have the next stage of her sporting and academic life figured out as she begins her final year at Earl of March Secondary School, where she earned a 4.0 GPA last year.
Maple leaf aspirations
For Yang’s long-time coach at OSU, David Fox, it’s something of a shock that their star striker hasn’t been involved in Canada’s youth national team setup. Yang’s teammates Naomi Lofthouse, Mia Ugarte and Felicia Hanisch joined National Development Centre-based OSU Product Mya Angus for Canada’s U17 women’s team’s Four Nations Tournament this summer in Mexico.
All-time Canadian youth leading goal scorer Annabelle Chukwu also returned to OSU for a brief spell this season between her summer appearances for the senior national team. As Fox describes, it is the tall and physical target-type forwards that are all the rage on the international stage. At 5’4″, Yang doesn’t seem so imposing on first look, but opposing defenders and the stats sheets will tell a different story.
“I think when some of the coaches look, they don’t look carefully enough. I think there are still flaws in the system here with identification,” Fox underlines. “[Yang] is smaller than the stereotypical national team player, but she’s super strong, super fast. In 1v1 situations, I’m not sure there’s a better player in Canada.”
Yang’s maple leaf fortunes may change yet, however. She’s been extended an invitation to take part in a training camp before the November FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Morocco. Ultimately, Yang is focusing on what she can control as she steps closer and closer to what may yet be a fruitful professional career.
“It’s not really my say,” Yang notes. “I think it would be absolutely amazing… hopefully, fingers crossed, and I’ll get the opportunity.”
David Fox bids farewell
OSU’s U21 provincial crown marks the final championship chapter in Fox’s spectacular six-year stint with the Force.
Fox arrived at OSU from England shortly before COVID hit and led numerous female Force teams to championship titles, while sharing in the success of many of the aforementioned players on the national and international soccer scenes. The 2024 Ottawa Sports Awards Male Coach of the Year is planning to take some time to visit with family abroad.
“Working every evening and every weekend for a lot of that time with little time off, it’s just time to take a little break and reach up a little bit,” Fox signals. “In terms of what the program has achieved in the last five or six years, I think it’s something we’re all very proud of as a club.”
OSU doubles up with men’s espoir crown
The OSU Force earned the Quebec espoir league double as their U19 men’s side also captured the championship at the end of August, buoyed by a somewhat unexpected clutch playoff performance from Jaheim Hoindo.
A midfielder by trade and centre-back by necessity, opposing players have been raising their eyebrows at the big #9 splayed out on Hoindo’s back all season long.
“They always think I’m going to be a striker,” laughs Hoindo, an 18-year-old former Ottawa TFC player is taking a gap year after high school before deciding on his next destination.
Hoindo can’t remember whether he scored one goal or two over the men’s regular season. Come playoff time, though, he was the one to step up when OSU needed it most. Dashing in off a corner, Hoindo won himself the ball and drove it into the bottom corner to give OSU a 2-0 lead over Celtix Haut-Richelieu in the ninth minute of the semi-final.
The Force went on to best the Celtix team that had finished above them in the standings by a score of 3-1 at their home stadium in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
OSU were dealt six yellow cards in the match, but it was Richelieu’s Mateo Kerloch who was sent off early in the second half with a second carded infraction.
Hoindo added a brace in the finals against CS St-Laurent en route to a 5-2 victory, his first goal coming off another set piece.
“In those semifinal and final games, that’s exactly what you need,” says OSU men’s head coach Vladan Vrsecky. “Somebody who will step up, and maybe it’s not the player the opponent is preparing for, but it’s the player who can score unexpectedly.”