By Ottawa Sports Pages, for OSU Force Academy
The chase for the championship begins this weekend as the Ontario Player Development League season kicks off on soccer pitches across the province, and Ottawa South United Force squads are keen to once again bring home more prizes to George Nelms Sports Park.
“We want the reputation of being a national contender every year,” underlines OSU Founding (and current) Club President Bill Michalopulos on the heels of a highly successful 2025 campaign. “We’re looking forward to the new season starting and we’re always excited to push forward in the future. You can never stand still.”
Read More: 2025 season another step in OSU’s quest to be perennial national contenders
As George Nelms gets set to host several season-opening OPDL matches Saturday and Sunday, the OSU Force are hungry to further build on a lengthy track record of success at the top levels of youth soccer, including a Canadian crown at the first Player Development Program nationals in 2024 and a pair of bronze medals in 2025.
The club’s past feats have acted as a magnet for talented players and coaches alike who all want to push for the top.
“That was definitely one of the biggest reasons I wanted to come to the club – this club has been winning and it’s one of the strongest clubs in the province and the country,” signals OSU U16 and U17 girls’ coach Paulo Sousa, who’d previously won OPDL titles in the western conference before capturing an OPDL Cup and a national bronze last season in his first year with OSU.
“And I feel that the club really attracts the best talents in town, so it really makes it a cycle,” adds the UEFA B and Canada A license coach originally from Portugal, explaining that top-notch facilities, infrastructure and consistently strong and inspired leadership are big pieces behind the success.
Sousa feels energized by the opportunity to carry on the tradition of consistently producing players for provincial and national teams, and having them join the Canada Soccer’s National Development Centre or professional academies like with partner CF Montréal.
Read More: New CF Montréal partnership brings world-class soccer closer to home for Ottawa players
That’s been the case for his squads, with Arya Wynter and Zeina Zibara recently moving forward to NDC Ontario and May Ilias joining CF Montréal, which manages a women’s program in Quebec similar to the NDC in Toronto.
Even without those star talents in Ottawa, the teams’ competitive spirit has remained intact.
“The core have remained and we still have big ambitions,” indicates Sousa, listing the goals of making the premier division, playoffs and shooting for Cups and Shields.
Coach Cian Lynch, likewise, was drawn to OSU by its reputation for “producing teams and players that compete at the highest level and go on to the next level.” There was also the impressive clubhouse and George Nelms facility, which showcase the high standards OSU holds on and off the field.
“It’s an ambitious club that always wants to improve, always wants to set the standard. Never stand still,” Lynch outlines. “As an ambitious person, I wanted to be a part of that.”
Lynch had been on the opposing sidelines last year for one of the two squads now under his direction at OSU. Since they joined forced this winter, he’s bonded with his U16 boys and manages to joke with them about the pain he caused them last summer.
“This is a team that’s ready to win. With the talent they’ve got, I think they should be striving for more and always pushing for that title,” highlights the past pro player from Ireland. “I think they need a little bit of a re-ignition in their belief in themselves. It’s an extremely talented group. Some players, honestly, you forget how young they are. The maturity they show on and off the field every single day is motivating for me.
“It’s not just getting them to believe in themselves, it’s getting them to play football the right way, and also just letting them know that it’s OK to fail. Remind them, at this age, especially, no one’s perfect, you’re going to make mistakes, and get them to kind of play without that fear of failure, accept the challenges and learn from it.”
Lynch will also be coaching the Force U13 boys for their first foray into the OPDL alongside the OSU U13 girls, who are coached by Jojo Maalouf, the father of OSU alumna Rosa Maalouf, who currently plays for the Purdue University Boilermakers and was a standout for Canadian youth national teams.
Lynch says U13 is all about learning the demands of playing in the province’s top high-performance circuit and getting them ready to play the 11v11 format next season.
Leading the charge for the OSU girls at the next age groups up is Guillermo Nebra. The UEFA A Licensed Coach from Zaragoza, Spain feels very excited to coach female soccer in Canada, given the success the women’s national team has enjoyed such as the Olympic title in 2021, while also drawing on his roots in Spain, home of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup champions.
He says his focus is to help his players learn to be good people as well as good footballers, and how to excel together as a team.
“If you want to be the best, you need to fight against the best. That’s the reason everybody says that the World Cup is the most important competition in the world, because you are playing against the best. And it’s similar for these girls going against the best teams in the province,” Nebra notes. “It’s going to be tough. I don’t know if we are going to win or not, but we are going to be a successful team because we are going to improve and grow up trying to fight to be better every day.”
Nationals push propels Force U15 boys
Ready to answer the call in the pursuit of perennial national contender status are the OSU U15 boys, who clinched their spot in the 2026 Canadian PDP Championships with their perfect 2025 OPDL league campaign, which came despite numerous key injuries along the way.
Read More: OSU Force U14 boys finally celebrate title of ‘campeónes’
The OPDL season will offer a great build-up to the Aug. 26-30 nationals in Montreal, where they’ll find a keen supporter behind them in OSU product Cyrus He, who joined CF Montréal last season.
“We are very proud to help the kids to develop,” highlights Mulay, noting that achieving competitive success also helps build players’ confidence. “We want to push them to the next level. Many of them are chasing dreams. We know that it’s not going to be easy, but we know that for many of them, it is going to be possible, so we have to make them believe it.”
Mulay says the key to becoming champions is “to be very, very consistent” not only in practices and games, but through a commitment to technical and physical training, nutrition and recovery, studying tactics and analyzing video.
There aren’t many who understand the recipe better than the group that won OSU’s first national PDP title and then a repeat OPDL Charity Shield crown under Mulay last season. OSU won’t have a U17 boys’ OPDL entry this season, but those Force players have the opportunity of a bigger challenge with OSU’s U19 boys’ program – one of four Force squads who have already begun play in Quebec Ligue 1.
Read More: Ottawa South United returns to Ligue 1 in search of more trophies
Mulay also coaches OSU’s U14 boys, who want to follow in their older counterparts’ footsteps and qualify for nationals themselves this season.
“We are in a club where the demands are high. We know that the expectations are high, and we want to maintain that high level,” he signals. “That’s the legacy.”
Learn more about Ottawa South United Soccer Club at OSU.ca.
