By Dan Plouffe
The highly-successful Ottawa South United under-15 boys’ soccer team experienced the worst type of heartbreak – a penalty-kicks shootout loss in a national final – but as the sting of the rare defeat subsides, the Force have come to realize there is a lot to celebrate.
At the Aug. 26-30 Canadian Player Development Program Championships in Montreal, the Force fought their way to the national tournament final, where they built a 2-0 lead before fellow Ontario entry Woodbridge answered back and ultimately took the title 4-2 in the deciding penalty kicks.
With a little separation from the agony of the unforgiving method to determine a champion, OSU coach Mohandi Mulay says silver is still sweet.
“It feels amazing to be honest,” highlights Mulay, whose team qualified for nationals thanks to its Ontario Player Development League title last season.
Read More: OSU Force U14 boys finally celebrate title of ‘campeónes’
“We were the best team, in my opinion, in terms of performance. I don’t mean to sound arrogant, but I think that’s the reality. Our team played very well, and at the end of the day, penalties are a flip of the coin.”
OSU opened the event with a 4-0 victory over Surrey United, then fell 3-2 to hometown Mont-Royal Outremont before a 3-0 win over Edmonton BTB wound up getting them through their group to the final via tiebreaker between three teams with six points atop the standings.
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In the championship game, OSU’s Lucas Stavrianeas danced into the box through many defenders and drew a penalty kick, converted by Abderrahmane Bouzidi in the 46th minute. Bouzidi doubled their lead with a second goal just three minutes later thanks to his free-kick missile that is rarely dangerous from as long a range at the youth level.
But Woodbridge fought back quickly to level the match 2-2 within seven minutes and prevailed in the shootout.
WATCH | Ottawa South United vs Woodbridge SC | U15 Boys Gold Medal Match | PDP Nationals 🏆
For Mulay, having to play the role of consoler was unfamiliar. Through 28 games of Ontario Player Development League play, both his OSU U15 and U14 boys had been undefeated.
“I said to the team, for me, for this generation, our team were the champions,” recounts Mulay, who arrived at OSU four years ago via Spain and Western Sahara. “They deserved to be the champions because of the way that they performed and the way that they competed there.”
Mulay was especially pleased with how his group handled such a high-pressure scenario as the nationals, which were played in the home city of OSU’s Major League Soccer affiliate club, CF Montréal.
“We had the national team coach for U15 and U17 watching us, many fans, many people, and they really liked it,” Mulay outlines. “The boys performed very, very well, so we are happy for them. We have to be. I am very happy and I am very proud of them.”
The final game at the nationals was doubly bittersweet as the team bid farewell to three players who moved to Spain after the event to join the Internacional Huesca academy – Luka Svilar, Ryan Aziaba and Yusuf Ahmed, OSU’s #2 scorer.
“These kids are going to have a great opportunity,” signals Mulay, saluting the trio for the work they’ve put in over many years to make such a move possible.
“We need to adjust (following their departure), but we have a good roster to manage that,” he adds. “This team is still very competitive, and we are going to be good at the end of the season.”
The Force’s path to a repeat OPDL season title did get more difficult with the first loss of their OPDL premier campaign on Wednesday evening when they fell 2-0 at the hands of the Atlético Ottawa Juniors at Millennium Park.
