Vancouver Rise FC celebrate after winning the inaugural NSL championship on Saturday. Just one season into play, members of the club said the impact of a women's professional league was evident to them all year long.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
For anyone who doubted the importance of the Northern Super League – even just seven months after the first cleat set foot on the pitch in Canada’s first professional women’s soccer league – the press conference following Saturday’s inaugural championship put it on clear display.
First up – often the dubious honour for losing a final – was AFC Toronto captain Emma Regan. After discussing the magnitude of the occasion and the dominance her team showed despite the Vancouver Rise coming from behind to win 2-1, Regan was asked what the season had meant to her.
Her answer brought her to the verge of tears, with her head coach, Marko Milanovic, offering her a consoling shoulder rub.
“I think this is an amazing group of girls that we got here in Toronto, and that I got the privilege to play with this past season,” she said. “And yeah, that’s meant everything. I think the relationships built on this team will last a really long time. I’m really proud of what we did.”
Next up was the victorious Vancouver trio of captain Samantha Chang, head coach Anja Heiner-Moller, and goalkeeper Morgan McAslan, who was wearing ski goggles still wet from the spray of victory champagne.
Vancouver Rise wins first National Super League title after 2-1 win over AFC Toronto
“I feel like we didn’t have that many chances, but I thought we were really clinical today on the couple chances we had,” said McAslan, who was named the game’s most valuable player after making seven saves.
She was beaten in the first half by Kaylee Hunter, but second-half goals from substitute Nicole Stanton, who replaced injured Canadian international Quinn, and Holly Ward were enough to secure the Diana B. Matheson Cup. It represented a full-circle moment for the Rise, who played in the league-opener on April 16 with a win over Calgary Wild FC in front of 14,018 fans at Vancouver’s BC Place.
They brought the curtain down on the season at Toronto’s BMO Field, with 12,429 fans in attendance on a cold, rainy November day that featured a 30-minute delay midway through the first half because of lightning in the area. It all added to the drama of seeing AFC Toronto, who clinched the Supporters’ Shield as the NSL’s top regular-season team – finishing 12 points in front of Vancouver – fall at the final hurdle.
“We hit a lot of milestones this year, playing in the first-ever game and now winning the first trophy it does feel so full circle for us,” Chang said. “And I think the final being so electric and getting so many fans, and [being] back and forth, two goals in the second half to put us ahead. Even our semi-final matchup against Ottawa, it’s all been great, great sports; men, women, doesn’t matter.”
Northern Super League founder Diana Matheson waves to fans ahead at the NSL final on Saturday in Toronto. Matheson said facilities for teams would be crucial to the league's survival.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
In many ways the drama-filled final was a fitting coda for the first season, with the government of Canada announcing before the game that it will be investing up to $5.45-million to help upgrade NSL facilities across the country.
Diana Matheson, the league’s co-founder, had said in the days leading up to the game that infrastructure is the biggest hurdle to the league’s continued development, with the NSL targeting an expansion franchise for 2027 and ultimately looking to grow to 12 teams from its present six within 10 years.
“I mean this league, it’s been a long time coming,” Chang said. “And all credit to Diana Matheson for getting it actually going, and setting it up and bringing people in that care about women’s sports and women’s soccer specifically, care about growing the league and developing players in Canada.”
In the days leading up to the final, AFC Toronto announced that it would play half of its schedule at BMO Field next year, a facility that is set to undergo construction over the winter to ready it for World Cup games next summer. While AFC Toronto is yet to win at the stadium – going 0-3 there so far – Vancouver head coach Anja Heiner-Moller was understandably delighted by the announcement, having seen her squad win there twice already.
But more importantly, it’s another sign of the growth of the NSL, and brings it more in line with other major women’s soccer leagues around the world, with English Premier League men’s clubs increasingly ground-sharing with their women’s teams.
“I just want to say, we see that in the Women’s Super League in England; those small steps there, they’re huge. That’s great,” Heiner-Moller said. “I didn’t know that. Credit to City of Toronto there, yeah, let’s have more of that in all the cities here.”