League1 Draw Completes Inter-Provincial Championship Schedule

The League1 Canada Inter-Provincial Championship draw occurred on Saturday, revealing the semifinals for the soon-to-be-had competition.

Held at OneSoccer’s studio, Andi Petrillo and Jordan Wilson were involved in confirming the matchups. Only one side had booked their spot in the tournament at the time of the draw. The other three spots were drawn by province.

Via the draw, it was determined that the first semifinal will be played between Altitude – the League1 BC winners – and the League1 Ontario champion. The second semifinal has the Ligue1 Quebec victors facing the League1 Alberta titleholders.

While the final three teams for the Inter-Provincial Championship are not known, they will all be confirmed by the end of next week. Nine teams from those three provinces are still in contention, at the time of writing.

Altitude recently wrapped up the League1 BC title. Their last match of the season came Friday, in a 2-0 defeat of Burnaby on the road. They will be the freshest of the four sides, as they will have a two-week break before playing their semifinal.

The League1 Alberta representative will be decided on either Tuesday or Friday. Calgary Blizzard and Calgary Foothills head into their final games two points apart at the top.

The former, who represented the league in the Interprovincial Championship last year, has the upper hand. They just need a win at Calgary Villains next Friday, and/or the Foothills to lose to Calgary Rangers on Tuesday. Should the Foothills win and the Blizzard does not, then there will be a new champion.

League1 Ontario’s champion will be known next Saturday. One of Simcoe County Rovers, NDC Ontario, or North Toronto Nitros will prevail. The Rovers have the title in their own hands, as if they win their final two matches, they will head to Alberta.

NDC could be involved in the tournament for the second year running. They would need to win both of their final two games, and Simcoe drops points at least once. North Toronto needs to win their final game, and hope for Simcoe to collect no more than three points, and NDC four.

As for Ligue1 Quebec, their regular season wrapped up on the weekend. The playoffs will now occur, with four teams involved. Academie CF Montreal will face CS Mont-Royal Outremont in a repeat of last year’s league final. In the other semifinal, FC Laval faces Royal Select Beauport. The final will be next Sunday at Laval.

Should the champion come from the second semifinal, between FC Laval and Beauport, that side will become the fifth different team from the league to make the Interprovincial Championship. If Academie CFM or CSMRO prevail, they will be the first team from Quebec to enter the tournament on multiple occasions.

In what is now the fourth year of the League1 Canada Interprovincial Championship, we are guaranteed a new winner. AS Blainville won the inaugural edition in 2022, before Vancouver Whitecaps Academy – now the Vancouver Rise Academy – won the last two.

All three previous editions have seen the finalists hail from BC and Quebec. Both Ontario and Alberta are looking for their first representation in the showpiece match.

This year’s tournament will occur on 8 and 10 August in Sherwood Park, Alberta. The semifinals take place on 8 August at 17:30 local time (19:30 ET, 16:30 PT), and 20:30 (22:30 ET, 19:30 PT). That Sunday will see the third place playoff at 12:00 MT (14:00 ET, 11:00 PT), and the final at 15:00 MT (17:00 ET, 14:00 PT).