{"id":22919,"date":"2019-02-07T12:10:23","date_gmt":"2019-02-07T17:10:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=22919"},"modified":"2019-02-07T12:10:23","modified_gmt":"2019-02-07T17:10:23","slug":"york-9-fc-sets-date-for-inaugural-cpl-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/york-9-fc-sets-date-for-inaugural-cpl-match\/","title":{"rendered":"York 9 FC sets date for inaugural CPL match"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Canadian Premier League is ready for kickoff.
\nYork 9 FC was announced at a Toronto event last week as one of two sides to compete in the League\u2019s inaugural match this coming spring, set to face off against Hamilton\u2019s Forge FC in a road match on April 27.
\nThe closest rivalry in the seven-team league by geographical proximity, York 9 Manager Jimmy Brennan said the match will take on \u201ceven more significance\u201d.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a bit more special because it\u2019s a local derby and we\u2019ll have York 9 presence in the stands, but we want to get out there and have a good start to the season and hopefully come away from that game with three points,\u201d said Brennan. \u201cIt\u2019s always exciting, but to kick off the Canadian Premier League and make history makes it a special game for everybody.\u201d
\nBrennan and his executives also announced a special treat for the hundreds who have already booked their seat for the league\u2019s historic first season: all season ticket holders will be bussed to and from the game in Hamilton at Tim Hortons Field, to free seats in a special York 9-only section.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve had a lot of time to build and once we get that first game underway, the season starts and everything you\u2019ve worked toward is ready to roll out,\u201d said Brennan. \u201cWe\u2019re looking forward to it being a local derby as well. It\u2019s even more special. We\u2019re hoping to have a large following out there with our supporters.\u201d
\nBrennan expects around 1,000 supporters to make the journey from York Region to see his team\u2019s inaugural match, a roster that has been growing rapidly in recent weeks.
\n\u201cOnce they step out onto the field, they know they\u2019ve got a job to do\u2026.I remember at Toronto FC, our derby was five hours away in Montreal, which is not really a local derby, is it? With the CPL, there\u2019s going to be some great derbies around the league, and you\u2019ll really get a sense of what a true derby is like.\u201d
\nFor those not in the know, a \u201cderby\u201d is a term often used to describe sports fixtures between two local clubs. Around 80 kilometres separate Hamilton from York Region.
\nThe club announced Friday three more Canadian players announced to the roster, in signing forward Michael Cox, goalkeeper Matt Silva, and midfielder Munir Saleh to deals.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s getting there,\u201d said Brennan when asked about completing his roster. \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of work, but enjoyable. We\u2019re in a unique situation where we\u2019ve got a blank campus\u2026nowhere else in the world do you get to have this opportunity to build a club, implement a philosophy, and get the players in that you think are going to excel in this league.\u201d
\nThe club is now up to over twenty players on the roster, while Brennan believes around three more are yet to be signed.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re really excited with the players we\u2019ve just signed. We know the formation that we want to play, the style that we want to play, and it\u2019s just finding the players that suit that model. So far, we\u2019ve been very fortunate to get the team that we want.\u201d
\nIn overseas acquisitions, the club recently signed Japanese midfielder Wataru Murofushi, the second international player acquired for the season and the reigning Player of the Year in Singapore.
\n\u201cWataru is technically gifted, incredibly exciting to watch, and he\u2019s got exactly the right frame of mind to come continue his professional career in Canada.\u201d said Manager Jimmy Brennan. \u201cHe\u2019s explosive and exceptionally quick off the ball. He\u2019s going to be a great asset to our club.\u201d
\nWith his roster close to completion, Brennan is eager to get his club out onto the field in April.
\n\u201cYou can\u2019t scout or watch videos about the opposition. You\u2019re more or less focused on your game-plan and how you\u2019re going to execute, and as the game starts to fall into place, you\u2019ve got to make some tactical decisions on the pitch.\u201d
\n\u201cOnce you\u2019re halfway through the season, you\u2019ll understand how teams play and watch videos of them, and tactically you can make decisions beforehand, so this is going to be a tough one: not just for myself but for all the coaches in the league.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Canadian Premier League is ready for kickoff.
\nYork 9 FC was announced at a Toronto event last week as one of two sides to compete in the League\u2019s inaugural match this coming spring, set to face off against Hamilton\u2019s Forge FC in a road match on April 27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22907,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/2019-02-07-10.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5XF","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 23:05:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}