{"id":26947,"date":"2020-07-09T21:59:35","date_gmt":"2020-07-10T01:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26947"},"modified":"2020-07-09T21:59:41","modified_gmt":"2020-07-10T01:59:41","slug":"york9-fc-manager-jimmy-brennan-hopeful-for-return-to-action-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/york9-fc-manager-jimmy-brennan-hopeful-for-return-to-action-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"York9 FC manager Jimmy Brennan hopeful for return to action soon"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One year ago this Friday, July 10, York9 FC made history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The club became the first Canadian Premier League team to\ntake on a Major League Soccer team. At that very thought, York9 FC was\ngalvanized to take on the Montreal Impact in the third round of the Canadian\nChampionship in front of 5,252 raging fans; the highest recorded home\nattendance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a great moment especially for our players to test\nourselves against a big club like Montreal and I think it\u2019s a moment that will\nlast in their minds for a very long time, especially considering we should have\nwon that game,\u201d said York9 FC head coach Jimmy Brennan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A defensive error and conceding two penalty kicks ultimately\nled the Nine Stripes to their exit, falling 3-2 on aggregate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The memory of a competitive match blanketed with the sounds\nof blaring fans in the stadium seems like it was just yesterday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now with COVID-19, Brennan says it\u2019s difficult to sit out\nthe season when other leagues in Europe have resumed, but he knows the league\nis working diligently to put a safe plan in place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re expecting some news, hopefully in the next week or\ntwo, as to where and when we\u2019ll start up and get this going.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last season, York9 FC were off to a slow start in the Spring\nCompetition with a 2-5-3 record. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brennan says the beginning was an adjustment. Players have\nto develop chemistry and buy into the system. That\u2019s exactly what his boys did.\nIn the Fall Competition, the club posted a 7-2-9 record, potting in 30 goals in\nthe process and defeating the eventual champions, Forge FC, 4-0. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe finished off well and it\u2019s about building that squad \u2013 now\nthat\u2019s going to carry over into next season,\u201d Brennan emphasized. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe felt we have built a good squad and we have the right\npieces in place. Obviously, our momentum is halted, but I think overall we\u2019re\nvery happy with the squad that we have.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nine Stripes have brought in Valour FC midfielder\nMichael Petrasso, former Ottawa Fury midfielder Christopher Manella and brought\nback winger Ryan Telfer on a permanent deal for veteran leadership. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The club has purchased a handful of South American forwards\nsuch as Brazilian talents Gabriel Vasconcelos from Corinthians and Jaco to\nbolster the attack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nine Stripes have also signed their 2019 CPL-U Sports\ndraft pick from Cape Breton University, Isaiah Johnston, to a deal until 2022.\nJohnston becomes the fourth U-20 signing this summer along with Max Ferrari,\nIjah Halley and Julian Altobelli. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brennan says all senior players on the roster that are part\nof the nucleus of the club will play a vital role in nurturing younger players\nheading into their first year in the league. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already in July and with a return to play format being\nworked on, Brennan says every game will mean something. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEvery game, one game at a time, win, win, win. It\u2019s getting\ninto a competitive mindset and having the players understand there\u2019s no room\nfor error.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The club is currently practicing at limited capacity.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brennan, who became the first CPL head coach to obtain a\nUEFA Pro Licence following an eight-year process this past week, says fitness\nlevels are of the utmost importance for the players. Every training session is\nset with objectives and all of his players are currently following the\nguidelines. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Concacaf president Victor Montagliani, the CPL\nsurpassed expectations in its inaugural season. Despite the shortened year this\nyear, a good first step might prove a lead to a prosperous future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it surprised a lot of people. When you start a\nleague from scratch you\u2019re not sure what the quality is going to be. What I was\nreally impressed with was just how professional and dedicated and talented\nthese young Canadians are.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, in turn, the professionalism and dedication from clubs\nis also something to note. York9 FC became a club of the \u201cfirsts\u201d this past\nyear, introduced their first women\u2019s supporters\u2019 group \u201cThe Dames of York,\u201d and\nthe first club to sell a player (Emilio Estevez) to a top-flight league in\nEurope (Eredevisie). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just like last season, Manuel Aparicio will lead the club as\ncaptain. Brennan has known Aparicio since his days with Toronto FC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nine Stripes were supposed to kick-off their season at the tail-end of the Easter weekend against the Halifax Wanderers. There is no telling if that will be the first game of the year when the CPL introduces their plans, hopefully, in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Robert Belardi<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One year ago this Friday, July 10, York9 FC made history. The club became the first Canadian Premier League team to take on a Major League Soccer team. At that very thought, York9 FC was galvanized to take on the Montreal Impact in the third round of the Canadian Championship in front of 5,252 raging […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[24,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-sports","category-sports"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-70D","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-25 08:27:25","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\/26947","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=26947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}