The St. Albert Impact are close to completing the cycle of bridging together their youth and adult female programs and the Alberta Major Soccer League is the last link in the competitive chain.
The Impact’s presence last year in the women’s outdoor ranks of the Edmonton District Soccer Association consisted of three sides in the 10-team premier table and the provincial Tier 1 champions in division 1A.
“We typically have one team (in premier) that we try and put all the resources into the challenge for major league because we want to complete the whole pathway for all of our players coming through the system,” said Chris Spaidal, the St. Albert Soccer Association’s executive director who coached the Impact 1 premier team in outdoors.
“We have that in indoor for all female players. We have the major league indoor team that I coach and then we have multiple prem teams and then a div one and a div two in indoor,” said Spaidal, who is starting his third outdoor season with SASA after completing his third indoor session. “In outdoor, we have it in place essentially for the men’s side now because we have a major league men’s program (one of 10 AMSL teams) and then a div one and then they lead up from the youth programs.”
The Impact 1 men, which were basically the FC Edmonton Academy team operating under the SASA Impact label, were tops in the 2018 premier outdoor campaign.
The FC Edmonton and Cavalry FC U20 development teams are joining the AMSL this year and along with the Impact will play a 17-game schedule starting May 1.
Last year the Impact 1 women were one goal away from qualifying for the AMSL challenge playdowns for major league status in 2019, but finished second to Northwest United 2 in the premier table by two points after the 1-1 tie with Northwest to wrap up the EDSA fixtures Aug. 7.
“We’re in a bit of a lull I guess you could say right now because we’ve had the three prem teams for a couple of years and last year we lost out on the last kick of the day,” Spaidal said of the missed penalty shot by the Impact that ended the draw with Northwest. “The girls deserved a better result then, but at the end of the day we dust ourselves off and we get ready to go again.”
Last year the women's AMSL consisted of eight teams, with Northwest, Scottish Angels, Green & Gold and Victoria as the EDSA reps, and all but Green & Gold had feeder teams in premier.
The Alberta Soccer Association amended its challenge procedure for AMSL qualification in 2020 so the top finisher out of all the teams that declare for the AMSL challenge playdowns now has a better shot at making the major league.
“It’s the best team that challenges out of all the teams that challenge that gets to go to into the challenging whereas last year we had to win the league and we lost out to Northwest 2, who are essentially for 80 per cent of the year it’s all their major league players they have at the transfer deadline,” Spaidal said. “It’s now a little bit more fair and a little more better rational and even playing field for everyone.”
Last year marked the fourth time in five years Northwest 2 was No. 1 in premier and in 2017 was second behind Green & Gold by three points.
“They train a little bit more regularly. They have a big university and post-secondary contingent, it’s a lot of MacEwan girls there, so they have a little bit more regular consistent training at a high level. They set the standard overall of what everybody wants to do,” Spaidal said. “It’s an interesting mix they have within the whole dynamics of the women’s senior programs. Northwest is the one who typically takes all the players who want to train lots and still want be overly dedicated and we’re more of a mix of experienced players blended in with new players coming in and then Vic (Victoria) is more of the old guard type of thing with not a lot of new players coming in at any time.”
Impact 1 lost four out of 22 matches last year and three were against Northwest, 3-0 in league play and a pair at provincials by scores of 3-1 in the round robin and 1-0 in the final.
“The funny part was we had the team basically bandaged together to go to provincials just to try and compete and they were within a goal of winning the whole thing in the end,” Spaidal said.
In premier, Impact 1 finished 15-1-2 (66 GF/18 GA) in wins/ties/losses for 46 points behind Northwest’s 15-3 (62 GF/8 GA) record for 48 points.
Impact 2 (Bourbonnais/Brown) placed fifth at 7-5-6 (30 GF/23 GA) and Impact 3 (Murphy) wound up eighth at 4-2-12 (23 GF/59 GA).
“The top half (in premier) is quite good. The top three or four could easily interchange with the bottom half of major league teams at any time,” Spaidal said. “Major league provincials, mind you, is a totally different story because the teams really load up because it’s the berth for nationals on the line there, but during the season your top two or three premier teams could easily compete playing the major league teams. I’m not saying they would beat them but they could compete with them on a regular basis.”
The division 1A Impact 4 (Murphy) team ranked second in league play at 10-2-2 (63 GF/22 GA) before going 3-1 at Tier 1 provincials in Calgary.
“The div ones went down and did the job they needed to do,” Spaidal said of the Impact’s second Tier 1 championship since 2016.
Rolling out three premier teams and one division 1A team during an outdoor season, “is a pretty big accomplishment for sure, not just that we have them but they’re all competitive and they all have a purpose,” said Spaidal, noting several individuals have assisted “building up the resources and getting the respective players that want to come play for us in St. Albert at the senior Impact level and it’s really benefited us as a club for the whole especially with what’s going on with our youth programs right now exploding in a good positive manner as well.
“We’ve got a good amount of quantity and quality.”
A division two Impact women’s team is also in the mix for the outdoor season for the first time since 2016 to accommodate a talent pool of 75 to 80 players spread among the five EDSA teams.
“We want to be able to have players coming out of youth and find them a place that they can play and still be a part of our club. So maybe if they’re not ready for premier, then we can find a spot at div one. If they’re not ready for div one, we have them a spot in div two,” Spaidal said. “The beauty of that is if they’re kind of in between. The div twos are affiliated with the div ones so they can move up and then get a chance to excel and move at their own pace and put themselves in environments where they’re going to find success.”
