The Toronto FC vs Manchester City friendly on Wednesday was really an event that represents everything Canadian soccer fans want more of, more of the world’s top soccer on Canadian soil.
Manchester City, funded generously from the United Arab Emirates by Sheik Mansour – who also owns MLS expansion team New York City FC – is quickly becoming one of the top clubs of the world with a blend of talented, and expensive players from home and abroad.
MLS teams are becoming, well, competitive with the likes of Manchester City, and the soccer-specific natural grass BMO Field offers the third component to deliver the very good exhibition football that is in short supply these days.
There are, of course, many side-bar stories attached to such an attractive event and the Canadian Soccer League keeps one eye on the Manuel Pellegrini connection with Toronto, an attachment forged by Carlos Rivas, the former Chilean star who came to Canada following a time when he was the pride of his country, scoring the winning goal against Ecuador that put Chile into the 1982 World Cup.
The Carlos Rivas-Pellegrini friendship goes back to their days when both played for Chile. Both were born in Chilean capital of Santiago.
Tony De Thomasis, owner of the CSL’s York Region Shooters, who has expended much energy and financial resources to see young Canadians with promise get a chance at the big time, is part of that equation, having worked with Rivas in local soccer, Carlos Rivas arrived in Canada in 1984 and soon established the Carlos Rivas Soccer School in north Toronto. With De Thomasis, he keeps a keen eye open for any young player deserved of a recommendation to Manuel Pellegrini and others in Europe.
The threesome had a chance to talk during the quick visit by the English Premier League side and that continues to reinforce a relationship that paves the way for young Canadians identified as being special enough for a referral overseas.
