For first time in 10 years, Ottawa Fury won’t win W-League conference title

When it comes to women’s club soccer in Canada, the Ottawa Fury has been untouchable for almost a decade.

The Fury is the reigning W-League champion. It has (or had) won the Central Conference crown for nine years in a row. But that run of conference championships came to an end Thursday night.

The Fury needed a home win against the Laval Cometes to stay alive for the Conference Championship. But after taking a 1-0 lead on a 54th-minute goal from Katie Brussel, the Fury couldn’t close the deal. The Cometes struck back with a penalty-kick equalizer and then scored the winner in injury time, as the Fury pushed forward looking for the winning goal it needed to stay in the conference race.

Final score: Cometes 2, Fury 1 — and the nine-year run is over.

Kelsey Wilson scored the equalizer on a penalty. Ironically, the Cometes’ player who drew the foul was none other than Christina Julien — the former Fury regular who is looking to play her way back into the good books of women’s national-team coach John Herdman.

And, as the Fury surged forth, Amandine Pierre-Louis found herself on a clear breakaway for the visitors, and she converted the chance, putting the official end to the Fury’s dominance.

The Fury will still have the chance to move on and defend its W-League crown in the conference playoffs; but, for once, it won’t be at home in the nation’s capital to do so. The road to the championship will go through Laval, not Ottawa.