And what of the Challenge Cup winner? Year after year, the team that wins the senior men’s amateur title is one that has links to pro soccer and the Canadian national-team program. There are former national-team and/or pro players who got real jobs and had families, but still remain in love with the game. There are former and current CIS standouts. There is quality in those teams.

Edmonton Scottish finally won its first-ever Challenge Trophy in 2016. And the coach believes that Canada’s senior men’s champion deserve an even greater honour; a chance to play in the Voyageurs Cup...

But now that we have a verdict, the issue goes forward. Thanks for your patience! What can you find inside the issue, other than our look back at the USL/NASL soap opera?

It’s been a hell of a Thanksgiving weekend for Edmonton’s soccer community.

Lowball contract offers. Teams that don’t want to “waste” precious international roster spots on a Canadians. A player being told that he’ll get a chance to make a team once he gets a U.S. green card. These are the realities of Canadians trying to play in North America. In NASL and MLS, Americans are allowed to be treated as domestic players on Canadian teams. But, on the American teams, Canadians are treated as internationals. Here’s a look at the domino effect of roster inequality in North America...

Mallan Roberts is a man of two nations, but he only officially belongs to one of them.

But Gloucester Celtic, from the Ottawa area, can boast it’s the best senior amateur men’s team in the country. A 3-0 win over the Surrey United Firefighters in Halifax Monday was all the proof needed. The win gave Celtic the Challenge Trophy, emblematic of men’s senior soccer supremacy.

The identity of one more player is being held back. That player will be announced just before the game Tuesday.

But Thanksgiving Monday’s national club championship final between Royal-Select Beauport and Edmonton Scottish was a compelling Cup final, the kind of game you’ll talk about years from now. Beauport, down to 10 men, triumphed over a Scottish side laden with former NASL and USL players.