Win or lose on Sunday, the Ottawa Fury is Canada’s team of the year. In any sport. Oh, surely, when the Canadian Press gets votes from sports editors across the country for its Team of the Year, the Fury might only get a nod from someone in the nation’s capital and will be widely ignored by everyone else. But, when 2011 comes to a close, the Fury deserve to rank with any of the hockey teams that traditionally dominate that vote.

Mallory Outerbridge, who led the Ottawa Fury to an undefeated run through the regular season and the Central Conference championship, was named the league MVP. This wasn’t a surprise; Outerbridge led all of the W-League with 17 goals in 12 regular-season games.

Canadian goalkeeper Quillan Roberts scored on a long kick in the recent U-17 World Cup. San Jose Earthquakes keeper David Bingham scored in a friendly against West Bromwich Albion. Now, add Clint Irwin to the list. On Saturday, with his Capital City FC trailing the Windsor Stars 2-1 in CSL action, Irwin joined the attack and got his head onto the cross for the equalizer.

To say that the Ottawa Fury are the favourites to take the W-League Central Conference championship this weekend would actually be a bit of an understatement. The Fury is coming off a perfect 12-0-0 season as the club hosts the Toronto Lady Lynx, the No. 4 seed in the conference, on Saturday. On Sunday, the winner faces the victor of the other semifinal between Laval and Quebec City.

Mallory Outerbridge is making a massive statement. Will Canadian national women’s team coach Carolina Morace be listening? Outerbridge hopes to break into the Canadian national women’s team lineup when the side will vie for a spot at the 2012 Olympics at the CONCACAF qualifiers, to be held in Vancouver beginning in late January.

When the new Ottawa franchise enters the North American Soccer League as an expansion franchise in 2014, it should have all the ingredients in place to have as successful a debut as FC Edmonton has enjoyed in 2011. Ottawa — which was officially announced Monday as a 2014 expansion team — has even more of a local soccer program to build on than FC Edmonton had, said FCE owner Tom Fath.

The scramble for fitness has already been lost by striker Josee Belanger, who has scored five times in 11 appearances for the Canadian team. She indicated to Quebec media sources Friday that her injured ankle would not be ready in time for the World Cup. Midfielder Kelly Parker is also racing to be fit in time to meet Morace’s May 10 deadline. Parker has played just 10 minutes in two subsititute appearances for the Western New York Flash of the WPS, where she teams with Christine Sinclair and FIFA player of the year, Marta.

FC Edmonton has inked former Ottawa Fury defender Adrian Leroy to a contract. Leroy, who was on trial with the NASL club for the past two weeks, was offered the deal late last week, but the paperwork was sorted out as of Monday.

Wednesday will be cut-down day for FC Edmonton coach Harry Sinkgraven. Well, sort of. The team spent a week in Florida with its full roster complement of 23 players — and trialists Kyle Porter and Adrian Leroy — ahead of Saturday’s NASL-opening 2-1 win over the Fort Lauderdale Strikers.

FC Edmonton may have left the city for a week-long camp in Florida, but the front office keeps rolling. The club added fullback and local product Eddy Sidra, who had an unsuccessful trial at Toronto FC, on Saturday. The team also brought in a new assistant coach, Edwin Petersen, from the Dutch U-15 program.