Four matches in one round, including two weeknight matches and one match doubling as both an NSL and W Canadian Championship match. Even with the odd combination there were no odd results, even if there were some extremely odd matches. Round 15's best and worst matches came from the same two clubs as they played a home and home series. Calgary put up a fight on the road in Toronto to start the round before being smoked on Saturday at their home in Alberta.
Tuesday, 28 July
AFC Toronto 1–0 Calgary Wild
Calgary has had plenty of rough results this season but are not a bad team, even if the table doesn't show that. Opening the round Calgary Wild came out with a huge plus to start the week throwing a good performance at AFC Toronto. After a tightly contested first half Calgary was caught with a foul inside the box sending Toronto to the spot. Forward Kaylee Hunter converted the penalty putting AFC Toronto up just five minutes into the half. Toronto almost gave up a goal of their own, when a back pass had to be chased down by the keeper to avoid an own goal. But through just the single goal AFC Toronto got their first home win of the season.
Wednesday, 29 July
Vancouver Rise 3–4 Montréal Roses
Arguably the craziest match of the week took place out west in Burnaby, BC on Wednesday night with Vancouver hosting second place Montréal. Opening up the match was a trio of goals inside 20 minutes, with the Rise scoring first less than five minutes in. Just over ten minutes later the Roses answered back to draw the match level, but then in the 17th minute Vancouver's Anais Oularbi put the hosts back up. Just before the half the Roses drew the match level on the back of a goal from Elyse Bennett.
Montréal broke out early in the second half with two goals inside the first fifteen minutes of the half. First coming from Mimi Alidou in the 54th minute then followed by Anne-Valérie Seto scoring four minutes later after getting the ball in a scrum. Vancouver tried to mount a comeback and towards the end of the match appeared to have the Roses number, but they were only able to muster one more goal and fell short of a comeback.
Saturday, 1 August
Calgary Wild 0–6 AFC Toronto
Coming off an outstanding performance against AFC Toronto just days prior, things were looking up for Calgary Wild. Saturday at McMahon Stadium started off well for the Wild with the club holding their own against Toronto once again. Kaylee Hunter's 21st minute header goal put Toronto up relatively early, but wasn't gamebreaking. However a little over ten minutes later Grace Stordy was shown a straight red following a foul in the box and Hunter converted the penalty.
From there the gates were open and Toronto dominated the remaining 60 plus minutes of football. A 36th minute goal followed by another 41st minute sent Toronto into the break with a 4–0 lead. The second half was much more tame with Toronto scoring just twice, one coming off a header early in the second half and a sixth and final goal during stoppage time. Calgary's second loss on the week sent them down 0-2-12 (2 points) and they remain the only winless team in the NSL.
Monday, 3 August
Halifax Tides 2–2 Ottawa Rapid | WCC Final AET, HFX 2–3 OTT
Note: This match doubled as Women's Canadian Championship match
Rounding out the week was a dual NSL and W Canadian Championship match between Halifax and Ottawa in Nova Scotia. A tightly contested first half resulted in neither side being able to break out in the first ever Women's Canadian Championship match. Which massively changed in the second half of football.
Less than five minutes into the second half Jordyn Rhodes scored a cheeky goal from right outside the six to put the Tides on the board first. Just over ten minutes later Rhodes secured herself a brace after putting herself in just the right place to pick up the pieces on a Halifax corner. With the clock winding towards 90 and the Tides holding a two goal lead with less than ten minutes to play it looked like the Halifax faithful would be leaving happy.
But the Ottawa Rapid did not let that happen and earned their first goal in the 83rd minute before bringing the match level in stoppage time. And while that would be the end of it in the league table, being a cup match as well it required extra time. Two minutes into the second half of extra time Nicola Golen charged into the box and picked up a loose ball inside the six for a second chance shot and converted from short range to give Ottawa the win in the W Canadian Championship.
W Canadian Championship
Wednesday, 5 August
Calgary Wild vs CS Mont-Royal Outremont (QC) - 8pm CT / 7pm MT
Watch on: YouTube
Round 16 Matches
Friday, 7 August
Montréal Roses vs Halifax Tides - 6pm CT / 7pm ET
Watch on: TSN and RDS (Canada), ESPN+ (USA), YouTube (Internationally)
Saturday, 8 August
Vancouver Rise vs Calgary Wild - 6pm CT / 4pm PT
Watch on: CBC Gem (Canada), YouTube (Internationally)
Sunday, 9 August
Ottawa Rapid vs AFC Toronto - 1pm CT / 2pm ET
Watch on: TSN (Canada), ESPN+ (USA), YouTube (Internationally)
