Before we name the Team of the Year we should give credit to some other sides that get ignored and who were in the running to win the Team of the Year.
The emergence of the MLS academies has been talked about a great deal in Canadian soccer circles and two of the academy teams distinguished themselves this year.
The TFC junior academy were perfect in the CSL season and only came up short in the playoffs because a good chunk of their roster was missing due to school commitments.
In Vancouver, the Whitecaps U18 side played their first season in the USSDA and came a goal away from winning the national title, losing 3-2 to FC Dallas, an academy powerhouse in the U.S., in the final.
The young Caps play was so strong that both western voters selected that club as the winners of this award.
Forest City London had a solid PDL regular season and then caught fire in the playoffs. After upsetting the runaway regular season leaders Michigan Bucks in the conference title game the team keep rolling
Seattle Sounders u-23s went down in the national semi-final and the Carolina Dynamo fell in the final to give the club its first championship.
In most years a Canadian USL champion might be enough to win the Team of the Year.
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However, 2012 also saw a remarkable club in Ottawa finally win a championship they had been very close to capturing in the past.
The Ottawa Fury are a first-rate, professional operation that is widely under-appreciated here in Canada. They captured the W-League title in a year where there were no fully professional women’s teams in North America.
As such, they might very well have been the best women’s team in North America in 2012.
And, almost certainly would have been the Team of the Year in any other year.
Except in 2012 Canada won an Olympic medal.
Clearly, the 2012 Team of the Year is the senior women’s national team.
It was the best single performance by a national side since the 2000 men’s Gold Cup win. And, it captured the imagination of average sports fans in Canada in a way that no other soccer team ever has.
We shouldn’t ignore the wonderful accomplishments of the Fury, London City, TFC junior academy or the Whitecaps u18s, but this wasn’t close. We can only hope that in future more Canadian teams can have years like the women did in 2012.