Ottawa Fury home game against MLS team ‘a step up in quality’ for club

Regardless of whether they win or lose, the Ottawa Fury are about to make history.

Ottawa hosts the defending champion Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer on Wednesday night in the first leg of the Amway Canadian Championship semi-finals.

It will mark the first time the Fury, last year's fall season winners in the North American Soccer League, will get to host a club from the higher-tier MLS.

"It's a step up in quality for us, we're facing MLS opposition for the first time," Ottawa head coach Paul Dalglish said. "It's a step up in quality so you expect them to be better at everything than what we've faced so far this season.

"It's MLS opposition in Ottawa for the first time so it's an opportunity for everybody to support their local team against a real David and Goliath story."

The Fury advanced to the semi-finals after defeating FC Edmonton 3-2 on aggregate in their two-match preliminary series earlier this month.

The second leg of the series will be held June 8 in Vancouver. The winner will advance to the championship final and face the winner of the other semi-final between Toronto FC and the Montreal Impact.

Dalglish knows what his team is up against and while he remains optimistic, he says there's no point being unrealistic.

"We've got to understand what we are. We're a minor league team going against a major league team," he said. "We've got to be respectful, but not fearful of the opposition. Anything can happen; luck plays a massive part in soccer. The underdog can always beat the favourite and that's why it's the most popular game in the world."

Players realize the NASL is considered a second-tier league to the MLS, but they don't believe the gulf is as big as some might think.

"You hear all the time that if you take the designated players away from an MLS team it's quite even," Fury forward Carl Haworth said. "There's some good teams in the NASL that can compete with the MLS on any given day so I think we're going to see a pretty exciting game and pretty evenly matched. This is an opportunity for us to show that we are good enough to play at that level, that we are good enough to play in the MLS and sort of showcase ourselves."

The Whitecaps expect Fury to push them with everything they've got.

"It's always more difficult to defend it than win it the first time," Whitecaps assistant coach Martyn Pert said on the team's website. "But we want to put a real effort into getting the title and keeping it in Vancouver."

Both teams will be missing some key players Wednesday. Vancouver will be without Kendall Waston and Christian Bolanos as well as striker Blas Perez, who will be representing their nations at the upcoming Copa America Centenario.

The Fury will be without Julian de Guzman and Marcel de Jong who were called up to the Canadian senior men's national team.

This is the ninth edition of the Amway Canadian Championship. The winning team is awarded the Voyageurs Cup and earns Canada's lone spot in CONCACAF Champions League on the road to the FIFA Club World Cup.