Calgary Foothills FC are the defending league champions for a reason.
The Foothills had head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr., and seven players, move up en masse this season to the new pro Canadian Premier League as Cavalry FC, which leads the CPL.
But the affiliated Foothills, although now the secondary soccer team in the Calgary market, hasn’t missed a beat in the United Soccer League 2 (formerly PDL). That was evident in the Foothills’ 4-1 romp over the Victoria Highlanders at Centennial Stadium on Friday night.
The teams meet at Centennial Stadium again today, at 2 p.m. Foothills goes in at 5-2-2, while the Highlanders, having a resurgent season despite the setback, are 4-2-1.
Foothills FC has clearly restocked well, including with several former Highlanders stars, such as Cory Bent and Marcus Campanile. The latter was in fine form on Friday as he scored a goal and also assisted on one of Willy Akio’s two goals, the first of which came just two minutes into the game.
“We recognize that we were not switched on at the beginning of the game like we need to be,” Victoria head coach Thomas Niendorf said in a statement.
“Foothills is always a team with good structure and is organized, and they will come with a good mentality and intensity right away. That was something we had to match, and we didn’t.”
Goteh Ntignee, only 17 and ranked No. 41 on the USL 2 list of 2019 top-50 pro prospects, showed why he is receiving such recognition by scoring the Highlanders’ lone goal at 73 minutes to deny Foothills the clean sheet.
“It was good to score a goal just to get some positivity into our game,” Niendorf said. “But overall, that wasn’t the way we are capable of playing.”
Berlin-native Niendorf knows Wheeldon and the rest of the Calgary soccer scene well, having been part of it for 26 years, including introducing dual-citizen Cow Town product and future England international Owen Hargreaves to Bayern Munich.
Niendorf and Foothills head coach Leon Hapgood know each other from having been opponents in Calgary senior soccer leagues.
“This is an exciting opportunity to prove ourselves against a team like Foothills and take another step forward,” Niendorf said before the weekend.
His Highlanders get another kick at it this afternoon.
