Vaughan Azzurri

Vaughan Azzurri is a Canadian semi-professional soccer team based in Vaughan, Ontario, that currently competes in the League1 Ontario men's and women's divisions. The semi-professional team was founded in 2014 by the Vaughan Soccer Club, which is a youth soccer club as part of their High Performance Program.

Vaughan Azzurri

Full name	Vaughan Soccer Club
Founded	1982/2014
Stadium	North Maple Regional Park Vaughan, Ontario
Capacity	500
Coordinates	43.8832°N 79.5188°W / 43.8832; -79.5188
Affiliation	Vaughan Soccer Club
Club president	Tony Bartolomeo
Head coach	Sergio De Luca (men) Carmine Isacco (women)
League	League1 Ontario
2024	L1O-P, 2nd (men) L1O-P, 5th (women)
Website	vaughansoccer.com
Home colours Away colours
Current season

History

Vaughan Soccer Club was founded in 1982 as a youth soccer club under the name Concord Jets. In 1986, they renamed to Vaughan SC. Since 1986, the club continued to grow and by 2012, became the second largest soccer club in York Region.^[1]

Men's semi-pro team

They added their semi-professional club, under the name Vaughan Azzurri, to play in League1 Ontario in the inaugural season in 2014,^[2][3] originally playing out of McNaughton Park.^[4] They won the inaugural League1 Ontario League Cup defeating Sigma FC 2–1 in the final at BMO Field.^[5] They won their first league title in 2016, defeating FC London in the playoff final.^[6] This qualified them for the Inter-Provincial championship to face the champions of the Première Ligue de soccer du Québec champion CS Mont-Royal Outremont for the Canadian Division III title, where they lost over the two-legged fixture.^[7] Since then, the Azzurri have won a league-tying two League1 Ontario Championships and a league-leading three L1 Cups.

During the 2018 season, they played a friendly against Italian professional Serie A club Frosinone Calcio, losing by a score of 2–1, although Vaughan managed to take an early 1–0 lead in the match.^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

Vaughan Azzurri wins 2018 men's L1O League Cup

From 2014 to 2018, the club was led by head coach Carmine Isacco. Following the 2018 season, Isacco left Vaughan to join the newly founded York9 FC as an assistant coach.^[13] In spring 2019, it was announced that previous First Team assistant coach and U21 head coach Patrice Gheisar would take over First Team operations.^[14]

Having won the 2018 League1 Ontario Championship, the Azzurri were awarded a berth to the first qualifying round of 2019 Canadian Championship.^[15] They played HFX Wanderers FC of the Canadian Premier League in a two-legged series and hosted their home match at the Ontario Soccer Centre.^[16] They lost the first leg 3–2 at home after HFX scored a stoppage time penalty kick,^[17][18] but won the return leg in Halifax 1–0, being the first semi-professional club to defeat a professional side in the tournament. The two clubs drew 3–3 on aggregate but Vaughan failed to advance due to the away goals rule.^[19]

At the 2020 MLS SuperDraft, Vaughan had four of their players selected in the first round of the draft.^[20] The Azzurri men went undefeated in the regular seasons of both 2021 and 2022,^[21] winning the playoff championship in 2022.^[22] In 2024, Vaughan won the League Cup (in the first edition since 2018).^[23]

Women's semi-pro team

They added a women's club to participate in the inaugural 2015 season of the League1 Ontario women's division.^[24] The women won the 2016 League Cup.^[25] They finished first in the 2022 regular season, winning the Supporter's Trophy as regular season champions, but were defeated in the playoff semi-finals by Alliance United.^[26] In 2024, the women's B team won the first edition of the third tier League2 Ontario, earning promotion to the second tier League1 Ontario Championship.^[27]

Squad

As of 16 April 2023^[28]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  CAN Chistian Calabro 2 DF  CAN Daniel Gogarty 3 MF  CAN Jaytin Pabla 4 DF  CAN Nyal Higgins 5 FW  CAN Raheem Rose 6 DF  CAN Joshua Belluz 9 FW  CAN Omar Marzouk 10 MF  CAN Emmanuel Zambazis 12 GK  CAN Gianluca Catalano 13 MF  CAN Joe Mac 14 FW  CAN Ryan Robinson 16 DF  CAN Jarred Phillips 17 MF  CAN Christian Zeppieri

No. Pos. Nation Player 18 DF  CAN Klaidi Cela 19 MF  CAN Joseph Di Chiara 20 MF  CAN Chris Mannella 21 MF  CAN Dylan Carreiro 24 MF  CAN Isaac Bradbury — DF  CAN Gabriel Jodhan — FW  CAN Dujon Martin — FW  CAN Jahsua Mills — FW  CAN Jason Mills — FW  CAN Soji Olatoye — FW  ITA Abdou Raouf Mohamed — FW  CAN C.J. Smith — DF  CAN Justyn Thomas — FW  CAN Marcel Zajac

Seasons

Men

Season	League	Teams	Record	Rank	Playoffs	League Cup	National / Other		Ref
2014	League1 Ontario	9	8–3–5	4th	–	Champions	did not qualify		[29]
2015		12	12–7–3	3rd	–	Quarter-finals			[29]
2016		16	17–4–1	1st, East (1st overall)	Champions	Champions	Inter-Provincial Cup	RU	[29]
2017		16	16–1–5	2nd, East (4th overall)	did not qualify	Runner-up	Ineligible		[29]
2018		17	10–1–5	5th	Champions	Champions	did not qualify		[29]
2019		16	12–1–2	2nd	Quarter-finals	–	Canadian Championship	R1	[29]
2020	Season cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic[30]
2021	League1 Ontario	15	11–1–0	1st, East (1st)	Semi-finals	–	did not qualify		[29]
2022		22	18–3–0	1st	Champions	–
2023		21	14–3–3	3rd	Semi-finals	–	Canadian Championship	R1
2024	League1 Ontario Premier	12	14–7–1	2nd	–	Champions	did not qualify

Women

Season	League	Teams	Record	Rank	Playoffs	League Cup	Ref
2015	League1 Ontario	7	10–5–3	3rd	–	Finalists	[31]
2016		9	8–5–3	4th	–	Champions	[31]
2017		11	12–3–5	2nd	–	Semi-finals	[31]
2018		13	8–0–4	3rd	Semi-finals	Semi-finals	[31]
2019		14	10–1–2	2nd	Semi-finals	–	[31]
2020	Season cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic[30]
2021	League1 Ontario	7	6–2–4	3rd	Semi-finals	–	[31]
2022		20	15–3–1	1st	Finalists	–
2023		19	14–2–2	2nd	Semi-finals	–
2024	League1 Ontario Premier	10	6–7–5	5th	–	Quarter-finals

Honours

• League1 Ontario Championship (3): 2016, 2018, 2022
• L1 Cup (4): 2014, 2016, 2018, 2024

Notable players

The following players have either played at the professional or international level, either before or after playing for the League1 Ontario team:

Men

• Matthew Arnone
• Andy Baquero
• Alon Badat
• Orlendis Benítez
• Gabriel Boakye
• Adrian Butters
• Dylan Carreiro
• Gianluca Catalano
• Klaidi Cela
• Joseph Di Chiara
• Zak Drake
• Duwayne Ewart
• Daniel Fabrizi
• Riley Ferrazzo
• Massimo Ferrin
• Marcus Godinho
• Daniel Gogarty
• A. J. Gray
• Dayonn Harris
• Jordan Haynes
• Nyal Higgins
• Brandon John
• Alistair Johnston
• Malcolm Johnston
• John Jonke
• Ryan Khedoo
• Jace Kotsopoulos
• Maksym Kowal
• Mathieu Laurent
• Duran Lee
• Andrea Lombardo
• Baj Maan
• Chris Mannella
• Kamal Miller
• Massimo Mirabelli
• David Monsalve
• Kosi Nwafornso
• Andrew Ornoch
• Anthony Osorio
• Jarred Phillips
• Alejandro Portal
• Ryan Raposo
• Ryan Robinson
• Austin Ricci
• Dylan Sacramento
• Alain Sargeant
• Tomasz Skublak
• C. J. Smith
• Jamaal Smith
• Justin Springer
• Dayne St. Clair
• Matt Stinson
• Ryan Telfer
• Colm Vance
• David Velastegui
• Reshaun Walkes
• Marcel Zajac
• Emmanuel Zambazis

Women

• Nora Abolins
• Kadeisha Buchanan
• Stephanie Bukovec
• Calaigh Copland
• Brianne Desa
• Briana DeSouza
• Kayla DeSouza
• Quinn Josiah
• Ashley Lawrence
• Serena McDonald
• Farkhunda Muhtaj
• Yoana Peralta
• Justine Rodrigues
• Kayla Uddenberg
• Bria Williams

References

1. "VSC history". Vaughan SC.
2. Hayakawa, Michael (April 10, 2014). "Vaughan to field 2 teams in inaugural soccer league". Vaughan Citizen.
3. Rowaan, Dave (April 14, 2014). "League1 Ontario announces teams for inaugural season". Waking The Red. Retrieved June 7, 2019.
4. Kelly, Tim (April 14, 2016). "Soccer season in Vaughan a sure sign of spring". Vaughan Citizen.
5. Hayakawa, Michael (October 24, 2014). "Azzurri end season on winning note". Vaughan Citizen.
6. Hayakawa, Michael (October 21, 2016). "Vaughan Azzurri kicks up a storm to win Ontario soccer championship". Vaughan Citizen.
7. "CS Mont-Royal Outremont Griffons Beat Vaughan Azzurri In 2016 Inter-Provincial Cup". League1 Ontario. November 12, 2016.
8. Cheng, Jonathan (October 16, 2018). "Building The Azzurri Pipeline". League1 Ontario.
9. Mastrantoni, Andrea (June 22, 2018). "Ufficiale - Il 20 luglio amichevole contro il Vaughan Azzurri" [Official - On 20 July a friendly match against Vaughan Azzurri]. Tutto Frosinone (in Italian).
10. "Frosinone Calcio is Here in Canada". Molisana Imports. July 18, 2018.
11. "Frosinone - Vaughan Soccer 2-1". Frosinone Calcio (in Italian). July 21, 2018.
12. "Tournée Canada/USA, il programma delle Amichevolu" [Tournée Canada/USA, the friends' program]. Frosinone Calcio (in Italian). July 17, 2018.
13. Gourlie, Matthew (July 27, 2018). "Brennan ready to take on coaching role". July of 86.
14. Linh Nam, Devin (May 21, 2019). "Vaughan Azzurri Looking to take Advantage of the Canadian Championship, Win or Lose". Humber College.
15. Davidson, Neil (May 14, 2019). "Vaughan Azzurri up for Canadian Championship challenge against HFX Wanderers FC". Toronto Star.
16. Thompson, Marty (February 13, 2019). "'We'll be up for it': Underdog Vaughan states CanChamp intentions". Canadian Premier League.
17. Bedakain, Armen (May 15, 2019). "Late PK gives Wanderers advantage over Vaughan". Canadian Premier League.
18. "HFX beat Vaughan in first leg of Canadian Championship qualifier". Sportsnet. May 16, 2019.
19. MacDonald, Glenn (May 22, 2019). "HFX Wanderers survive Vaughan scare to advance in Canadian Championship showdown". The Chronicle Herald.
20. Shealer, Sheldon (January 9, 2020). "Vaughan SC revels in Super day". Top Drawer Soccer.
21. Jacques, John (August 23, 2022). "L1O Invincibles: Vaughan Completes Back-To-Back Undefeated Seasons". Northern Tribune.
22. Jacques, John (September 4, 2022). "Recap: Vaughan Azzurri Storm To Big L1O Championship Win". Northern Tribune.
23. "Vaughan Azzurri win Men's L1 Cup". League1 Ontario. September 7, 2024.
24. Rowaan, Dave (January 29, 2015). "League 1 Ontario announces expansion teams for 2015 season". Waking The Red.
25. Glover, Robin (November 28, 2016). "League1 Ontario 2016 Awards Luncheon". Northern Starting XI.
26. "A Bluffer's Guide to Vaughan Azzurri". League1 Ontario. September 15, 2022.
27. "Vaughan Azzurri B win women's League2". League1 Ontario. August 11, 2024.
28. "Vaughan Azzurri". League 1 Ontario.
29. "League1 Ontario Historical Standings Men's Division". Canadian Soccer History Archives.
30. "League1 Ontario cancels Fall season plans for 2020 due to COVID-19 restrictions". Canadian Premier League. September 4, 2020.
31. "League1 Ontario Historical Standings Women's Division". Canadian Soccer History Archives.

External links

• Official website