The countdown is on to the 2018/19 winter VMSL season!
This year Rino’s Vancouver SC will be fielding 5 teams in the Vancouver Metro Soccer League (VMSL) Premier, First, and Second Divisions, as well as Masters Div 1 (Over 35 and Over 45)
There are spots available at every level, and each team will have a dedicated staff to ensure a quality experience. If you are passionate about soccer and committed to showing up to training and matches throughout the winter then drop us a line at info@rinosvancouver.com with a brief bio including your age, and where you’ve previously played.
We are wishing the best of luck this week to Ahmed Alghamdi (#23 – far left of the photo) of our Rino’s Tigers Premier team who is currently taking part in the training camp of the Saudi Arabia youth national team.
Ahmed has been training in the Blaise Soccer Elite Training INCacademy for several years and playing with Rino’s Tigers in the VMSL under the guidance of Blaise Nkufo since he was 14 years old.
If he performs well he will be added to the roster of the Saudi team that will compete in the upcoming Asian Football Confederation U-19 Championship tournament.
Congrats to Rino’s Vancouver SC Tigers for winning the 2018 Richmond Regional Summer League Premier Divison! Ending with a 5-3-2 record and +15 Goal differential.
There’s a new name on the Vancouver Metro Soccer League (VMSL) Imperial Cup.
Rino’s Tigers lifted the famous 105-year-old trophy for the first time in their history following a 2-0 victory of Croatia SC at Coquitlam’s Percy Perry Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
For a match between two high scoring teams, that had produced 13 goals in their two league meetings this season, the anticipated goalfest didn’t come, with both defences standing strong again some dangerous attackers. That said, both teams had chances to make this a far more high scoring game, but they were unable to bury them.
Rino’s came out strong from the off and dominated the first half.
The opening ten minutes were marked by some fierce tackles flying in from Croatia, and you started to worry that TSS Rovers may be missing some of their Rino’s players for the new PDL season the way things were shaping up, but things soon settled down and both teams concentrated on getting the first goal.
Rino’s were looking the more dangerous, with Croatia find themselves caught offside several times from a high Tigers backline.
The best of the early chances fell to Whitecaps Residency alumni Declan Rodriguez in the 20th minute, after a spell of concerted Rino’s pressure. Connor Glennon went on a nice run up the right, playing the ball back to Erik Edwardson at the top of the box. The Portland Pilot midfielder played a neat ball to Rodriguez in front of goal and his cheeky back heel from the edge of the six yard box was blocked by the legs of Croatia’s keeper, Ante Boskovic.
Rino’s squandered another couple of good chances, with Rodriquez firing into the side netting and another Whitecaps Residency alumni, Daniel Sagno, blasting over, but Tigers weren’t to be denied and they finally got the go-ahead goal when Rodriguez finished at the near post from a tight angle in the 36th minute.
Rino’s were well deserving of their one goal lead at the half, but Croatia came out to make a game of it in the second.
The game became end to end, with both teams having a number of chances to grab the next goal. Tigers’ Matteo Polisi came close twice, with a free kick and then drilled a low one to Boskovic’s near post.
Croatia responded with a Johnny Sulentic free kick of their own that just zipped over, before Sulentic just failed to connect an outstretched leg to a great ball to the back post.
As Croatia pushed hard for the equaliser, they left themselves short at the back and Rino’s smelt blood.
Edwardson fired over from a good position, before crashing one off the bar. Boskovic had to come up big to keep Croatia in the match, saving from Rodriguez at the near post and then turning a Glennon chance just past the post, when it looked certain he’d score in the 66th minute.
Tigers thought they’d finally doubled their lead two minutes later when Matteo Polisi turned in a deflected Rodriguez cross, but he was deemed to have been in an offside position when the pass was made.
Both teams had a couple of close calls, before Edwardson wrapped it up for Rino’s in the closing minutes, picking his spot to finish a Glennon pass after a quick breakaway.
And that was that. Rino’s Tigers were the 2018 Imperial Cup champions.
You can see our highlights video from the match, as well as the trophy presentation, below.
After achieving promotion back to the VMSL Premier from Division 1 last season, it’s been a great year back in the top flight for Rino’s and a great achievement for the players and personally for head coach Blaise Nkufo.
“I’m very glad,” Nkufo told AFTN after Saturday’s win. “I think we deserve it. The first half we played very good football. The second half, we were not in control, but I think we created a lot of chances. We could have won by a big score, but at the end of the day, we managed to win. I’m very happy for the team and also for myself as a coach.”
The 2017/2018 VMSL Season wrapped up with a strong showing from all Rino’s Vancouver SC teams. The premier division Tiger’s team were in the title hunt all season long but were unable to find late season form and ended with a 6th place finish. A slow start from the 2017 3rd place finishing Division 1 side Fury put early doubts of promotion into their minds as they ended up in mid-table at 6th as well. The Division 2 Bulldogs had lots of promising results but carried on in the same style with a 6th place finish. The O35’s captured 3rd with a strong showing in Masters division 1 but it ended up being the old boys in the O45 Masters division, winning their respective league. Congrats to them!
The Tiger’s and Fury will now play in the VMSL Imperial Cup and hope to qualify for the BC Provincial Cup.
The countdown is on to the winter season starting Sept 8/9/10 weekend!
This year we’ll be fielding 5 teams in the Vancouver Metro Soccer League (VMSL) Premier, First, and Second Divisions, as well as Masters Div 1 (Over 35 and Over 45)
There are spots available at every level, and each team will have a dedicated staff to ensure a quality experience. If you are passionate about soccer and committed to showing up to training and matches throughout the winter then drop us a line at info@rinosvancouver.com with a brief bio including your age, and where you’ve previously played.
Congratulations to all our players who participated in the CLASS Spring League and finished the season with a perfect 9-0-0 record, including 3 playoff wins that earned them the prestigious Frank Arblaster Trophy!
Rino’s Awards Night will be taking place on Saturday June 17, 2017.
Team Award Categories:
– MVP
– Most Improved Player
Additionally we will be presenting the Andrew Wade Memorial Trophy to the key player in the club that best exemplified the qualities of sportsmanship, teamwork, and commitment in the 2016-17 season.
Admission is free, and everyone is welcome (all ages) including wives+girlfriends. We’ll get the Whitecaps game on the TVs, and have door prizes, the first of which will be drawn at 7:45pm
Congratulations to Tak Tasaka who was selected to feature in the PDL this summer with TSS FC Rovers! Tak was given the opportunity to play high level men’s soccer in the VMSL as part of Rino’s Tigers Premier program coached by Blaise Nkufo when he was just 16 years old. Now at age 18 he will still be one of the youngest members of the TSS squad, but comes in fully prepared for the challenge!
The Fury finally found their scoring touch this weekend with a 5-0 thumping of GFC United Lions on Saturday at Memorial Turf South.
After a somewhat shaky start, the team in blue began to control the play and create chances. With only 2 goals in 2 games, it was necessary that they start to take advantage of scoring opportunities. Striker Cougny got them off the mark after a through ball played him in on a breakaway. He neatly tucked in under the keeper and put the Fury up by 1. Not too long after, they went up 2 on a brilliant team goal that saw a nice ball played into Cougny in the 18 yard box, who layed it off for an oncoming Arceneaux who side footed it past a outstretched keeper into the upper right part of the net. Arceneaux had redeemed himself after missing a chance earlier with his weaker left foot on a shot from a similar position. On another nice team play 10 minutes after that, he had another chance on his right foot again, but missed a nicely placed shot just wide. A first half hat trick and Fury scoring lead could of been his. Five minutes before half, it was 3-0 after Atkinson, who beat the offside trap, played a square ball into italian striker Pace, who had time to collect the ball and read a newspaper before slotting it past the keeper.
A comfortable lead at half time meant the hair dryer was unnecessary for the team talk from the coach. The instructions were to continue pressing.
With the Lions tiring, it was all the well conditioned Rinos after the break. A few new substitutions were introduced which added to the offensive game plan that was causing the Lions all sorts of problems. 10 minutes into the half, Pace got his second of the game, who was johnny on the spot with another cross into the box that was easily put home. A few nice saves from the Lions keeper kept the game from becoming a blowout, including a spectacular one on Hanson’s “Bread n Butter” outside of the foot curler on a free kick from about 25 yards.
Substitute Kaplan brought new life into the game with a second half appearance that produced the goal of the game. In the 65th minute, a ball was played into Kaplan just outside of the 18. A nice turn and a wonderous curving left footed shot from the right side found it’s way off the post and into the net, showing off his ambidextrous abilities. A number of chances went begging after that, keeping the score in single digits. Once again, the opposition were limited to a few half chances which caused little problems for keeper Verbeek, picking up his second clean sheet of the year, thanks to a solid back line. A hard, encouraging 90 minutes were played out that should breed confidence for the Fury going forward into the next games this season.
