Season 2016 Cup champions Vaughan Azzurri Goals scored 733 (4.19 per match) | Champions Vaughan Azzurri Matches played 175 | |
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Top goalscorer Elvir Gigolaj
(24 goals) | ||
The 2016 League1 Ontario season is the third season of play for League1 Ontario, a Division 3 semi-professional soccer league in the Canadian soccer pyramid and the highest level of soccer based in the Canadian province of Ontario.
Contents
This season saw the return of all but one of the teams which completed the previous season, as well as the addition of five new teams for the men's division. The women's division saw the departure of two teams from its inaugural season, while four teams joined the league to result in a nine-team competition.
Changes from 2015
Five new teams (Aurora United FC, North Mississauga SC, North Toronto Nitros, Toronto Skillz FC) joined the men's division for this season, including FC London who moved over from the Premier Development League. One team (ANB Futbol) from 2015 did not renew their license, resulting in a 16-team competition and a change from a single-table format to a two-conference format.
The league's cup tournament for the men's division will be a single-elimination competition; eliminating the group stage seen in previous editions.
The women's division enters its second season with nine teams, after the addition of four teams (Aurora United FC, Darby FC, Kingston Clippers, and FC London) and the departure of two teams (ANB Futbol and Pro Stars FC) from the previous season. It will remain in a single-table format for the 2016 season.
On June 16, 2016, Toronto FC entered into a partnership with the Windsor Stars wherein the latter would become a "regional satellite club" of the former, who would in turn provide technical and coaching development. As part of the agreement, Windsor would become known as "Windsor TFC" in the future. The agreement does not affect the participation in L1O of either the Windsor Stars or TFC's Academy team.
Standings
Each team will play 22 matches as part of the season; two against every team in their own conference, and one against every team in the opposing conference. The top team from each conference will meet at the end of the season to determine the league champion and will face the PLSQ league champion in the Inter-Provincial Cup.
League Championship
The league champion is determined by a single-match series between the top-ranked teams from the western and eastern conferences.
Cup
The cup tournament is a separate contest from the rest of the season, in which all sixteen teams from the men's division take part. It is not a form of playoffs at the end of the season (as is typically seen in North American sports), but is more like the Canadian Championship or the FA Cup, albeit only for League1 Ontario teams. All matches are separate from the regular season, and are not reflected in the season standings.
The cup tournament for the men's division is a single-match knockout tournament with four total rounds culminating in a final match at the end of July, with initial matchups determined by random draw. Each match in the tournament must return a result; any match drawn after 90 minutes will advance directly to kicks from the penalty mark instead of extra time.
All-Star Game
On July 25, the league announced the rosters for the first-ever all-star game, to be played between the eastern and western conferences. Eighteen players for each team were selected by coaches and league officials, and each roster contains at least one player from each team in their respective conference.
Due to the unavailability of some players, the league released updated rosters for both western and eastern teams on August 2.
Awards
Standings
Each team plays 16 matches as part of the season; three games split home and away against every other team in the division. There are no playoffs; the first-place team is crowned as league champion at the end of the season.
Cup
The cup tournament is a separate contest from the rest of the season, in which all nine teams from the women's division take part. It is not a form of playoffs at the end of the season (as is typically seen in North American sports), but is more like the Canadian Championship or the FA Cup, albeit only for League1 Ontario teams. All matches are separate from the regular season, and are not reflected in the season standings.
The cup tournament for the women's division is a single-match knockout tournament with three total rounds culminating in a final match at the end of July, with initial matchups determined by random draw. A preliminary round is also in place to bring the nine total teams from this division down to eight for the quarterfinals. Each match in the tournament must return a result; any match drawn after 90 minutes will advance directly to kicks from the penalty mark instead of extra time.
All-Star Game
On July 14, the league announced an all-star game between top players in L1O and a team assembled by the Quebec Soccer Federation.
L1O's 20-player roster was selected by coaches and league officials, and contains at least one player from every team in the league. Players denoted by an asterisk (*) are part of the starting 11.