Image credit: Sydney Chisholm/CFJC Today

By Marty Hastings

INTERNATIONAL CUP

Organizers aiming to expand Kamloops International Cup with more English Premier League clubs, youth tournament

Aug 6, 2024 | 6:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — Jonathan Rinaldi and Elijah Dos Santos are familiar with the pinch of taking penalty kicks under pressure at Hillside Stadium.

Both of them converted from the spot in the 2022 U Sports Men’s Soccer Championship final to help their TRU WolfPack win the Canadian title.

That experienced helped them on Saturday (Aug. 3), when they calmly slotted penalties to help lift the League1 BC Selects to a 2-1 win over Fulham FC of London, England, in Kamloops International Cup (KIC) soccer action.

“The same thing ran through my head,” Rinaldi said. “I’ll never take a harder penalty than that one in minus-20 in nationals. This one felt a bit easier, for sure.”

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The inaugural KIC soccer series features under-21 English Premier League sides squaring off against teams from B.C. and Alberta in July and August at Hillside Stadium.

Under-21 Cavalry FC of Calgary knocked off Fulham 2-1 in penalty kicks on July 28 and U23 Vancouver FC came from behind to edge the English club 3-2 on July 31.

The London lads were a touch downtrodden after defeat on Saturday, but they had rave reviews for their tenure in the Tournament Capital.

“We expected it to be quite quiet and chilled out over here, but the atmosphere’s been amazing,” said Samuel Tabares of Fulham, noting some of his club’s first-team players were not able to make the trip to Canada. “We’ve played three games and it felt like there’s been a massive stadium here. We did think we were going to come up against good teams and they delivered.”

Match results were perhaps of less importance to organizers than making sure Fulham enjoyed its experience in Kamloops.

The plan is to invite more EPL teams next year – and positive reviews across the pond will help with tournament touting.

Rivers FC general manager and KIC organizer Lyle Dos Santos said Fulham feedback has been favourable and attendance was impressive, with crowds averaging about 966 people for each of its three contests.

Temperatures were sweltering around 35 C on Saturday and heat is expected to linger for the second portion of the soccer series, which will feature U21 Aston Villa in women’s action at Hillside Stadium.

The UBC Thunderbirds will square off against Aston Villa on Sunday, a 6 p.m. start.

Aston Villa will play the TRU WolfPack on Aug. 14 and finish the slate against the League1 BC Selects on Aug. 17, with those games scheduled for 6 p.m. and 11 a.m., respectively, at Hillside Stadium.

“I’d like to see a lot of people out, a lot of young girls out to give them some role models they can look up to and aspire to,” tournament organizer David Ousted said. “We’re trying very hard to support our local athletes.”

Along with attracting more Premier League teams next season, Ousted said plans include running a youth tournament in conjunction with the Kamloops International Cup.

“The future of this is getting more teams of Fulham’s caliber in,” Ousted said. “We have the ambition of getting four, six, eight teams in here and making this an annual thing.”