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Surging Rovers expect big crowds at Saturday's doubleheader

An impressive season thus far, the Simcoe County Rovers get ready for a big weekend for the game of soccer locally.

It's been an impressive inaugural soccer season so far for the Simcoe County Rovers and they are getting ready for a big weekend.

This weekend is dubbed 'Soccer Day in Barrie' by many within the Rovers organization and their fans as the League1 Ontario club hosts a doubleheader on Saturday.

Along with the men’s and women’s games at JC Massie Field at Georgian College, the Barrie Soccer Club will host its 14th annual Spiritfest, a two-day tournament with 80 teams from all over Ontario competing. 

Rovers general manager Ali Sozeri is excited about the coming weekend and the chance for young players to see top provincial talent.

“We’ve had unbelievable support from the Barrie/Huronia District communities during our first month of the season and are excited to introduce even more members of our soccer community to high performance soccer during Spiritfest,” said Sozeri. “We are looking forward to having members from all the participating clubs at JC Massie Field to see our Rovers in action and enjoy a first-class soccer experience.”

The Simcoe County Rovers women's team sits in fourth place in the League1 standings, five points out of first, and a win at home Sunday against Hamilton United would put them tied for second. 

The women played last Sunday and handed FC London their first loss of the season, a 3-0 win, on goals from Courtney Chochol, Brianne Desa and Maddie Hill.

The Simcoe County Rovers men's team will play at 8 p.m., Saturday, hosting ProStars FC and a win would put the local squad in first place. They were also victorious last weekend, defeating BVB IA Waterloo, 3-2, on goals from Justin Earle, Ethan Beckford and Shawn Claud-Lawson.

Saturday's match will also be the first game for Simcoe County in the annual fan-made Credit River Cup. Created in 2019, the annual event also helps raise money for various causes, with past funds previously going to Big Brothers Big Sisters in 2019 and for the Wasa-Nabin program of the Indigenous Network in 2021.

The Prostars FC, North Mississauga SC, Sigma FC, and the Rovers are the four teams who compete for the Credit River Cup. The team with the most points at the end of the season, after all games between them are done, is declared the winner. 

It's that kind of fandom that Sozeri is used to in his native Turkey, where soccer is everything. 

“Growing up in Turkey, soccer is king. That’s where I get the passion from,” Sozeri said. “People eat, breathe and dream of soccer back home. Being a fan of an Istanbul-based team, going to games, breathing that atmosphere and hoping to one day play at such levels was all I ever dreamed of as a kid.”

With the city being full of soccer games all weekend, Sozeri says now is the time to get to a Rovers game.

“First and foremost, people should come and watch the Rovers to see high-quality and attractive style of soccer, passion and a will to win. Anyone that comes and watches one of our teams will find a player that they can look up to or relate to," he said. "We have an extremely diverse group of coaching staff and players, from all sorts of backgrounds and walks of life who have pursued their dreams and come together under the Rovers FC roof to achieve a common goal."

Tickets to Saturday’s games can be purchased online by clicking here

For more ticket information, email [email protected].