Alphonso Davies and Sophie Schmidt named Canada Soccer Players of the Month for July 2020

In North America, the National Women’s Soccer
​League was the first professional team sport that returned to action
​through its eight-team Challenge Cup series in Utah. Four Canadians were
​part of the winning Houston Dash side, with special recognition to
​Nichelle Prince who won her first professional trophy shortly after the
​sudden passing of her father in June.

Sophie Schmidt earned Player
​of the Month honours after her header off the crossbar in the
​semi-finals led to the winning goal and then she scored the winning goal
​herself from the penalty spot in the NWSL Challenge Cup final. Schmidt
​became just the second Canadian to score in an NWSL final (after
​Christine Sinclair in 2013) and the first to score the
​championship-winning goal.

The 2020 NWSL Challenge Cup final was
​the first to feature five Canadian players including four starters:
​Schmidt, Prince and Allysha Chapman for Houston (along with Maegan Kelly
​on the bench); and rookie Bianca St-Georges for Chicago Red Stars. In
​all, 13 Canadians took part in the competition, including debutants
​St-Georges and Évelyne Viens. St-Georges was a standout in the Chicago
​semi-final with a goal and an assist while goalkeeper Kailen Sheridan
​was the best goalkeeper of the tournament (Golden Glove) after leading
​Sky Blue FC to the semi-finals for the first time in seven years.

As
​football continues to return to action in Europe, several Canadians
​will be in action in August across domestic Cup competitions and the
​2019-20 UEFA Champions League final rounds. Of note, Kadeisha Buchanan
​(FCF Olympique Lyonnais) and Ashley Lawrence (Paris Saint-Germain) will
​compete in UEFA Women’s Champions League while Jessie Fleming will make
​her debut in England after signing her first professional contract with
​Chelsea FC.

On the heels of winning his second German Bundesliga
​title in June, Alphonso Davies won his second German Cup title with FC
​Bayern Munich on 4 July. Davies, the 2019-20 Bundesliga Rookie of the
​Season, was just the second Canadian to win both German titles in 2019
​(after Paul Stalteri in 2004), but now is the first Canadian to win both
​titles twice. At the end of the Bundesliga season, he set a new league
​record by registering a speed of 36.5 kilometres per hour during a
​match.

Following in the footsteps of the NWSL, Major League Soccer
​got underway with the MLS is Back tournament, with the quarter-finals
​to run through 1 August, the semi-finals scheduled for 5-6 August, and
​the Championship final set for 11 August. In the month of July,
​goalkeeper Thomas Hasal made a remarkable debut for Vancouver Whitecaps
​FC after he replaced injured teammate Maxime Crépeau in goal, notably
​posting back-to-back clean sheets in the next two matches.

In
​Europe, Junior Hoilett scored a pair of goals in July as Cardiff City FC
​made a run to the Championship playoffs while Atiba Hutchinson scored
​twice as Beşiktaş JK qualified for 2020-21 UEFA Champions League.
​Canadian centre back Manjrekar James, meanwhile, won the Danish
​Superliga title with FC Midtjylland in July while goalkeeper Milan
​Borjan won the Serbian SuperLiga for the third year in a row in June.