Sigma FC usually holds its training sessions on Thursday evenings, but co-founder Bobby Smyrniotis is giving everyone the night off when Canada plays Qatar in the FIFA men\u2019s World Cup.<\/p>\n
Many of Sigma\u2019s players are from Brampton, Ont., the hometown of six players on Canada\u2019s men\u2019s senior team, the most of any city in the country. Smyrniotis doesn\u2019t want the players in his development academy to miss out on seeing who they could become some day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s to make sure everyone is watching the game, that\u2019s a very important thing,\u201d said Smyrniotis, who is also the head coach and technical director for Forge FC of the Canadian Premier League. \u201cThese are memorable moments for soccer in this nation. We need to make sure that everyone that\u2019s involved in the game is indulging in it and we\u2019re not taking away from it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that all across the country there are no soccer games, there are no training sessions going on tomorrow during the game, because we need everyone watching this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Midfielders Jonathan Osorio, Tajon Buchanan, Liam Millar, and Jayden Nelson as well as forwards Cyle Larin and Promise David are all from the large suburb northwest of Toronto. Those six make Brampton the No. 1 producer of men\u2019s national soccer team players, outstripping larger centres like Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.<\/p>\n
Larin, whose goal-scoring prowess earned him the nickname \u201cThe Brampton Bagsman\u201d with his teammates at English club Southampton, scored the tying goal in Canada\u2019s 1-1 draw with Bosnia-Herzegovina on Friday in Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u201cI jokingly say we just tell the players to drink the water,\u201d Paula Phillips, executive director of the Brampton Soccer Club, said with a laugh.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe it starts from the coach and the message they put to the players: \u2018if this is what you want, this is what you\u2019re going to have to do to achieve that,\u2019 They really push the players, so the passion and commitment comes from the volunteer parents that want to coach because they have a love of the game, and they pass it on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sigma FC is based in neighbouring Mississauga, Ont., but has developed many players from Brampton, including Larin. Smyrniotis said municipal infrastructure has had a huge impact on soccer in Peel Region.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Sigma started in 2005, there wasn\u2019t much from a facilities standpoint or turf field that allowed you to train longer, train into the winter months,\u201d said Smyrniotis, who also coached national team midfielder Richie Laryea. \u201cThat started to change in 2007, you started seeing more turf fields, you started seeing each of the municipalities, the ones I know best in Mississauga and Brampton, start investing to allow players to play outdoors longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey also started investing in indoor centres as well, that kept players training on a proper pitch 10 to 11 months a year as opposed to me, growing up many years ago in Toronto and you\u2019re six months on the pitch and six months in a gymnasium.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phillips agreed that the City of Brampton has had a huge impact on her club\u2019s ability to plan soccer programs year-round.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey maintain all the fields, they line them, they put the nets up,\u201d said Phillips, who also gave credit to the local school boards for their help maintaining fields. \u201cIf there\u2019s something we need, we could contact the mayor\u2019s office and he\u2019ll take the time to sit and talk to us because he\u2019s huge into the promotion of youth, as is the rest of the city.\u201d<\/p>\n
Phillips and representatives of the Brampton Soccer Club will be running a booth at the City of Brampton\u2019s watch party Thursday night. Garden Square in the city\u2019s downtown will have the match on a big screen, another initiative to engage local youth.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will be there to support them, 100 per cent,\u201d said Phillips. \u201cIt\u2019s about pride, and I guess almost gratitude, because the current six players, and even the alumni, they never hesitate to say where they came, which is to me very heartwarming, very heartfelt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey could say, \u2018yeah, OK, I\u2019m from Toronto,\u2019 when people from outside of Canada ask \u2018where are you from?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2026.<\/p>\n
John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sigma FC usually holds its training sessions on Thursday evenings, but co-founder Bobby Smyrniotis is giving everyone the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":743681,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194339],"tags":[51759,49,48,82],"class_list":["post-743680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brampton","tag-brampton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=743680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/743680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/743681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=743680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=743680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=743680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}