Originally seen on The Third Sub

The Vancouver Rise Academy capped off their participation in the 2025 Concacaf W Champions Cup on a high note, as they defeated El Salvador side Alianza FC 8-0 at Willoughby Community Park on Thursday. 

Thanks to that, they avoided finishing bottom of their five-team group, doing well to hold their own as a team mostly filled with players from the academy and the Rise’s League 1 BC team in a tournament headlined by some top professional sides.

Having qualified for this tournament for a second year in a row after winning last year’s League 1 Canada interprovincial championships, this final match was a great learning opportunity for this side to build on what they learned throughout these two runs – and that culminated in this strong performance. 

While it was a consolation match in theory, with both teams already eliminated from contention, it was anything but for the Rise, and that was shown with the scoreline. 

Eager to finish the tournament on a high note after losing the first three games by a combined score of 12-1 to the Washington Spirit, Gotham FC and CF Monterrey, this match offered a chance to pick up a win to end this campaign on a high note. 

At the same time, while it was hoped the Rise could pick up a victory, it’s hard to think they imagined having a performance like this. They had won against this Alianza side before – they faced off against them last year when they were still the Vancouver Whitecaps Academy, beating them 1-0 in the preliminary round to qualify for the 2024 group stage – but that was a tightly-contested match that could’ve gone either way. 

This time, though, the Rise hit another level, and that allowed them to pick up a historic victory.

They got the scoring started early and often – inside 30 minutes, the Rise were up 3-0 through a pair of great goals from Seina Kasihma and a penalty from Jenna Baxter, and then they quickly added to their lead from there.

All in all, the first half finished with the Rise up 6-0, as Baxter added her brace, while Myla Ewasiuk and Bianca Patik added goals of their own. 

The goals then continued to pour down in the second half – Ewasiuk added her brace shortly after half time, before Patik also scored her second just moments after. 

The Rise then had a few chances to make it 9-0, but that’s where the scoring would end on the night. 

With that, it wraps up a strange campaign for the Rise. While there are certainly a lot of positives to take from their second straight participation in this tournament, especially in terms of how the Rise’s young group was able to hold their own against two top NWSL and one Liga MX side, it must be said that it feels like a missed opportunity not to showcase one of the NSL’s first-team sides on this stage. 

Ultimately, while last year’s participation was exciting because the NSL hadn’t officially launched yet, it doesn’t feel quite right that this tournament doesn’t feature those teams and instead one of their academies – especially when considering that at the same time as this Alianza match, the Rise first team was in action vs. the Calgary Wild. 

A competition like this, where top sides from the NWSL and Liga MX participate, could’ve offered a great chance for the NSL to showcase their level, one that they feel isn’t far off those leagues already in year one. Instead, we’re left wondering what a matchup between the Rise first-team and either the Spirit, Gotham or Monterrey could’ve looked like, which would’ve made for memorable games to follow. 

At the same time, the misfortune of those six NSL teams is the gain of the Rise’s youngsters, many of whom can say they left this tournament with valuable experience that would’ve otherwise been hard to come by in normal circumstances. 

For a Rise side that has constructed a robust talent development pipeline, developing several high-level talents over the past few decades (dating back to their time as the Whitecaps), their performance in this tournament is a huge credit to that, more than anything. 

“It’s an amazing opportunity,” Ewasiuk said afterwards. “Having a professional team above us that we can go and train with and look up to, knowing we have a route to go there, it’s amazing.”

“It’s a great club, amazing opportunities are coming out of this.”

That pipeline has already manifested itself on the first NSL season – both for the Rise and some of the other teams in the league – and it’ll be hoped that it can give the Rise an advantage in the years to come as they build their squad. 

Certainly, when seeing them play in this game, it’s a good reminder of what the future could look like for the club, showing that while it’s encouraging to see the Rise’s first team emerge as one of the top NSL sides in year one (as expected), they’ll hope to use this academy success to help keep them competitive going forward. 

At the end of the day, the creation of the NSL was all about providing a much-needed landing spot for Canadian players to ply their trade, especially young, developing players, and the Rise’s Academy’s participation in this tournament helps them with that quest – even despite the oddity of the whole situation.

“We’re not quite sure who this place is going to go to in the future, and it will go to NSL clubs eventually, and they will be more competitive throughout all those games,” Rise Academy head coach, Sam Gevaux, said afterwards. “But for us, we’ve taken it in stride, and we’ve been able to utilize this as a really good learning moment.”

This report by The Third Sub was first published on October 17th, 2025.