:''Victoria United is also the name of a defunct Scottish soccer team, see Victoria United F.C.'' Victoria United is a Canadian

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

team based in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Greater Victoria area has a population of 397,237. Th ...

, Canada. With lineage to clubs founded in 1904, the team plays in the

Pacific Coast Soccer League The Pacific Coast Soccer League is an amateur soccer league, currently featuring teams from British Columbia. In the past clubs from Washington and Oregon have competed. PCSL is considered to be British Columbia's premier summer league. The ...

(PCSL), a provincial amateur league featuring teams from

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

and the

Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...

region of the United States. From the 1930s through 1970s, Victoria United FC played in the old

Pacific Coast League The Pacific Coast League (PCL) is a Minor League Baseball league that operates in the Western United States. Along with the International League, it is one of two leagues playing at the Triple-A (baseball), Triple-A level, which is one grade bel ...

, notably winning five league championships and one playoff tile (Top Star Trophy). In 1967, they won the Pacific Coast International Championship for the J.F. Kennedy Trophy. From 1994 through 2012 Victoria played its home matches at

Royal Athletic Park Royal Athletic Park is a stadium in Victoria, British Columbia and is used for baseball, soccer, softball and football, but also hosts special events, such as the annual Great Canadian Beer Festival and previously the Rifflandia Music Festival. I ...

. Because of conflicts with the newly introduced semi-professional baseball team at Royal Athletic Park, United played the 2013 and 2014 seasons at Braefoot Park in Saanich. The team's colours are blue and white. On October 1, 2014, the team announced that it would be dissolved. It was reconstituted in 2020 and is scheduled to re-join the PCSL for the 2020 season.

History

The team was formed in 1904 as a merger of two Victoria teams, Victoria Association Football Club, and Victoria Capitals. Until its dissolution, Victoria United was one of the oldest surviving sports clubs in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. They were also one of the more successful clubs in the PCSL, having been champions on five occasions in the modern era. The formation of the

USL Premier Development League USL League Two (USL2), formerly the Premier Development League (PDL), is a semi-professional developmental soccer league sponsored by United Soccer Leagues in the United States and Canada, forming part of the United States soccer league syste ...

Victoria Highlanders Victoria Highlanders FC is a Canadian soccer team based in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The club was founded in 2008 and currently play in the League1 British Columbia. The team had played in the American USL League Two from 2009 to 20 ...

starting in the 2009 season reduced Victoria United's success on and off the field. Former United stars such as

Tyler Tyler may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tyler (name), an English name; with lists of people with the surname or given name * Tyler, the Creator (born 1991), American rap artist and producer * John Tyler, 10th president of the United ...

and Jordan Hughes joined the Highlanders, the fanbase gravitated to the higher-level PDL side, and the once-formidable United fell in the standings, even finishing behind the Highlanders reserve team in 2010. Beginning in 2011 the Highlanders shared United's ground at Royal Athletic Park, while United also had to split time with baseball's

Victoria Seals The Victoria Seals were a professional baseball team based in Victoria, British Columbia. The Seals were a member of the North Division of the independent Golden Baseball League, which is not affiliated with either Major League Baseball (MLB) or ...

and HarbourCats. The shortage of stadium time and added competition eventually compelled United to move to smaller Braefoot Park in 2013, and was noted as a reason for the team folding at the end of the 2014 season.

Players

Notable alumni of the team include senior Canadian internationals Josh Simpson, Adam Straith, and Simon Thomas.

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

star Steve Nash, who played youth soccer in Victoria, appeared in one league game with Victoria in 2001 and recorded an assist.

Year-by-year

The Pacific Coast Soccer League champion is the premier team with the most points at the end of the season. The top four men's premier teams or the Host team and the top three compete in a single game knockout tournament to decide the playoff champion. The top Canadian team in the Pacific Coast Soccer League is also eligible to compete in a tournament against the top amateur teams from Washington State and Oregon State. This competition includes the league champion (or next highest placed team) as a host team and is a single game knockout tournament. The Victoria Highlanders and Victoria United maintain a friendly relationship and play a charity match each preseason around July 1.

Honours

*PCSL League Champions 2008 *Sheila Anderson Memorial (Challenge) Cup Winners 2008 *PCSL League Champions 2007 *Sheila Anderson Memorial (Challenge) Cup Winners 2007 *Sheila Anderson Memorial (Challenge) Cup Winners 2006 *PCSL League Champions 2005 *PCSL South Division Champions 2005 *J. F. Kennedy Trophy Winners 2005 *PCSL League Champions 2004 *Sheila Anderson Memorial (Challenge) Cup Winners 2004 *J. F. Kennedy Trophy Winners 2004 *PCSL League Champions 2002 *J. F. Kennedy Trophy Winners 2002 *Sheila Anderson Memorial (Challenge) Cup Winners 1998 *Sheila Anderson Memorial (Challenge) Cup Winners 1996 *J. F. Kennedy Trophy Winners 1996 *PCSL League Champions 1995 *Sheila Anderson Memorial (Challenge) Cup Winners 1995

More Honors

* Island & BC Champions 1896 (as Victoria Association Football Club) * BC Champions 1900 (as Victoria Association Football Club) * BC Senior Football League Champions 1901–1902 (as Victoria Association Football Club) * Garrison Cup Winners 1904–1905 * V.A.F. League Champions 1905–1906 * Island Senior League Champions 1905–1906 * Victoria City League Champions 1906–1907 (as Wanderers) * Brackman-Kerr Cup Winners 1933–1934 *

winners 1935–1936, 1951–1952, 1966–1967, 1967–1968, 1971–1972 * Top Star Trophy ( PCSL Playoffs) 1971–1972 * Pacific Coast International Championship for the J.F. Kennedy Trophy 1966–1967 * Nanaimo Challenge Cup Winners 1937–1938 * Jackson Cup Winners 1940–1941, 1950–1951 * Price Cup Winners 1941–1942 * Solarium Winners Cup 1950–1951 * Anderson Cup Winners 1994

Head coaches

* Nico Craveiro (2021–present) * Steve Scott (2012–2014) * Nick Daniels (2010–2012) * Eddie Mukahanana (2009–2010) * Ben Hooker (2007–2008) * Kevin Mennie (2006) * Dante Zanatta (2001–2005) * Rob Williams (1999–2000) * David Ravenhill and

Nick Gilbert Nicholas Michael Gilbert (born 20 July 1965) is a former Canadian Soccer League high-scoring soccer striker and Canada men's national soccer team member. Club career His first semi-professional experience came as a member of the Victoria Ri ...

(1998) * Frank Woods (1997) *

Buzz Parsons Les "Buzz" Parsons (born 16 December 1950) is a Canadian former soccer player who played at both professional and international levels as a midfielder. During his career in North America with the Vancouver Whitecaps, Parsons was affectionately kno ...

(1996–1997) * Frank Woods (1994–1995)

Stadium

;

(1995–2012) * Braefoot Park;

Saanich, British Columbia Saanich ( ) is a district municipality on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, within the Greater Victoria area. The population was 117,735 at the 2021 census, making it the most populous municipality in the Capital Regional District and V ...

(2013–2014)

References

External links

Victoria United
Official Website
Pacific Coast Soccer League Official Website
* http://www.victoriaindex.ca/index.php?file=details&listid=1786&cid=471 {{Soccer in Victoria Soccer clubs in British Columbia Pacific Coast Soccer League teams Association football clubs established in 1904 1904 establishments in British Columbia Sports clubs in Canada