MONTREAL - The McGill Redbirds are seeded fifth for the U SPORTS Final Eight men's soccer championship, to be hosted by Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, Ont., Nov. 7-10. The seedings and bracket were announced on Sunday and McGill will open with a quarter-final against No.4 Ontario Tech Ridgebacks on Thursday. The victor of that game will advance to a semifinal against the winner of the top-seeded UBC matchup with No.8 UNB.

All 11 games of the championship will be streamed on CBC digital platforms in English, and RadioCanada.ca/Sports, ICITou.TV and usports.ca in French. Tickets for the tournament are currently on sale at www.usportstickets.ca

Founded in 1894, the McGill men's soccer program is celebrating its 130th year in 2024 and has won 33 conference championships. This season marks the team's 22nd lifetime appearance at Nationals since the tourney was initiated in 1970. McGill owns a 20-23-5 lifetime record at Nationals, winning three gold medals (1981, 1982, 1997), four silvers and one bronze.
 
The 2024 Redbirds enter the U SPORTS soccer tourney with a 9-5-4 record overall -- including a 1-1 dossier in post-season play -- the team's highest win total since 2011 when they went 9-4-2 and last qualified for Nationals. In regular season play, the Redbirds finished third in the seven-team RSEQ conference with a 5-4-3 record, scoring 10 goals and allowing 11. The team registered its highest regular season win total since 2018, when it also went 5-4-3.

In the 2024 playoffs, McGill qualified for Nationals by knocking off second-place UQTR 2-1 in overtime during the RSEQ semifinal round. In the league championship game against top-seeded Montreal, the Redbirds led 1-0 at halftime but fell 2-1 to the Carabins, who netted the winning tally in the 81st minute of play..

McGill is looking for a fourth national championship after claiming the Sam Davidson Trophy in 1981, 1982 and 1997. The captain from that last championship is current McGill head coach Marc Mounicot, a native of St-Jean-de-Luz, France, and a long-time resident of Outremont, Que. He is in his 12th year as bench boss of the Redbirds after 15 seasons as head coach of the McGill women's team.

"Our objective is to play the best brand of soccer possible while staying within a structure," said Mounicot, a McGill Sports Hall of Fame inductee who will be coaching at the men's tournament for the first time but previously guided the women's program to eight Quebec titles and four medals in eight appearances at the national championship, winning two silvers and a pair of bronzes."We are offensively-minded but want to keep a balance on both sides. We are going to Nationals without any pressure because we have nothing to lose. We are not considered (by the experts) to be a favorite and will try to upset the other teams. That's the mind-set of our group. Our players think that we are underrated (by most people) and we want to prove that we are a good, solid team. For me, we have already proven that but our guys still have greater ambition to do better."

McGill's 2024 roster features a young squad with 10 newcomers (including two transfers), along with 10 sophomores, five juniors and three seniors. Seven players are from Quebec, while four are from Ontario and four hail from British Columbia. Rounding out the squad are three Americans, two apiece from France and Taiwan, with one each from Switzerland, Egypt, Algeria, Scotland, Spain, Thailand and Brazil.

A founding member of U SPORTS (previously known as CIAU and CIS), McGill University features 26 varsity teams and competes in all 16 U SPORTS championship sports. The University has captured 11 national banners, winning four in women's hockey, three in men's soccer, plus one apiece in football, men's swimming, women's basketball and men's hockey.

The eight participating teams at the U SPORTS championship, listed in order of seedings, are as follows:

·      #1, UBC Thunderbirds, Canada West champions (11-1-3 regular season, 3-0 playoffs)
·      #2, Montréal Carabins, RSEQ champions (10-1-1, 2-0 playoffs)
·      #3, StFX X-Men, AUS champions (8-1-3, 2-0 playoffs)
·      #4, Ontario Tech Ridgebacks, OUA champions / hosts (6-4-2, 3-0-1 playoffs)
·      #5, McGill Redbirds, RSEQ finalists (5-4-3, 1-1 playoffs)
·      #6, York Lions, OUA finalists (host berth) (8-1-3, 1-1-1 playoffs)
·      #7, Mount Royal Cougars, Canada West finalists (7-2-5, 2-1 playoffs)
·      #8, UNB Reds, AUS finalists (4-4-4, 2-1 playoffs)
 
In men's soccer, the four conference champions are seeded in positions one through four, based on their final ranking, after the conference titles are determined. The remaining four teams are then placed in the bracket to avoid intraconference matchups in the first two rounds and to avoid pairs of similar matchups.
 
The entire tournament is set for Vaso's Field on the Ontario Tech campus in Oshawa. All four quarterfinals will be played on Thursday, with the schedule being as follows: (all times Eastern)

11:00 a.m. No. 6 York Lions vs. No. 3 StFX X-Men
1:30 p.m.   No. 7 Mount Royal Cougars vs. No. 2 Montréal Carabins
4:00 p.m.   No..8 UNB Reds vs. No. 1 UBC Thunderbirds
7:00 p.m.  No. 5 McGill Redbirds vs. No. 4 Ontario Tech Razorbacks
 
Game Day 2 is set for Friday, and will see consolation games at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m., with championship semifinals to follow at 4 and 7 p.m.
 
The lone game on Saturday, will be the fifth-place game, set for 5 p.m. Sunday is Finals Day and will feature the bronze-medal game at 11 a.m. and the championship at 2 p.m.