Northern Super League: Tides sit fourth as season rolls on

The Northern Super League is halfway through its second season, and for Halifax, that means the Tides are right in the thick of it. The league opened on 24 April with Vancouver Rise facing AFC Toronto at Swangard Stadium, and the regular season runs until 26 October, with each of the six teams playing 25 matches — five against every opponent. After 15 games, the Tides sit fourth with 21 points, behind Ottawa Rapid, the Montreal Roses and AFC Toronto, and ahead of Vancouver and Calgary Wild.

Sitting fourth puts Halifax in a playoff spot for now, which is exactly where you want to be. The top four advance to the post-season, which kicks off on 31 October with home-and-away semifinals, before the final on 14 November at TD Place Stadium in Ottawa. With 10 games left in the regular season, the Tides have plenty of room to climb or a fair bit of defending to do.

On the pitch, the Tides have been hard to break down. They have conceded only 14 goals in 15 games, the tightest defence in the league, though they have struggled to find the net, with 18 goals scored. The scoring is spread around: Saorla Miller, Jordyn Rhodes and Julianne Vallerand each have four goals, and Miller has added an assist. Miller is the local name to know — born in Halifax in 2001, she plays forward and midfielder, wears number 11, and signed with the Tides on 4 January 2025 after collegiate soccer at the University of Memphis. Vallerand, a defender wearing number 44, scored the final goal in the Tides' 3-1 opening-day win over Ottawa on 25 April.

The roster is a real mix. In goal, Rylee Foster, Anika Tóth and Samantha St. Croix share the duties, with the Tides signing goalkeeper Kirstin Tynan from Vancouver Rise on 12 August and moving Rylee Foster-Inman to Everton FC on the same day. The defence includes Naya Cardoza, Sheyenne Allen, Annika Leslie, Julie Pedersen, Éva Frémaux and Julianne Vallerand. In midfield, you have Julia Benati, Karima Lemire, Cho So-Hyun, Kat Jordan, Sarah Taylor, Synne Moe and Megumi Nakamura, and the attack is led by Saorla Miller, Jordyn Rhodes, Sydney Kennedy, Tiffany Cameron and Stella Downing. Stephen Hart is at the helm, with Sydney Kennedy and Saorla Miller sharing the captaincy.

Home games are at the Wanderers Grounds at 5819 Sackville Street, which holds 7,500 and comes with permanent seats, lights and a tech booth. The club trains at the BMO Soccer Centre. The Tides are the first professional women's soccer club in Atlantic Canada, founded in 2024, and they brought three points home from Montreal on 10 August.

If you cannot make it in person, every one of the 75 regular-season games is available nationally on TSN and CBC, with a Game of the Week on CBC Gem and NSL.ca and the rest on TSN+ and NSL.ca. French coverage of Montreal Roses games runs on RDS, ICI Radio-Canada Télé and ICI TOU.TV. Attendance across the league is averaging 2,982 a game, with 134,179 fans through the turnstiles so far — the biggest crowd was 6,577 for a 0-0 draw between AFC Toronto and the Tides on 3 May. With the playoffs still two months away, there is plenty of soccer left to follow.