Last time the US and Canada met it was at the International Cup in the opening round in Sydney under a reduced match length format. The US won by just three points. Two years ago the US travelled to Canada and won by thirty four points. So given their history the Americans were strong favourites for this years clash on home soil for the 49th Parallel Cup.

The match was played in hot humid conditions in Dublin, Ohio.  While the Americans perhaps did dominate the match and with some straight kicking might have run away with it, the Northwind were right in the match well into the last quarter. The final score USA Revolution 7.12 (54) defeated Canada Northwind 5.1 (31).

USA Freedom have overcome their biggest rivals, the Canadian Northern Lights to win the 49th Parallel Cup 6.7(43) to 5.8(38). After having been narrowly defeated at their last major international meeting in Australia for the International Cup, this year the Americans were out to prove something and played strongly throughout the match.

The Canadians came back several times in what proved to be a very close and low scoring game, hard fought out in midfield, and by the end of the third quarter, things weren’t looking good for the Americans as the Canadians started edging ahead. But the talented Freedom players pushed hard in the final quarter to turn the game around, and after three consecutive goals from Eileen Geogheegan and Lindsay Kastanek, they sealed victory for the USA Freedom.

The US Revolution and Canada Northwind teams will play today (Saturday) in Ohio and the event will be covered with audio and video available online.   

To see streaming video of the event from around 9:45am EDT at  http://www.justin.tv/nashvillekangaroos and audio commentary of the matches will be available from 10am EDT at  http://www.ohiosportsradio.caster.fm.

Women's and men's development teams will be up in the first two games, followed by women's US Freedom vs Canada Northern Lights and finally men's US Revolution vs Canada Northwind.

The US Revolution and Canada Northwind teams have been named ahead of the 49th Parallel Cup this weekend. 

Full team list below.

The USAFL this week announced that the AFL combine that had been mooted for 2012 would be held in LA from August 27th to August 29th. The AFL has produced a slick marketing video (which can be seen below) to outline the attractions of our game.

Michael Ablett, who played and coached in the USAFL a few years back will be running the combine for the AFL where he is now part of the development staff.

The USAFL is responsible for providing 30 elite athletes, which may come from the USAFL playing ranks – but most likely from outside their system.  The USAFL are also responsible for providing the venue, the recruiting strategy (which will mostly be social media driven) and organising exposure through marketing and media. 

The Northern Lights have named a squad of 47 women ahead of their matches against the US this weekend.

There will be two matches played nominally as representative and development squad matches at the 49th Parallel Cup which will be held in Dublin, Ohio on August the 4th.

Head Coach Tristan Waldock said that the final makeup of the two teams would be decided on Friday in Ohio for the two matches.

With the 49th Parallel Cup just a week away the proud host club, the Columbus Jackaroos have released the following statement.

Dublin, OH, July 24 — The United States Australian Football League (USAFL) will be hosting the 49th Parallel Cup, a series of matches between US and Canadian national representative teams, on Saturday, August 4th.

Matches will take place at Darree Fields located at 6259 Cosgray Road, Dublin, 43016 from 10:00am – 6pm.  The event will consist of four games during the day beginning with a Women’s development match followed by a Men’s development match.  The women’s national representative teams, the USA Freedom and the Canadian Northern Lights, will then square off followed by the men’s national teams the USA Revolution taking on the Canadian Northwind.  The event is free and open to the public.  

Mike Pyke speaks to SEN Radio about potential AFL talent in Canada, his education in the game, code crossing, how he is followed in Canada, and the Swans performance this year (taking it one week at a time).

Montréal celebrates five years of Aussie Rules this year, and the prospects for French-Canadian footy have never looked better.

After an initial three years of promising growth, the Montréal based Québec Saints slipped backward in 2011. The team withdrew from the Toronto based OAFL division 2 competition, their 9-a-side development league was reduced to just two teams and the women’s program failed to play a single stand alone game for the year. The impressive individual performances of the eight Québec players and coaches at IC11 (with both Canada and France) would offer up the only shining light in what was a disappointingly dark year.

But just as footy in Montréal seemed destined to spiral down further, the four remaining committee members; Margo Legault, Neil Koch, Tim Nixon and Frenchman William Teissier drafted a bold new plan for 2012.   
 

There’s been a lot of publicity around the match winning goal of NRL (Rugby League to AFL) convert Karmichael Hunt on Saturday evening at Cairns' Cazaly stadium. Richmond fans no doubt are fed up with hearing about it. However, for all that Hunt has improved this season, and for all that he looks like he does or will warrant his selection from week to week – there’s another Rugby (Union) to AFL code conversion story that is playing out in a Sydney and it’s not Izzie Folau; and it's not at a bottom of the table team.