Halifax Tides: End of January Review

Halifax doesn’t have a lot of players yet. Significantly less than any other team. They do have some interesting players though, particularly McLoed and Oduro. Their international signings are interesting, but feel a step behind the competition. They still need to bring in pieces to make this a competitive side, but with at least 9 more signings to come its not time to panic just yet.

It is worth noting that Halifax has picked up, in Saorla Miller and Gianna Creighton, players who not only have NCAA experience to stand on, but have been looked at by the likes of the Portland Thorns (in Creighton’s case).

Stars:

Christabel Oduro- CAN - FW - 32 - FC Nantes (D2, 997min)

Oduro has bounced around a lot over the years from Germany to Sweden to Malta and Iceland. Her notable recent activity was getting FC Nantes promoted into the French first division. On occasion through her career she has sojourned in League 1 Canada with Woodbridge, where she generally scores at a rate of a goal a game. She is very much the type of player NSL was built for and its nice to see her get the opportunity to professionally at home. She should be a reliable striker.

Erin McLoed - CAN - GK - 41 - Stjarnan (Iceland BDK, 1429min)

McLoed is the biggest name on this team, I’m less sure she’ll be the best player, but she’s likely a starter. I’ll assume you’re broadly familiar with her international resume with the CANWNT. At a club level her career up until 2020 includes a listing of the best women’s leagues in the world. It’s fascinating, but also a bit of a historical artifact… because McLoed is the oldest player in the NSL by a full 4 years. Keepers play a little longer than most, but it will be interesting to see who the Tides bring in as an understudy.

Supporting Cast:

Kiley Norkus - US - DF- 29 - Amed (Turkey)

Norkus strikes me as an odd signing only because she is American and therefore takes up an international spot. She has a background many players around the league have, she’s bounced around a string of 3rd tier leagues internationally. If she was Canadian she’d be an obvious pick up for any team looking for a wide player with some experience, but she’s American which makes this move a bit odd.

Gianna Creighton - US - MF - 23 - UC Irvine (NCAA)

Another American, Creighton is a NCAA standout with UC Irvine, who I’m including above the ensemble cut because she did spend time training with the Portland Thorns last year, which suggests they were at least tracking her.

Milly Clegg - NZ - FW - 19 - Racing Lousiville (NWSL, 18min)

Clegg is a good prospect pick up for Halifax. She’s considered a pretty hot prospect by the New Zealand national team where at 19 she’s already working her way into a fringe role. She had a break out season with the Wellington Phoenix in 2022 and has been working her way up the leagues on the back of that, but hasn’t had as much club success anywhere else. The concern will be that she only saw 18 minutes of competitive play with Louisville last year which no doubt trigger the loan move to Halifax. Many teams have struggled to bring in notable attacking pieces and in that context Clegg is an interesting piece with a lot of potential upside.

Megumi Nakamura - JPN - FW - 24 - Nagano (WE League, 82 min)

At 24 Nakamura is still fairly young, but she has a long resume of having played her way up through the Japanese leagues and youth national team experience with Japan. She hasn’t played much since her team was promoted to the top division, so I’d say this move is motivated by an attempt to get playing time and broaden her professional horizons. The question is whether this is worth in for the Tides. There is value to international spots and I feel like this is a second spot getting used a bit questionably.

Ensemble:

Halifax’s ensemble so far is fairly normal for the league. Mostly, NCAA and U-Sports standouts. Taylor also has some pro expereince in Israel. Saorla Miller was a pretty notable Canadian in the NCAA so she’s a good pick up. Blouin is also interesting as Montreal have otherwise been given mostly free reign with the Quebec player market, so we’ll see if Halifax is planning to go after that player base. Related, Miller, Taylor, and Kennedy are NS locals, which is nice to have.

Sydney Kennedy- CAN - FW - 23

Saorla Miller - CAN - FW - 23

Daphne Blouin - CAN - FW - 26

Sarah Taylor - CAN - MF - 28