#EastboundCrows Debrief for 2025

Hello all. My name is Mel B; I’m one of the voices behind the Crows social media posts and a member of the Crows leadership. I’m actually writing the first draft of this on the last leg of this trip, the flight home from Montréal, just as we were flying over our next opponent, Calgary. So let’s ride together as I write 1900+ words for the first time since my mini journalism years at Uni and that’s not related to my real-life job in an office (emails are boring…).

Let’s go on a journey together as I tell y’all about a small portion of the first of many major Crows on the Road trips. The photo posts were good, but a little context never hurts, right?

So, this trip started as a conversation earlier in the season, between Sam C (another member of the Crows leadership group) and me about what possible games we could go to on the road to support the Rise.
Fun fact: Sam has traveled to almost every NSL stadium this year (that’s some mileage, eh?). Then as things do in WOSO and I’m sure other women’s sports spaces, we started talking about it around friends and they became interested. Other Crows had been excited about their road trip earlier in the year to Calgary, so they chimed in saying where and when. Then the group chats started, so we could start planning flights, hotels, buses, trains, booking time off and the list goes on. In those group chats, as the season pushed on, the little details started popping up too, which TIFO, what Rise gear we’re bringing, how excited we were getting and so on and on.

We also have a channel on our Discord around away travel, so don’t forget to check there for future discussions. Or to ask if any other Crows are planning trips (because you know as soon as that 2026 schedule is out, dates will be circled).

I think when it became a little more real for me it was when September hit. Our last stretch of regular season home games and the real push for playoffs, locking down crucial points in the tight race to the top 4 of the NSL. As our team had been riding a wave of momentum leading up to this time and then dropping points. I had that feeling that this trip would also be even more necessary, not only for momentum into playoffs, but showing the team that wherever and whenever they play that we’ll be there. That’s what supporters and fans can agree on, because we are both. I’ve always felt that there is no real difference between a fan and a supporter. We (fans and supporters alike) are the people that bring the team back in when they might be down, we lose our collective voices because we’ve sung for 90 minutes, yelled at refs (because you know we do) and generally wanted to keep that home atmosphere rocking.

So on with the trip shall we.

Oct 6th

Fght to Ottawa, a group of 9 Crows, with a surprise appearance by our own Rise team and staff waiting in line at security and in the gate area. Seems we all wanted that direct flight that day. As you’ve now seen with some of our social media posts, we were taking a few pictures already. The team and staff were gracious enough to get a group photo with us once we had landed in Ottawa. Thanks, Gurveen, for becoming one of our go-to photographers on this trip, on top of the many hats you wear for the Rise.

Now onwards to the hotel, to refresh and make plans for our tourist day in Ottawa.

Oct 7

This was when we split the Crows up, as you might want to do in a city new to you. I’d been a few times with family visits over the years and my buddy Lisa L was in the same boat, having spent enough time being a tourist in this city from living and touring with her bands. However, in my head I’d named this day: Tourist Day and Rain… it’s ok, we survived  rain never stopped this group before (looking at Vessi for that sponsorship any day now, or Rise colours). These photos are from the wandering that Lisa L and I did from our hotel down to Ottawa River, back along the Canal and to drier spots.

Finding bars, restaurants and cafes with fellow Crows names became a theme. TsPUB – Ottawa.

We couldn’t forget our mascot Sunny, sorry the hotel printer came from the early 2000s and didn’t have colour!

Oct 8

Match Day (with a morning of tourist time for some of the other Crows on the trip), Crows count update: 18 (10 traveling, 8 locals)

TD Place in Ottawa is a great venue. We arrived with plenty of time to get pink headbands for Desi Scott’s final regular season game in her illustrious career. We also got a feeling that we should have packed some more clothes just for this night, fall had arrived in Ottawa. When Latifah Abdu scored, I think everyone at TD Place heard us since our small but mighty Collective raised our voices like we were back at Swampgard Swangard. Oh, and we definitely won’t forget that header from Jessica De Filippo, because that Caw-Ner from Nikki Stanton was sublime. So, we survived the chilly night and took a bit of the spotlight from Ottawa by winning that match. (Sorry not sorry Desi ). Now the real math begins, at this point Vancouver, Montréal and Ottawa were tied 33 points each. Yes, I know there would have been some reworking of the table to reflect what the league had as the tiebreakers. So instead of twisting ourselves around with different scenarios, who does math anymore. We were getting ready for the next stop, Montréal. Oh, and taking photos with a giant Desi head. **see outtakes at the end of the article and if you follow some Crows, they might have posted about it too. **

Oct 9

The Crows split up for a few hours of this travel day; travel was done via train and bus. Where the majority of us took the bus from Ottawa and traveled at Bus Mach Speed (or it felt like that ), through the countryside of Ontario and Quebec with beautiful fall colours in all directions. We arrived in Montréal and for part of our tourist time in one of the oldest cities in Canada. Lots of walking, or so my timeline says, as we had chosen to stay a little more centrally in Montréal rather than closer to Stade Boréale in Laval. (Me, working on my French Immersion from a few years ago).

Have we already mentioned the beautiful fall colours? Because it was, from wandering through McGill Campus (see above) and nearer our hotel, Montréal sure showed up. I thought I had taken more photos from this day, guess not, or maybe it was sharing the 3L beers that night?

Oct 10

Tourist Day in Montréal. Crows count – 9 again.

Varying degrees of movement from each of the Crows. For me, I had the Notre Dame Basilica and parts of Old Montréal on my list. So, we hit up Notre Dame first, then meandered our way through Old Montréal, down to the old Port Promenade. All the while, stopping to enjoy the great views and a few local drinks with a side of great food.

We brought Sunny, wouldn’t you?

We then headed to Bar Frappe (where our friends the Voyageurs watch Canadian National Team games (if they weren’t at Stade Saputo) that night for the Canada Men’s team to take on Australia. I’m sure most of you know the score of that game, guess we should have bought tickets and brought our aura for that match.

Oct 11

Match Day vs Roses. Crows count – 10. Kickoff was 12 noon local time. We had hearty breakfasts from Kettlemans and were on our way to Laval. Well, the weather was a 180 from Ottawa, as we were taking layers off and putting sunscreen on at Stade Boréale. This venue has a good set up (I believe a Crow took a photo of their screen they move in place for each match…) and we each wandered to see what they had for activities and even more fan giveaways. As it was the Roses final regular season home match, there were fan giveaways as you walked in and, none of the Crows took home the team poster that was being handed out at the entrance.

The vibes were good and our numbers swelled as friends and family of the Rise team surrounded us. Also, some Roses fans, looking at you Montréal for this interesting planning for supporters section ticket sales.

So, this game, we knew it was going to be tight. The table had been shifting so much as that team from TO was ahead of the 3 other teams that had clinched their playoff spots. However, I think and believed it was ours to take. Number 2 in the table was on the horizon. With a sprinkling of Lisa Pechersky footwork magic and the little bobble to Jessica De Filippo, we were up 1-0 in the first half. That goal was in front of us and did the Montréal fans knew it. Actually, we didn’t stop until the final whistle, maybe not in full voice since we hadn’t prepped all our voices, but we made sure the team knew we were still there for them.

The final whistle blew and this match and road trip was done. 6 points! The perfect ending. Then more photos were taken. Did we mention there were lots of friends and family fo the Rise FC team, besides our #eastboundcrows this trip? I hope it showed them that whenever they see a Crow on the Road, they know they are welcome and we are there to cheer the team on together.

As we descend into Vancouver, I hope you all enjoyed this little slice of our trip, since we can’t share everything . Just know that by the end of the trip or any future trips, you’ll likely know something about a fellow Crow that you didn’t know previously. I hope this gets you excited for supporting the Rise on the road. That’s it for me, until the next social media post (100 words or less, right?). Or until the next viewing party, maybe the playoff home game and don’t forget some of us are going to the NSL Final match in November. Come say hi, maybe one day you’ll meet the face behind the posts.

Yours in Support,

Mel B – Crow Collective SG SM admin.

Photo credits: Mel B, Gurveen from Rise FC, NSL Photographers.

The OutTakes:

Are you even on a plane if you didn’t take a photo of the flight?

Is this what a screen at a stadium looks like (I still love Swampgard and our tiny screen).

Two Desi’s are better than one.

Sunny at the bar after the win in Ottawa

Desi and Sunny (who let one of our Crow local family members have this giant Desi head, yes it stayed in Ontario…)

Cute doggo at one of our lunch stops in Montréal.

Tour sponsor 😉

Flight home. (Back to work, I guess)