Northwest Territories soccer team scores Canada Games wonder goal
- Ollie Williams·
- Aug 17, 2025
- 2 min read
“It was so nice. It felt like my eyes were zooming in on the ball when it went in.”
Source/Author: Ollie Williams·Saturday August 16, 2025 at 4:36am MT·
On Yellowknife’s lumpy subarctic soccer fields, Mo Alhajjy had been rehearsing this scenario: a free kick awarded 30, maybe 40 yards out from the goal in a major tournament at national level.
Now, the moment had arrived. Alhajjy and team-mate Kingston Torindo stood over the ball with the score at 0-0 in the first half of their Canada Games encounter against the Yukon, and they activated a plan.
The two had previously watched the Yukon play BTB, an Edmonton soccer academy, and seen how when a similar free kick was taken, one player would move to shoot but then jump over the ball, deceiving defending players in the “wall” between the ball and the net.
“So that’s what we did. I told Kingston to jump over the ball, which he did. It messed up the line of the wall and I went through it and over the keeper,” said Alhajjy.
The ball screamed past the Yukon’s goalkeeper and into the net, marking easily one of the greatest goals the territory has scored at Canada Games level, where the NWT often finds goals hard to come by. (Alhajjy’s goal was the only time the NWT’s male soccer team scored this week.)
“We’ve been practising. At St Joe’s we always do free kicks from far away,” Alhajjy said, referring to a Yellowknife soccer field. “Especially me and Kingston, that’s our specialty. We’ve been practising and I guess we just got it.”
The Yukon came back in the second half to win a closely fought game 2-1, but the David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo comparisons were already pouring in among fans at the venue in St John’s, Newfoundland and online.
Alhajjy, whose Canada Games bio lists his dad as a former Lebanon under-21 player and his inspiration, thanked the families and coaches who helped the team get this far.
“Second half, Yukon came out stronger, which we didn’t expect,” he said. “We didn’t play our best, but we tried.”
Author: Ollie Williams·
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