2025-26 Scottish Cup Final

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The 1961 Pars show off their Scottish Cup. Source.

It’s the Scottish Cup final: Celtic versus Dunfermline Athletic. Celtic have won the cup 42 times, Dunfermline twice, including 1961 when they beat Celtic. These two clubs met in the final three other times, in 1965, 2004 and 2007, and Celtic won each time.

Celtic snapped up the Championship title last weekend after trailing all season. 1985 was the last time the Old Firm did not win the title. Winning the Scottish Cup is easy in comparison; since 1985 non-Old Firm clubs have won it 15 times.

Dunfermline manager Neil Lennon has won the Scottish Cup four times as a player and four times as a manager. Celtic manager Martin O’Neill has won the cup three times as a manager.

Celtic [3 – 1] Dunfermline Athletic

Premiership playoff finals:
Partick Thistle 1 – 1 St Mirren (May 21)
St Mirren [1 – 0] Partick Thistle (May 25) [St Mirren stay up.]

Other matches:
Halifax Tides 1 – 2 Vancouver Rise (May 18)
Września [1 – 3] Lipno Stęszew
HFX Wanderers [1 – 1] Inter Toronto [Halifax goal by Johnston.]
Hokkaido Tokachi Sky Earth [6 – 2] Sabas FC (tomorrow)
Calgary Wild [0 – 4] Halifax Tides (tomorrow) [Two for Miller, two for Vallerand.]
Burlington [0 – 3] Scrosoppi (tomorrow)
Argonauts [20 – 10] Tiger-Cats (pre-season) (tomorrow)

Derek Gaston has moved from Stirling Albion to East Fife.

Cristóbal Fernández, who played Dani Rojas in Ted Lasso, has been signed by El Paso Locomotive of the USL Championship.

Coupe de France final (May 22):
Lens 3 – 1 Nice

DFB-Pokal final:
Bayern Munich [3 – 0] VfB Stuttgart

2025-26 UEFA Europa Cup final (May 20):
SC Freiburg 0 – 3 Aston Villa

2025-26 Concacaf Women’s Champions Cup, SF (May 20):
Club América 4 – 1 Gotham FC
Washington Spirit 1 – 0 Pachuca
Final (May 23):
Club América [5 – 3] Washington Spirit

J League 100 Year Vision League East, matchday 18:
Machida Zelvia (3rd) 1 – 0 Urawa Red Diamonds (5th) (yesterday)
Kashima Antlers (1st) [1 – 0] FC Tokyo (2nd)
Kashiwa Reysol (8th) [4 – 2] JEF United (10th)
Mito HollyHock (7th) [1 – 3] Kawasaki Frontale (6th) (tomorrow)
Tokyo Verdy (4th) [0 – 6] Yokohama F Marinos (9th) (tomorrow)
This ends the double round robin. [Mito finish ninth.] Next, each team will play off against the team with the same position in the West table to determine the order of the combined table.

SFL results 1890-91:
1891/5/21 Rangers 2 – 2 Dumbarton
Rangers and Dumbarton finished the 1890-91 SFL tied for first. This match was a tiebreaker, but it ended in a draw so they were declared joint champions. Under today’s rules Dumbarton, with the superior goal difference, would have been declared sole champion.

Ida Henrietta da Fonseca

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Danish singer Ida Henrietta da Fonseca (1802-58) appeared as Lady Pamela in Daniel Auber’s comic opera Fra Diavolo about the Napoleonic era Italian guerilla leader Michele Pezza. If you want to get a handle on 19th Century culture, learn the opera. I hadn’t heard of any of these people. Source.

Walter Cup Finals

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Ottawa and Montreal in action in the 2025 semi-finals. Source.

It’s the finals of the 2026 Walter Cup: Montréal versus Ottawa. This is the first time that two Canadian teams have made the Walter Cup finals. In Year One of the PWHL the finalists were Minnesota and Boston; last year Minnesota and Ottawa. The last time two Canadian teams met in the Stanley Cup finals was 1989. The last time Ottawa and Montréal played for the Stanley Cup was 1908, back in the challenge cup days.

The best-of-five series so far:
2026/5/14 Montréal 3, Ottawa 2
2026/5/16 Montréal 2, Ottawa 1
[2026/5/18 Ottawa 2, Montréal 1]
[2026/5/20 Montréal 4 – 0 Ottawa]

The PWHL is expanding to twelve teams. The new cities are Detroit, Hamilton, Las Vegas and reportedly San Jose.

Nova Scotians in the PWHL: Jill Saulnier (Boston), Carly Jackson (Seattle), Blayre Turnbull (Toronto), Allie Munroe (Toronto).

Newfoundlanders in the PWHL: Abby Newhook (Boston), Maggie Connors (Toronto).

Cho So-hyun

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Korean veteran midfielder Cho So-hyun joined the Halifax Tides this year. She has played for Suwon, Hyundai Steel, Kobe Leonessa, Avaldsnes, West Ham United, Tottenham Hotspur, and Birmingham City. Here she is at Gyeongbokgung Palace. Source.

Premiership playoff semi-finals:
Dunfermline Athletic 1 – 1 Partick Thistle (May 12)
Partick Thistle 2 – 1 Dunfermline Athletic (yesterday) Partick advance.
Championship playoff finals:
Alloa 1 – 3 Stenhousemuir (May 13)
Stenhousemuir [0 – 1] Alloa [Stenny are promoted.]
League 1 playoff finals:
Clyde 1 – 1 Hamilton Academical (May 12)
Hamilton Academical 4 – 3 Clyde (yesterday) Accies stay up.
League 2 playoff final, leg 2:
Edinburgh City [2 – 0] Brora Rangers [Edinburgh City stay up.]

Other matches:
Lesmahagow 4 – 2 Greenock (May 12)
Kluczevia Stargard 0 – 3 Lipno Stęszew (May 13)
Ottawa Rapids 2 – 0 Halifax Tides (May 13)
Scrosoppi 4 – 0 Unionville Milliken (yesterday)
Mynavi Sendai [2 – 3] Elfen Saitama
This ends the 2025-26 WE League. Elfen Saitama finish eleventh.
Celtic [3 – 1] Hearts
Hearts [had to] win or draw to finish atop the Premiership.
Kilwinning Rangers [1 – 2] Largs Thistle
This ends the WoS Premier Division season. Largs are promoted to the new Lowland League West.
Cambuslang Rangers [1 – 7] Greenock [Greenock finish eleventh.]
This ends the WoS 2nd Division season.
Finnart [2 – 2] Port Glasgow
This ends the WoS 3rd Division season. Port Glasgow are promoted.
Coldstream [4 – 3] Kennoway Star Hearts
This ends the EoS 2nd Division season. Coldstream are promoted.
Lipno Stęszew [0 – 5] Luzino (tomorrow)
Armadale Thistle [1 – 2] Morton Women (tomorrow)
This ends the Scottish Women’s Championship season. [Morton stay up.]
Atlético Ottawa [1 – 0] HFX Wanderers (tomorrow)

The Vancouver Whitecaps will use 5,000-seat Swangard Stadium in Burnaby for their Canadian Championship quarter-final against Cavalry FC. The Whitecaps are out of BC Place until August due to the World Cup.

Mortonalia: Michael O’Halloran has signed on for another year.

The Hokkaido Soccer League starts this weekend. Let’s follow Hokkaido Tokachi Sky Earth:
Hokkaido Tokachi Sky Earth [3 – 0] Sapporo FC (tomorrow)

J League 100 Year Vision League East, matchday 12 (May 13):
Machida Zelvia (3rd) 0 – 0 Tokyo Verdy (5th) (Zelvia win on PK)

J League 100 Year Vision League East, matchday 17:
Mito HollyHock (7th) [0 – 1] Tokyo Verdy (4th)
Urawa Red Diamonds (5th) [0 – 0] FC Tokyo (2nd) [FC Tokyo win on PK]
Yokohama F Marinos (8th) [0 – 1] Kashiwa Reysol (9th)
JEF United (10th) [0 – 2] Kashima Antlers (1st) (tomorrow)
Kawasaki Frontale (6th) [1 – 1] Machida Zelvia (3rd) (tomorrow) [Frontale win on PK]