Great quality from this Wednesday evening CPL best scorer from Forge, Tristan Borges THAT'S SEVEN 🔥 @tristandborges bangs in his second goal FROM A CORNER 🔨 FOR 2 - 0 HFX🌊⚽️ Two quick goals has @ForgeFCHamilton ahead over @HfxWanderersFC in the first half! ➡️ Tune in for the match on https://t.co/hishXepRT3 💣 #CanPLxOneSoccer | #FORvsHFX pic.twitter.com/dHgju4p87P— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) July 17, 2019 York9 captain, Manuel Aparicio 👀 MANUEL! 💣 @Manuaparicio34 scores a screamer from WAY OUT!!!👽 YOR 1 - 0 PAC 🌊➡️ Check in for this match on https://t.co/hishXepRT3!🔥 #CanPLxOneSoccer | #Y9vsPFC pic.twitter.com/I7jci1MhaY— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) July 17, 2019
History has been made in Canadian Soccer! For the first time since 2008, a non MLS club beats an MLS club in the Canadian Championship and it was done by a Canadian Premier League club. CPL Cavalry FC defeats MLS Vancouver Whitecaps 2-1 on aggregate to advance to the Semifinals against the Montreal Impact. Calgary started 6 Canadians v. 3 Canadians for Vancouver. Despite a difference in wages, longevity, history and reputation, Cavalry's proved that Canadian soccer has lots of potential and untapped talent ready to emerge at club level. Montreal Impact defeats York9 3-2 on aggregate. Despite the defensive blunders in the 1st leg and the missed opportunities in the 2nd leg, Montreal struggled to eliminate York despite Piatti's return who brilliantly aimed for Abzi arm causing the penalty. Ottawa Fury defeats Halifax Wanderers 5-4 on aggregate. Halifax has been plagued with injuries for most of the season proved to be a handful against a good Ottawa team despite missing key players. Williams in goal is simply not good enough and the young Oxner should be #1. Ottawa Fury will play Toronto FC next
There's some noise growing over the Canadian spots allocations 1156348955967594498 is not a valid tweet id Kurt Larson is the head of content at MediaPro, recently promoted from the same title within the league and is an invaluable source of inside information. Not that it's anything new but the league is still pushing for it's champion to take over the CAN1 spot, which would allocate the CAN2 spot to the Canadian Championship. The thinking, rightfully so, is that the 3 Canadians MLS clubs should qualify to the Champions League via the league and not via the domestic cup like it's being done in regards to Welsh clubs in EPL.
Do you mean that the Canadian MLS clubs should be able to qualify from MLS or the cup or that they should only be allowed to qualify through MLS? I don't have the definition of who spots are given to, but people here said spots are given to the USSF and CSA (and FMF in Mexico and the names all countries have for their FAs), not MLS. The CSA could try to convince MLS to let their spots be open to Canadian clubs, but I doubt that would work. Don't you think the Canadian Championship winner is better than the CPL champion as long as MLS clubs remain in the Canadian Championship? I look at the Canadian MLS clubs as better until if and when CPL clubs prove otherwise in the Canadian Championship just like how newly promoted clubs are expected to be among the worst until if and when they finish mid-table and prove otherwise. The Canadian MLS clubs would object if they had to play midweek games in the Concacaf League and Canadian Championship, and they would rest players and do worse. If you made the Canadian Championship only for clubs in Canadian leagues, the winner couldn't know if they were the best club in Canada. If the Canadian MLS clubs couldn't play in the Canadian Championship or U.S. Open Cup, that would be unfair. They shouldn't be denied the chance to play in a domestic cup because they joined MLS before the CPL was created. It's different from the Welsh clubs because they play all of their games including cups in tournaments run by the English FA. There's no domestic cup with clubs in English leagues and clubs in Welsh leagues. To make the Canadian clubs have the same situation, they would have to play in the U.S. Open Cup.
The best case scenario is an additional CCL spot. Until then and it already started with Canadian soccer circles, the idea that TFC candidates go straight to CCL by winning a minimum of 2 games out of 4 is being challenged. The norm if for the league's champion to qualify, which means being the best out of 28 games. There's push for the Canadian Championship to award the CONCACAF league berth instead, which MLS clubs can still compete for. As Kurt Larson mentioned, "eventually", not tommorow but it won't be status quo forever. The CSA decides the allocation of those berths and it will be concerned by which is best for Canadian soccer.
As long as there are Canadian clubs in MLS and only two Canadian spots in continental competition, it will never make sense to give the CAN1 spot to the CPL champion, simply from a competitive standpoint. If the CSA wants the Canadian MLS teams to qualify based on MLS results, all they have to do is say so, since they control how their spots are handed out. Unless and until Canada gets two direct CCL berths, the CPL champions should never get CAN1 because it's ridiculous to lock the stronger MLS teams out of a direct CCL berth. Maybe it's a bit wrong that TFC can get into the CCL by only winning two out of four games, but the CSA can fix that fairly easily by not having such a wonky format for the CanChamps. I mean, with the 13 teams they had this year, they could've put the 10 non-MLS team into one round and then brought the three MLS teams in for the QFs, forcing the MLS teams to play six instead of four. And if you wanted even more than six, you could've started with a short group stage that includes everyone to whittle the field to 8 and then start the knockouts - e.g. like most champions leagues or the world cup. That's then at least two group games (likely more) and then six knockout games for the eventual champion no matter what league they're from.
That will be a CSA decision. Or they could make the domestic cup much longer because people are asking questions on how it's possible to go to CCL by winning only 2 games out 4. Its equally bad optics for the CSA. No one minded when CPL didn't exist but this is only the beginning and it will get louder over time. Another thing to understand about the CSA is that as CPL grows in numbers of clubs, so will their influence with the organization, hence Larson saying "eventually". They are prepared to wait it out. That's the best solution to stall the critics until they get another CCL berth to give the CPL Champion. This would be the ideal scenario. The best of CPL are proving capable of competing against CONCACAF clubs and MLS clubs so far, if they keep this up a few years, there's no valid reasons for the CPL champion to not get the CCL berth as well
Another historic milestone reached by the Canadian Premier League. Forge FC defeated Antigua GFC from Guatemala 2-1 in Hamilton. No doubts, the quality of this league is for real.
Competition/results seem to be encouraging. Any news on finances? How's the attendance been? Any concerns about any of the teams remaining viable and/or expansion? Any rumors on if Ottawa plans to stay in USL or somehow move to the CPL?
They have been adding more sponsors throughout the season. They are exceeding their own expectations on that front It's close to an average of 5000. Hamilton, Halifax and Winnipeg are the strongest markets. Calgary are somewhere in the middle (but they charge a fortune) Edmonton (bad weather mostly), York9 (not their market but some improvement) and Pacific (small market) are on the lower end. I was told that no teams were in financial difficulties and are building towards the long term. The encouraging news is that the league reported that over 1 Millions viewers watch the inaugural game on CBC or Onesoccer.ca The sponsors, media deal allows the league to not be too dependent on attendances. So far, all teams are viable as of today. Not saying some aren't loosing money but the league made sure that owners had the profile required for this project. As for expansion, the league has been approach by close to 20 markets. The biggest obstacle delaying expansion is getting stadiums built which takes time Teams in Quebec seems imminent The Fury said they plan to stay in USL in 2020. That will depend if CONCACAF let them go that. The league has said that they will be in Ottawa one way or another, which mean that they are fully prepared to start another Ottawa team when the time is right.
I agree. The CPL club will have to do a lot more than beat Antigua to be worthy of a CCL spot IMO, but separate from that TFC should have had to start before the Canadian Semifinals.
Lol! Where are all the CPL detractors calling the league inferior to USL or a fake Division 1 league doomed to fail? Forge FC defeated C.D Olimpia 1-0 Watch the best moments of @ForgeFCHamilton’s 1-0 victory over @CDOlimpia in #SCL2019 action! pic.twitter.com/RauWDcJxIR— Concacaf (@Concacaf) August 23, 2019
I have to agree. I'm actually happy for those players who got a 2nd chance at playing in a Tier 1 league.