AS IT STANDS: Salter shines & here come the Cavalry

Once again, it seems that Atlético Ottawa are the story of the weekend in the CPL.

Matchweek 6 kicked off in the capital, where Ottawa once again fell behind early, and once again responded with an attacking deluge. This time, Sam Salter was the star of the show as he scored a CPL-record four goals to help beat Valour FC 5-2.

Atleti's place atop the table got even more secure later in the afternoon, as the second-place Halifax Wanderers hosted Cavalry FC and lost 3-0; for the Cavs, the story was Tobias Warschewski and Ali Musse coming to life, as Warschewski had a goal and an assist while Musse scored twice and won the penalty for the first goal just before halftime. Now, momentum is behind the Calgary side, who have won two straight to begin May and find themselves back in the playoff picture.

Saturday's triple-header ended on Vancouver Island, where York United took the lead thanks to a wonderful Gabriel Bitar solo effort. However, the hosts Pacific battled back, as Dario Zanatta scored from the penalty spot and then Mexican forward Emanuel Montejano somehow got his foot to a loose ball near the goal line to score a 92nd-minute winner for the Tridents.

Here's where things sit after six weekends of the 2025 season.

Of course, we'll note that Forge and Vancouver FC were inactive over the weekend. It won't be long before we see Forge, though; they host Atlético Ottawa in Tuesday morning's School Day Game in Hamilton, where the club is eyeing the CPL's all-time attendance record. They're hoping to break 17,000 in attendance, which would give them a shot at passing the 17,611 who were in Hamilton Stadium for the CPL's inaugural match back in 2019.

The visitors in Tuesday's match are the high-flying Ottawa, who are arguably the biggest story in the CPL right now. They've now collected 10 points from matches where they trailed, which is a marked improvement on recent years -- they had 10 points from losing positions all of last season, and 18 in total in their three years under Carlos González.

There's an inverse problem at York United, though. The Nine Stripes seem very capable of taking the lead in matches, but perhaps not so good at holding onto them. In six games, York have dropped 11 points from winning positions. They were in front against Halifax, Ottawa, Forge and Pacific, and the only point they got out of those four was the draw against Forge.

Meanwhile, we've got to talk about Cavalry in the month of May. With their April struggles behind them -- they've still never won a CPL match in that month -- they seem to dominate once it warms up a bit; the Cavs are historically 14-6-2 in May, and they've already got two wins since the month began this year.

The league table's a little strange at the moment, with four teams currently a game behind -- but Ottawa set to be the first to hit seven, on Tuesday. The race is on, though, and with the season's quarter pole approaching, teams near the bottom will be desperate to start stringing some results together.

Awards Watch

We're already nearing a point where it would be a shock for David Rodríguez not to be the Player of the Year. A lot can change, of course, and it's possible his current form can't last the whole season, but Atlético Ottawa's Mexican star has four goals and three assists in six games, and he constantly looks like the best player on the pitch.

Speaking of Ottawa though, there's now a tie atop the Golden Boot race thanks to Sam Salter's four-goal performance. He and Julian Altobelli now sit at five each.

The Defender of the Year race remains wide open, but Pacific centre-back Aly Ndom has attracted some attention this week after his excellent performance against York United. He has looked excellent for the Tridents in his return after missing most of last season with injury, and he's chipped in up front as well, with his crucial goal against Vancouver.

U-21 Minutes Update

With Vancouver inactive over the weekend, Ottawa's youngsters pushed them into top spot, for now at least. Their entire back three on Saturday was U-21 players, as the trio of Loïc Cloutier, Noah Abatneh and Sergei Kozlovskiy looked up to the challenge after news of Amer Didić's long-term injury.

Meanwhile, Cavalry had a couple of massive contributions from their youth contingent. Max Piepgrass and Mihail Gherasimencov both got the start in Halifax, and they did well with their difficult assignments. The Cavs also got Jay Herdman and Michael Harms into the game, giving them a solid chunk of minutes to add to their ledger.

Coming up next…

Tuesday, May 13

Forge FC vs. Atlético Ottawa —11 a.m. ET/8 a.m. PT

Friday, May 16

Valour FC vs. York United — 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT

Saturday, May 17

Cavalry FC vs. Pacific FC — 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT (Live on TSN)
Vancouver FC vs. Halifax Wanderers — 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT

(Watch all games live on OneSoccer, and this week catch the Cavalry vs. Pacific match on TSN.)

Photo of the Week

This fan in Ottawa certainly came prepared.