Just six weeks to go in the regular season, and we have a few fascinating races on our hands in the Canadian Premier League.
Matchweek 22 saw a couple surprises on Friday night, beginning in Toronto where York United outplayed Cavalry FC just a week after the Cavs battered Forge. York sailed to a 3-1 home win, to cut down the gap between them and Cavalry to one point.
Later that evening, a shootout in Langley gave us a 5-2 Valour FC win over Vancouver FC. Youngster Myles Morgan scored the first hat-trick in Valour's history, while Kianz Froese became the first ever CPLer to record three assists in one match as the Winnipeg club officially eliminated Vancouver from playoff contention.
Saturday's double-header produced wins for both of the league's top two sides, each of which waited until pretty late in the contest to bag all three points. Forge beat the Halifax Wanderers 1-0, knocking at the door all afternoon until Mo Babouli finally scored in the 81st minute.
Later, Atlético Ottawa topped Pacific 2-0 at TD Place, where Tridents goalkeeper Sean Melvin nearly kept Atleti at bay, making eight saves before Ballou Tabla finally put one past him.
After all that, we've still got a title race and a battle for third. Here's how things stand after 22 weeks:
It seems that every time Forge threaten to pull away, Atlético Ottawa keep up. This CPL Shield race may go all the way to the end of the season, although the matchup between the two sides on Sept. 21 could be the deciding moment.
Meanwhile, all three of Cavalry, Halifax and York have a great shot at that third-place spot. Don't forget, the five-team playoff format gives a heavy advantage to whoever finishes third, since fourth and fifth have to play a midweek knockout match just a few days before travelling to play the third-placed side in a semifinal qualifier. It's a long road to the CPL Final for anybody who finishes fourth or fifth, so each of these teams is desperate to avoid it.
We had some history made over the weekend, starting with Froese's three-assist performance. On Saturday, Forge's 1-0 win gave Jassem Koleilat his 11th clean sheet of the season, which sets a new CPL record.
Also, since the last edition of this column, Atlético Ottawa's Sam Salter officially became the league's single-season goalscoring record holder, after a retroactive scoring change gave him two goals against Vancouver FC, and 15 on the season as a whole.
On this week's CPL Newsroom, we mentioned that the CPL is on pace for its highest-scoring season ever. Through 88 matches, we've seen 262 goals scored, for an average of 2.98 per game. This year is also on pace to have the most ever shots, expected goals and touches in the penalty area, which all indicates that we've seen a lot of attacking football this season.
Also, a handful of CPLers have been in action on the international stage over the past few days. Sergei Kozlovskiy and Shola Jimoh have been part of the Canada U-17 squad that lost 3-0 to Morocco, then drew 2-2 with Uzbekistan over the weekend (where Jimoh scored both goals). They've got one more match to come against England.
Meanwhile, Vancouver FC duo Emrick Fotsing and TJ Tahid, as well as Forge's Zayne Bruno and Emanuel Marmolejo, have been in Finland with the U-18s, who lost to both Finland and Switzerland in a pair of tough tests.
Cavalry's Mihail Gherasimencov was an unused sub for Moldova U-21s in a 2-1 loss to the Republic of Ireland, but he may be involved on Tuesday against Slovakia as their UEFA Euro U-21s qualifying campaign continues.
At the senior level, Ali Musse started for Somalia in both of their CAF World Cup Qualifying matches, a 3-0 defeat to Guinea and a 2-0 loss to Uganda. Meanwhile, York's Gabriel Bitar played the final half-hour of Lebanon's 0-0 draw in a friendly against Indonesia on Monday.
In Concacaf World Cup Qualifying, three CPLers — Halifax's Ryan Telfer and Andre Rampersad, and York's Steffen Yeates — were part of Trinidad and Tobago's 0-0 draw with Curaçao on Friday. Rampersad played all 90 minutes, while Telfer and Yeates both played the final six minutes. They'll all be back in action on Tuesday night when they take on Jamaica in Kingston.
Breaking down the run-in
We officially say goodbye to Vancouver FC in this section, since they have been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention. However, they could still play spoiler, with a few big matchups left on the calendar.
Forge have quite the road swing ahead of them, going first to Winnipeg this week and then Vancouver next Tuesday for their Canadian Championship matchup against the Whitecaps. Then, they go straight into that top-of-the-table clash against Atlético Ottawa at TD Place the following weekend. That's a tough trio of fixtures, but if they get through it well then they could be in good shape for that CPL Shield.
Halifax, meanwhile, have a difficult task ahead when they travel to Calgary this weekend. There's pressure on Cavalry to win that one at home, after losing to their other third-place challenger York United. However, the Wanderers are also hungry to bounce back after getting nothing out of a relatively good performance at Forge on Saturday.
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Awards Watch
In the Defender of the Year race, it's hard not to think Dan Nimick might be pulling away from the pack. Forge have conceded just 17 goals in 22 matches, and he has started every single game, only being subbed off once (for 16 total minutes off the pitch this year). Nimick has competition from Thomas Meilleur-Giguère and Atlético Ottawa's young centre-back trio, but at this point there's a genuine argument for Nimick getting a Player of the Year nod as well.
Speaking of which, David Rodríguez put in another blinder of a shift against Pacific on Saturday. He's up to nine goals and seven assists now, which is pretty outrageous — could he challenge the single-season assists record of nine?
U-21 Minutes Update
Valour have been giving more and more minutes to Myles Morgan lately, and they were rewarded for that on Friday night. The 20-year-old, who has now started nine games in a row, scored a hat-trick against Vancouver, bringing him up to five on the season (all in the last 10 matches). Thanks largely to his contributions, Valour have actually jumped ahead of Halifax in the U-21 minutes table.
Forge stepped closer to the 2,000-minute threshold, with Hoce Massunda getting the start for them against Halifax. They're not far out now, with six games left to play. York United, trailing behind, still need another 295 minutes, but once Shola Jimoh returns from Canada U-17 camp he'll certainly help them get over the line.
| Team | U-21 Minutes |
|---|---|
| Atlético Ottawa | 6,614 |
| Vancouver FC | 6,109 |
| Cavalry FC | 3,051 |
| Pacific FC | 2,442 |
| Valour FC | 2,292 |
| Halifax Wanderers FC | 2,119 |
| Forge FC | 1,873 |
| York United FC | 1,705 |
Coming up next…
Thursday, Sept. 11
Valour FC vs. Forge FC — 8 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. PT
Saturday, Sept. 13
Cavalry FC vs. Halifax Wanderers — 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT (Live on TSN)
Pacific FC vs. Vancouver FC — 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT (At the Royal Athletic Park in Victoria)
Sunday, Sept. 14
York United vs. Atlético Ottawa — 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m. PT (Live on TSN2)
(Watch all games live on OneSoccer. and this week watch York vs. Ottawa on TSN2.)
Photo of the Week
Is there any sweeter sight than the ball hitting the back of the net?
(Photo by Brandon Taylor)
