✍️ Ivan Sørensen
Another week, another set of games behind us. Grab a muffin and let us look at what went down and what the final hours of CPL football might look like.
The games played
With no Friday matches, football fans had to wait until Saturday, but they were rewarded with a back-and-forth duel between Supra and Vancouver, as Supra scored early and Vancouver equalized in the second half. It looked like Supra had put it in the back of the net again with an 88th-minute goal, but deep into stoppage time, Campagna pulled it back, and the end result was a point apiece. Five yellow cards reflected the intensity of the struggle.
On Sunday, Pacific hosted Ottawa, with the visitors winning 2-0. I know Pacific have had a terrible season, but I actually felt a bit gutted watching this one. They've usually managed to get at least one on the board, and with the season nearing its end, this felt like a feel-good story.
Monday saw some intense drama to go along with the festivities. Happy Thanksgiving! Forge put an absolute beating on Inter Toronto, firing in five goals seemingly at will.
Meanwhile, Halifax hosted Cavalry and poked the giants in the nose, forcing a 2-2 draw in stoppage time and snatching two points from the Cavs that they were no doubt counting on in the last-minute Shield race.
The rest of the season
At this point, only two games remain for everyone, so let us take a big-picture look and maybe do a bit of a retrospective.
The remaining games are: Supra vs Toronto and Vancouver vs Halifax on the 16th; Ottawa vs Forge and Cavalry vs Pacific on the 17th; and then Decision Day on the 25th, featuring Pacific vs Forge, Toronto vs Ottawa, Cavalry vs Vancouver, and Halifax vs Supra.
If you are Pacific or Inter Toronto, the race is over, and all that is left is honour. For Inter Toronto, this is particularly bitter, as they are only a single point behind Halifax, but at this late hour, you can start to look back through the season and say, if only one defender had blocked one shot, or if only one cross had found its man… You can get lost trying to think about that, though.
Was this a letdown for Inter Toronto as a season? I think so, absolutely. The roster had, and still has, a lot of potential, and the numbers show scoring isn't the problem. However, nobody allowed more goals during the season than Toronto. They also recorded the most draws of any team, and at the end of the season, when a single point separates you from elimination or from staying in the running, that takes on outsized importance.
For Pacific's part, obviously, it all went wrong. I went back through the match results, and they have had nine scoreless games: one draw and the rest losses. When Pacific are firing, there is something there. They still scored 30 goals, and in many games, just one more could have scraped a draw or turned a draw into a win. They came off a draw and a win only to be battered with three scoreless losses in a row. Morale is obviously fragile, and rebuilding it during a campaign is incredibly difficult. I don't think a simple change of coach is enough.
The middle pack sees three teams that still have playoff aspirations, but very slim ones.
The Halifax Wanderers are a strange sort of team. On one hand, I think there were high hopes going into the season with a coach like Vanni arriving in the league. On the other hand, historical results have always been tepid, and there were widespread concerns about the striker situation. Vanni maintained that he could work with what he had, and I don't think that was entirely wrong, but the team still feels like it is rebuilding and finding its proper identity. With 19 drawn or lost games, there were plenty of chances for a slightly tighter back line or a more cohesive centre to make the difference.
Supra, on the other hand, came in with no expectations and no history, and I'd say they lived up to that billing. The decision to rely on a strictly Québec-oriented roster raised questions about whether the numbers were there for a professional football team, as well as concerns about new teams having a hard time finding their footing. But sitting in fifth, with playoffs absolutely a possibility in their first year, I think it must be judged as a success. The team has built a reputation for hard play and a willingness to go to the wire, though their defence has let them down. This is one area where the cohesion that comes from players who have played together for years still needs to be developed.
If you are Nash in charge of Vancouver, on the other hand, I think you must look at this season, regardless of what ultimately happens, as a huge win. You took a team that was the laughingstock and proved that, yeah, the talent everyone said was there was, in fact, there, and could be turned into some pretty good last-minute-heroics football. Some teams play a clinical, dominating style, but there is a special kind of mentality that allows a team to snatch moments in the dying seconds, and the Eagles have that right now.
In the top bracket, we have the teams that are already through to the playoffs. Cavalry and Forge, of course, were teams everyone predicted would make it. It's been a duel between them, and we go into the final two matchdays level on points. Both teams have shown a stellar defence, conceding half the goals of most of the league, while Cavalry in particular have sometimes scored at will, averaging two goals per game all season long. That is the sort of dominating performance that wins leagues.
For the Hammers, it feels strange to call four losses a stumble, but compared to last year's two, I suppose it was. Forge are such a powerhouse of Canadian football and deliver such consistent performances that, when they remind us they're a team of humans playing a chaotic game, it can feel jarring. Certainly, the ambition is there to contest the Shield, the Canadian Championship and the playoff trophy all in a single season.
Ottawa have been a rising star, finishing third in 2024, second in 2025, and winning the final that year. If this year wasn't last year's powerhouse campaign, it was still very convincing. Looking back at their season, there were certainly lapses where things could have gone differently, but we must also recognize that 2025 was an "everything is going right" kind of campaign, and those circumstances are often hard to repeat.
So there you have it. Your squad has two matches left to make its destiny. One playoff spot and the Shield are still in play until the final whistles blow. See you soon!
