Welcome to As It Stands. At the start of each week through the end of the season, we’ll bring you this easy-to-digest wrap-up of everything you need to know from the weekend that was in the Canadian Premier League, and keep tabs on how each team is progressing in its hunt for silverware.

Week 13 in the Canadian Premier League had the standings moving in all sorts of ways, as another batch of results seemed to bring everyone closer together, especially in the middle of the table.

Friday night kicked off with a roller coaster match at Tim Hortons Field between Forge FC and Vancouver FC, as the visitors took the lead twice, only for Forge to pull in front in the 85th minute — just before Gabriel Bitar snatched a point for VFC in stoppage time.

On Saturday, York United FC were on form at York Lions Stadium once again, as they banked their fifth home win of the campaign to move into second place. Marki Voytsekhovskyy and Juan Cordóva were the scorers for York in a 2-1 win over Halifax Wanderers FC, as the Nine Stripes improved to 3-1-1 under Benjamín Mora.

We had a doubleheader of 1-0 away wins on Sunday, beginning in the capital where Pacific FC beat Atlético Ottawa with a goal from former Atleti man Zakaria Bahous. Ottawa had a chance to salvage a draw, but a rare penalty miss from Ollie Bassett left them off the scoresheet.

To wrap up the weekend, Cavalry FC — like Pacific — won with a goalscorer finding the net against his former team; this time it was Fraser Aird who put the Cavs in front of Valour FC, helping them to their first away win of 2024.

Here’s where things stand in the table now after those results:

Things continue to get tighter in the standings, with most teams about to cross the halfway mark next weekend. It has to be a frustrating sight for Cavalry, who won on Sunday but still find themselves outside the playoffs — albeit by just one point now. Valour and Halifax, meanwhile, are still looking at quite a gap to the top five, although the Wanderers’ game in hand could help them close it.

Spirits are high around Canadian soccer at the moment. The men’s national team caught the whole country’s attention on Friday night with their heart-stopping penalty shootout win over Venezeula at Copa América. One of Canada’s heroes from that night, Jacob Shaffelburg, does have a little-know CPL connection, which we wrote about here at CanPL.ca this weekend…

Canada take on Argentina (again) on Tuesday night in the semi-final.

Speaking of semi-finals, Wednesday night will see both Forge FC and Pacific FC take on their closest Major League Soccer clubs in the final four of the TELUS Canadian Championship. Forge play Toronto FC and Pacific face the Vancouver Whitecaps in the first legs of their semi-final ties, where the two CPL sides will look to build up a result at home and give themselves a chance of getting to the final.

Monday Reading

If the playoffs started today…

It seems the only thing that isn’t consistently changing here is Atlético Ottawa at the top. York United jumped all the way to second this week, which would give them a chance to host the CPL Final at York Lions Stadium if they could get past Atleti.

Forge, meanwhile, would be on track to spend their full playoff campaign on the road, beginning on a Wednesday night at Pacific FC, where the winner would take on a Vancouver FC side that has proven tricky for both of them to handle this year.

U-21 minutes watch

Pacific blew past the 2,000-minute threshold recently, and continue to surge ahead of the pack with Emil Gazdov returning to fitness this week. York United, though, are making serious strides, as Noah Abatneh continues to perform at centre-back and Markiyan Voytsekhovskyy has started to thrive under Benjamín Mora — plus, 16-year-old Shola Jimoh has made a couple of thrilling appearances off the bench now.

A return to the lineup for James Cameron gave Vancouver FC a much-needed boost of 90 more minutes, as well.

For the full player-by-player breakdown on the Jones Deslauriers | Navacord U-21 Minute Leaderboard, click here.

Here’s how all eight teams are progressing toward the 2,000-minute threshold:

Coming up next…

Wednesday, July 10

CanChamp: Forge FC vs. Toronto FC (7 p.m. ET)
CanChamp: Pacific FC vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC (7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET)

Friday, July 12

Vancouver FC vs. Atlético Ottawa (7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET)

Saturday, July 13

Cavalry FC vs. York United FC (2 p.m. MT/4 p.m. ET)

Sunday, July 14

Forge FC vs. Pacific FC (7 p.m. ET)

Thursday, July 18

Halifax Wanderers FC vs. Valour FC (7 p.m. AT/6 p.m. ET)

(Watch all games live on OneSoccer)

Photo of the Week

Is there anything Juan Cordóva can’t do?