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.

The 2024 regular season came to a blistering conclusion on Saturday, with all four games in matchweek 28 happening simultaneously, and now we know exactly what the route to the North Star Cup looks like.

All the action in The Outcome! presented by TonyBet went down on OneSoccer (and for free on YouTube) across the country, and it was a bit of a roller-coaster day, even if the top five in the table ultimately stayed the same by the end of it.

Valour threw an early wrench into everything, as Abdul Binate scored early to take a lead on Cavalry — which could’ve put them in the playoffs, if they’d held on and Pacific had lost to Forge. However, Cavalry would strike back in Winnipeg, equalizing and then in the 89th minute scoring a penalty to win 2-1 and guarantee themselves second place. Tobias Warschewski, who scored both of Cavalry’s goals, snatched the Golden Boot out of Rubén del Campo’s hands at the last minute and claimed the scoring title outright.

That Cavalry win also locked Atlético Ottawa into third place no matter what, which took some of the sting out of Atleti’s frustrating 0-0 draw with Vancouver FC at home.

On the east coast, neither Halifax Wanderers nor York United were playing for anything tangible, with the Wanderers already eliminated and York guaranteed to finish fourth. Still, it was a fun game out in the Maritimes, as second-half goals from Massimo Ferrin and Tiago Coimbra bagged a comeback 2-1 win for Halifax, who finished their season on a high note.

Out on Vancouver Island, Pacific’s Dario Zanatta found the only goal in a rain-soaked match against Forge, which was enough to clinch the Tridents the fifth and final playoff spot. Pacific are back in the postseason now for a fifth consecutive year, and they’ll be in Toronto on Wednesday for that fourth-versus-fifth playoff match against York United.

After all of Saturday’s action, here’s the final CPL standings for 2024:

Not that it makes much difference, but Halifax finish the season in sixth place — their highest position in the table since matchweek two (back on April 21).

Meanwhile, unfortunately Vancouver and Valour are both still looking for their first playoff appearances in club history.

In happier news, the Golden Boot race ended up in quite the dramatic finish. Warschewski, perhaps the most in-form player in the league right now, scored five goals in his last three games — including the two Cavalry needed to come back and win in Valour — finished with 12 to take the award on his own.

However, Del Campo did come close to snatching it back; he had the ball in the net in the first half for Atlético Ottawa, but the play was ruled offside. Also, at the very end of the match, he brought the ball down on a counter-attack and had only the goalkeeper to beat, but the referee blew for full time as the four added minutes had passed.

Could those two strikers meet up in the playoffs? It’s certainly possible.

Here’s all you need to know as the postseason gets set to kick off.

 Monday Reading

If the playoffs started today…

Well, they don’t start today at time of writing, but they do start this week.

There are plenty of fun matchups in this year’s bracket, beginning with a rematch of last season’s fourth-vs-fifth game (although at the opposite venue). Pacific were at York just a couple weeks ago, when Reon Moore’s brace essentially saved their season. Will this game have some similar drama? The winner of that game on Wednesday will head to the capital to face Atlético Ottawa on the weekend.

Also, next Sunday will see yet another Forge-Cavalry clash in the playoffs. In fact, all but one CPL postseasons have had these two sides meeting at least once. One of those two will host the CPL Final — and it’s certainly not impossible they meet again at that stage.

It all begins on Oct. 23 at York Lions Stadium.

Awards Watch

Warschewski is the first CPL player to win an award this year, but there are plenty of others left to be handed out.

Voting for most awards is set to begin this week and conclude before the playoffs start on Wednesday night, meaning only regular season performances will be considered for each of the CPL’s other six individual accolades.

CanPL.ca’s Mitchell Tierney put together an excellent breakdown of 10 players who might be in consideration for the Player of the Year award this year. I’d encourage you to check it out, because you might be hearing a few of these names in the next couple of weeks.

U-21 Minutes Update

All eight clubs have officially passed the 2,000-minute mark, four of them doing so on Saturday in their regular season finale. Halifax, who had been farthest away, actually ended up well ahead of the bottom of the table here, picking up 217 minutes against York United thanks to starts by Aiden Rushenas and Tiago Coimbra, plus appearances off the bench by Jefferson Alphonse, Camilo Vasconcelos and (making his pro debut) Tavio Ciccarelli.

Valour got the minutes they needed from Abdul Binate, who also made an impact for them by scoring early, although they couldn’t hold on for the win. Meanwhile, Atleti had Tyr Walker back in the lineup to see them over the line, while Forge gave the start to Khadim Kane and Amadou Koné.

Coming up next…

Wednesday, Oct. 23

York United FC vs. Pacific FC (7:30 p.m. ET/4:30 p.m. PT)

Sunday, Oct. 27

Atlético Ottawa vs. York United/Pacific (1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT)
Forge FC vs. Cavalry FC (4 p.m. ET/2 p.m. MT)

(Watch all games live on OneSoccer)

Photo of the Week

This was a nice moment in Ottawa. Atleti captain and Gatineau native Maxim Tissot entered to a standing ovation for his final regular season match before he retires at the end of this year. Nathan Ingham made sure to run all the way from his goal to give Tissot the armband when he entered, giving the fans an extra few seconds to applaud their skipper.