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.

Twenty-eight games later, the CPL’s 2023 regular season has come to a close for each of the eight teams.

Matchweek 26 had playoff implications in all four games, and only now that they’re all complete do we know exactly what the playoff bracket looks like, with the next three weeks set to lead us all the way to a CPL Final, where one of the top five teams will be the first to lift the North Star Cup. Before we look forward, though, a quick look back.

Halifax Wanderers took on Valour FC in Manitoba, where Massimo Ferrin scored an outstanding goal from distance — his eighth of the year — to give the Wanderers a 1-0 win and catapult them into third place. Later that night, York United clinched their own playoff spot and eliminated Atlético Ottawa by defeating Vancouver FC 2-1 in the last game of VFC’s expansion season.

On Saturday, the battle for second place remained alive, but ultimately the order wouldn’t change from the morning. Forge FC lost 1-0 to Atlético Ottawa thanks to Ilias Iliadis’ first goal for the capital club, but they stayed in second as Cavalry FC trounced Pacific FC 3-0 at ATCO Field.

And not to bury the lede: Cavalry also lifted a trophy after their win. The regular season champions were finally presented with the CPL Shield, and they celebrated in style with a legion of their fans on the pitch at ATCO Field. Quite the day that was out in Calgary.

At the end of the regular season, here’s one last look at the table:

Incredibly, the battle for second place came all the way down to the final seconds of Forge’s loss to Ottawa, and ultimately the fourth tiebreaker was needed to separate Forge and Halifax.

With the Hammers’ 1-0 loss, they ended up level with the Wanderers on points, wins, goal differential and goals scored. So, only away goals differential (+4 for Forge, -2 for Halifax) could break the tie. Had Ottawa managed to score again in Hamilton, Halifax would’ve jumped into second place.

Pacific will be annoyed with their own loss to Cavalry as well, because if they’d beaten the Cavs then they would’ve finished second, and therefore could’ve had a chance to host the Final (and wouldn’t have to play on Wednesday).

For those wondering, yes: All eight teams successfully hit the 2,000 U-21 minute mark. Halifax started Tomas Giraldo, Tiago Coimbra and Armaan Wilson, but got a bit of a scare in the 30th minute when Giraldo picked up an injury. So, 18-year-old Camilo Vasconcelos came on to make his club debut and did well en route to victory. The Wanderers amassed about 227 minutes in total, which would put their total for the season at 2,032.

York United, meanwhile, got 129 minutes from Noah Abatneh and Kadin Martin-Pereux, while Forge hit their threshold thanks to Kwasi Poku’s 90 minutes. At the top of the U-21 table, Vancouver FC added about 96 minutes and will finish the season ahead of the pack with 5,203.

Also: Happy Thanksgiving, Canada!

Monday Reading

Breaking down the bracket

It’s finally here! The playoff bracket is officially set, and we’re finally going to see this new five-team format in action.

It begins on Wednesday in Langford, B.C., where Pacific FC’s lone home game of this postseason will be a midweek play-in tilt against York United. The winner of that then travels all the way to the opposite coast to take on Halifax Wanderers in Nova Scotia on Saturday.

Also on Saturday, Cavalry and Forge go head-to-head in a qualifying semifinal, with the winner going straight to host the Final two weeks later and the loser heading back into the bracket to play whichever of the other three emerges.

This is the most exciting part of the year; will Cavalry, the league’s most consistent side this season (and the hottest going into the playoffs), roll through en route to the North Star Cup? Or might there be a few upsets in store?

These five matches are not to be missed.

Awards Watch

Now that the regular season is over, the audition period for each award has now closed. Voting is likely to get underway soon for all of the CPL’s individual accolades, with the winners to be announced shortly before the Final at the end of October.

Of course, there’s one award that’s already been secured: Ollie Bassett of Atlético Ottawa and Myer Bevan of Cavalry FC will share the Golden Boot, having both finished on 11 goals this year. Bevan scored his 11th to tie Bassett in Cavalry’s win over Pacific. To those who weren’t aware: it is, in fact, a split award. There’s no tiebreaker, so Bevan and Bassett will both be recognized.

The rest of the awards will be quite competitive on the ballot, in all likelihood. Nominees will be officially announced at some point during the playoffs, but discussion has already picked up online around which players might be in the mix.

Another goal for Daan Klomp on Saturday might help his case for Defender of the Year, or even Player of the Year; meanwhile, a handful of young players made a major impact during the run-in so U-21 Canadian of the Year will be a tough one to pick as well.

One more thing that will be exciting to see in a few weeks: whether or not the CPL players see things differently from fans and media. They’ll also be voting for Players’ Player of the Year, which will undoubtedly draw a wide variety of opinions from across the league.

I’d encourage everybody to check out Mitchell’s recent breakdown of 10 players who might be in the mix for Player of the Year. It’s a helpful primer on some of the names who have been most significant in the 2023 campaign.

Coming up next…

Wednesday, Oct. 11

4th vs. 5th Game: Pacific FC vs. York United (7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET)

Saturday, Oct. 14

Quarter-final: Halifax Wanderers FC vs. Winner of 4th vs. 5th (3 p.m. AT/2 p.m. ET)
Qualifying Semifinal: Cavalry FC vs. Forge FC (3 p.m. MT/5 p.m. ET)

(Watch all games live on OneSoccer)

Photo of the Week

No question about it. Gotta love William Akio and his acrobatics, right?