Playoff spots two through five up for grabs as league enters last weekend of the regular season; Cavalry FC to lift Canadian Premier League Shield on Saturday
Much is still to be decided as the Canadian Premier League enters the last weekend of the 2023 regular season, with the final four matches to be played between Friday, Oct. 6 and Saturday, Oct. 7.
The 2023 season finale begins in Winnipeg, MB on Friday, when Valour FC hosts Halifax Wanderers FC at IG Field at 6:30 p.m. CT/7:30 p.m. ET. Win on the road Friday and the Wanderers, who clinched their first home playoff game last weekend, will remain in contention to finish as high as second place, depending on results on Saturday.
Friday night’s action will continue at Willoughby Community Park at the Langley Events Centre in Langley, BC, where York United FC will look to clinch the last available playoff spot with a victory over surging Vancouver FC, a squad riding a three-game win streak. The second match on Friday kicks off at 7:30 p.m. PT/10:30 p.m. ET.
The last day of the regular season will see both remaining matches kick off simultaneously at the newly announced time of 5 p.m. ET/ 3 p.m. MT, with plenty still to be decided in the final two matches. Forge FC will host Atlético Ottawa at Tim Hortons Field, where the home side will look to clinch second place in the regular season standing with a win at home, while Atleti will hope the fight for the fifth playoff spot is still on by the time the match kicks off. At the same time in Calgary, AB, Pacific FC will look to keep the pressure on Forge in the battle for second place, and the chance to fight with Cavalry FC to host the CPL Final in their first match of the 2023 playoff.
The weekend will close with a special ceremony at ATCO Field at Spruce Meadows, where CPL Commissioner Mark Noonan will present regular season winner Cavalry with the new Canadian Premier League Shield, which was unveiled last month.
Once Cavalry lifts the Shield, all focus will immediately shift to the CPL playoffs and the quest to reach the marquee CPL Final championship by way of the exciting new five-team playoff format that will be contested for the first time in the CPL’s milestone fifth season. The postseason winner will lift the still to be unveiled North Star Cup and earn a coveted spot in the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup.
The run to the North Star Cup, which replaces the North Star Shield as the trophy awarded to the CPL’s playoff champions, will begin on Wednesday, Oct. 11, with the CPL Final taking place on either Saturday, Oct. 28 or Sunday, Oct. 29. The location of the CPL Final will be determined when the top two teams from the regular season standings square off for the chance to host the championship game in their opening match of the 2023 playoffs.
All of the CPL’s remaining regular season and playoff matches will be broadcast on dedicated soccer channel OneSoccer, available as a linear channel on Optik TV (Ch. 980), the pay-TV service operated by Telus, one of Canada’s “big three” telecoms companies, as well as on streaming service fuboTV Canada. OneSoccer is also offered as an affordable streaming service through the OneSoccer.ca website, via Roku, Chromecast and Apple TV devices and with the OneSoccer app for iOS and Android devices.