Saturday afternoon has been seven months in the making.
Just over half a year ago, FC Supra du Québec officially launched, bringing the Canadian Premier League to the greater Montreal area for the first time.
Now, the club will finally play a CPL match. FC Supra will make their debut this weekend in Langford, B.C. against Pacific FC, and at last it will become real: A Quebec-based team will be an active competitor in the CPL.
The following weekend might be the more emotional event, when Supra play their home opener in front of local fans at Stade CEPSUM. However, Saturday's first game is a fundamental milestone.
Most importantly, it'll be the country's first chance to see this brand new team on the pitch. While some players on the roster are well known in CPL circles, much of the squad has stepped up from Ligue1 Quebec, and will be making professional debuts at the same time as the club.
David Choinière, a four-time CPL champion with Forge FC who was Supra's first signing — and, officially as of last week, first captain — thinks the new team might have the capacity to surprise.
"I think the beautiful thing with this group, we have so much potential," Choinière told CPLsoccer.com. "It's up to us to really put the right ingredients to make it work."
The native of Terrebonne, Que., explained that the combination of veterans like himself, Aboubacar Sissoko, Sean Rea and Diyaeddine Abzi will provide balance to the younger players hungry to make their mark in the pro game.
Plus, there's one key through line connecting the entire squad: Every single FC Supra player was either born or raised in the province of Quebec, or has been deeply embedded in the Quebecois soccer community.
To Choinière, that shared identity might be Supra's greatest strength.
"When I got there and I saw so many familiar faces, it's easy for the group to click right away, it doesn't take time," he said.
"There's something that brings us together, and it's that we're all from Quebec. That's our strength, and we've got to use that to our advantage, making sure that we stay together. I really hope the people that come to games really connect to the group, and we can connect with them."
On the pitch, things have been coming together quickly for Supra. They've slowly built up a playing identity through pre-season, travelling to both Toronto and New York. They've played a handful of tough friendlies, including USL League One side New York Cosmos and MLS Next Pro's New York Red Bulls II, as well as Toronto FC II, the OPL's Scrosoppi FC and a number of Ligue1 Quebec foes.
Head coach Nick Razzaghi — like many of his players — has made the jump to the CPL from Ligue1 Quebec side CS Saint-Laurent, so the professional level has been an adjustment for him, too.
However, Razzaghi has a little experience with beating CPL opposition, as he did in the 2024 Canadian Championship with Saint-Laurent against the Halifax Wanderers.
Choinière describes Razzaghi as "super calculated," and a coach who values collaboration and new ideas.
"He's somebody that loves to pick people's brains and understand them as a human inside," Choinière said. "He asks for feedback on a lot of stuff, and he's super open-minded. That's the best way to describe him. He wants to know and learn from everybody."
The on-field leadership will largely come from Choinière, who will be captaining a pro team for the first time in his career. He was the natural fit to wear the armband for Supra, given his incredible track record in the CPL (31 goals, 27 assists for Forge over seven years).
Still, that'll take some getting used to for the 29-year-old winger.
For one thing, Choinière joked that he still finds himself speaking English on the pitch, despite the fully-Francophone squad — force of habit, surely, from seven seasons in Hamilton.
According to him, the fact that so much of the team's internal communication is in French is, itself, a mark of the club's unique stature in this league.
"It's special," he said. "I never thought that it would happen that way, where it's a full group of Quebecois, but honestly it's a beautiful vision that the president Rocco [Placentino] had."
Every Supra player has, no doubt, had April 19 circled on their calendar. For many, it'll be a first pro game in their hometown, and everyone involved with the team will surely have legions of friends and family in attendance.
Before they can think too much about that, however, the fledgling club must jump from the nest and play its first game out west.
Certainly, playing that home opener would be a little sweeter if FC Supra already have three points on their ledger.
