Happy Victoria Day Weekend, Canada
Matchweek 6 gave us plenty of winners, but none more so than Turbo Tucker, champion of Atlético Ottawa's third annual Wiener Dog Race.
More seriously, though: all four games this week sent someone home with three points. There weren't a ton of surprises; the top three sides in the league all won (two of them on the road), and Atlético Ottawa added a victory at home.
The week began all the way back — almost a week ago now — on Wednesday, when Forge FC hosted FC Supra in their annual School Day Match. Over 15,000 kids from local schools were in attendance to watch Forge maintain their grip on first place with a 1-0 win.
Sunday's triple-header featured three more clean-sheet triumphs, starting in Ottawa where Atleti beat the Halifax Wanderers thanks to Jonantan Villal's clever finish.
On the West Coast, Pacific FC missed an early penalty and Inter Toronto found the net in the second half for a 1-0 win of their own.
And finally, Cavalry FC rode to victory once again; Tobias Warschewski scored on a well-executed counter-attack, and the Cavs went on to beat Vancouver FC 2-0 (the only multi-goal win of the week).
So, the table hasn't changed too dramatically; the top three sides kept pace and stayed undefeated.
The only big mover in the standings this week was Atlético Ottawa, who climbed all the way from seventh into fourth; that's how tight things are at the moment.
Here's how things are looking as we approach the quarter mark of the season:
| Pos. | Team | GP | W | D | L | Pts. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Forge FC | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 16 |
| 2 | Cavalry FC | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 14 |
| 3 | Inter Toronto | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 11 |
| 4 | Atlético Ottawa | 6 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| 5 | FC Supra du Québec | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| 6 | Halifax Wanderers | 6 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 7 | Vancouver FC | 6 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 |
| 8 | Pacific FC | 6 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
Let's begin with Forge. We talk about them every week for similar reasons, but there's no denying they're in the midst of an incredible start.
They still haven't conceded a goal from open play this season. They've won five and have one 0-0 (in hindsight, it's a shame that Cavalry match wasn't a better spectacle, but they play again later this month).
It's remarkable that the Hammers genuinely haven't missed a beat, despite losing the likes of Alex Achinioti-Jönsson, Alessandro Hojabrpour, Jassem Koleilat, David Choinière... not to mention the fact Kyle Bekker still hasn't started a match.
Cavalry deserve a lot of credit too for how punishing they are to play against; they made Vancouver pay for two critical errors on Sunday.
Also, Inter Toronto. Mauro Eustáquio is doing a fantastic job with this squad, who look intent on taking a leap forward after a decent year in 2025.
They proved against Pacific that they can win in a variety of different ways; they followed up their 4-1 rout of Ottawa with a much narrower win out west. Eustáquio explained on Sunday that he'd asked his team to get a little more compact, and less direct, at halftime, to allow them to switch from wing to wing more easily. That's a major change from the win over Atleti, where Toronto had success with vertical transitions.
This team feels like it's getting deeper as new players get acclimated (case in point: the Ariel Almagro-Sebastian Gonzales connection for Toronto's goal). Feels like an upward trajectory.
Finally, we need to mention a couple teams feeling much less confident about their start.
For Pacific FC, there have been flashes of what the team is capable of, but results refuse to go their way. If Alejandro Díaz hadn't missed a penalty for the first time in his CPL career, they might've gone on to win on Sunday.
However, there's no hiding that Pacific have faced the most shots in the league, conceded more than anybody else, and created the third-fewest open-play chances.
The return of centre-back Juan Quintana was a welcome sight on Sunday... briefly. About 15 minutes into his season debut, he was sent off for an apparent elbow on Juan Cordova. We'll see what kind of suspension he ends up with, but it's frustrating for James Merriman to lose another defender.
Meanwhile, the Halifax Wanderers' results have been on a downward spiral. They've now lost four straight in all competitions, their only win coming back in Matchweek 1.
Halifax had just 36 per cent possession against Ottawa on Sunday and generated seven shots, winning just 45 per cent of the duels. They very nearly salvaged the draw late, but Victor Akinwale missed an open net in stoppage time.
Vanni Sartini knew this would be a trying season, with so much roster turnover in his first year, but he'll definitely want to see more from his attack next Saturday at home.
Awards Watch
As mentioned before, keep an eye on Mauro Eustáquio as one of the league's top coaches so far. He's got his Inter Toronto side keeping up with Forge and Cavalry and undefeated so far; they have some tricky fixtures coming up in June though, including back-to-back home games against those top two sides before the CPL's World Cup pause.
The most competitive award race might be the Golden Glove. After six matchweeks, we've seen all of Diego Urtiaga, Dimitry Bertaud, Garissone Innocent and Marco Carducci make the Team of the Week. Plus, Nathan Ingham and Joaquim Milli have been very close to getting in there as well.
Nobody has yet pulled ahead of the pack, but it feels like pretty much anybody could walk away with that award.
U-21 Minutes Update
FC Supra had a strong U-21 contingent in their game against Forge, including 19-year-old Sasha Deslandes in his professional debut. The defender did well with a tough assignment, playing all 90 minutes against Forge.
Through six matchweeks, Supra (23.9) and Atlético Ottawa (23.6) have the youngest average squads in the league, which stands to reason with those sides also leading the pack in U-21 minutes.
| Team | U-21 Minutes |
|---|---|
| Atlético Ottawa | 759 |
| FC Supra du Québec | 713 |
| Forge FC | 581 |
| Pacific FC | 578 |
| Cavalry FC | 563 |
| Halifax Wanderers | 550 |
| Vancouver FC | 434 |
| Inter Toronto FC | 391 |
Coming up next…
Saturday, May 23
Halifax Wanderers vs. Inter Toronto
3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT (OneSoccer, TSN)
Vancouver FC vs. FC Supra du Québec
6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT (OneSoccer, TVA Sports 2)
Atlético Ottawa vs. Forge FC
2 p.m. ET/11 a.m. PT (OneSoccer, CBC Gem)
Cavalry FC vs. Pacific FC
5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT (OneSoccer)
Photo of the Week
David Choinière's return to Hamilton wasn't the main story of Wednesday's School Day Match, but this photo is pretty bizarre to see. The ex-Forge star shared a few moments with his former teammates and fans after the game last week.
(Photo by Thiago Szwarc)
