There was a little bit of everything in Matchweek 18, including some movement in the league table.
Saturday's triple-header began out east, where the Halifax Wanderers tasted victory for the first time in over a month. Jason Bahamboula scored his first of the year in a 1-0 win over Vancouver FC, as Vanni Sartini's side crept closer to the playoff race.
Later that afternoon, Cavalry FC delivered one of their strongest performances this season en route to a 3-1 win over Atlético Ottawa — headlined by a superb brace from Tobias Warschewski.
That result put Cavalry back on top of the table, but only for a few hours. Forge hosted Pacific to close out Saturday's action, and they sailed to a 2-0 triumph in a game divided by a two-hour weather delay midway through the second half.
The Hammers did well to stay focused during the pause and came out of the dressing room strong to hold off a resurgent Pacific. Aghilas Sadek scored his second in as many games for Forge, rewarding Bobby Smyrniotis for the trust he's shown in the 18-year-old forward recently.
Finally, Inter Toronto and FC Supra met at York Lions Stadium on Sunday, and they left with a point each as Julian Altobelli opened the scoring and Loïc Kwemi answered in the second half to move ahead in the Golden Boot race. Neither side thus made up any ground in the playoff race, as both teams still sit well below the top four.
| Pos. | Team | GP | W | D | L | Pts. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Forge FC | 18 | 13 | 2 | 3 | 41 |
| 2 | Cavalry FC | 18 | 12 | 4 | 2 | 40 |
| 3 | Atlético Ottawa | 19 | 9 | 3 | 7 | 30 |
| 4 | Vancouver FC | 19 | 8 | 3 | 8 | 27 |
| 5 | Halifax Wanderers | 19 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 20 |
| 6 | FC Supra du Québec | 18 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 19 |
| 7 | Inter Toronto | 16 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 18 |
| 8 | Pacific FC | 17 | 0 | 5 | 12 | 5 |
It seems that Forge and Cavalry are destined to fight to the very end in this battle for the CPL Shield. Now that Forge have made up the game in hand, the two eternal foes are set to jostle with one another for the final two months of the campaign. It seems more likely that they'll swap first place back and forth rather than one team running away with it, since both sides seem to be rounding into excellent late-season form.
Circle Sept. 19 on the calendar, though; that's when Cavalry will host Forge, in the final opportunity these sides have to do direct damage to each other in the regular season.
Further down the table, we've been watching that gap between fourth and fifth grow for a few weeks, but the Halifax Wanderers finally started to make up some ground. Seven points is still a considerable distance to cover, but that win on Saturday over Vancouver did feel like it had potential to spark a late push.
Ultimately, Vanni Sartini and co. just desperately needed something to cheer about. The vibe is much better at the Wanderers Grounds now.
Keep an eye on Inter Toronto, by the way. Yes, they're nine points out of the playoffs, but they have two games in hand over Vancouver and Halifax. They'll start making up those extra games in September, with a midweek home date against Pacific. If Toronto can win both of their additional fixtures, they'll only be three points out of it. With two games left against Vancouver, they'll absolutely have the chance to catch up.
It wasn't a great week for Vancouver FC, who lost in Ottawa and Halifax, but the Eagles might get a pass on those results; they were far from their best, with much of the squad beset by an illness that was going through the team. They'll take this week to recover and hopefully be back to their best next weekend — which they'll need to be, since they take on Cavalry in Alberta.
Cavalry were outstanding on Saturday against Ottawa, but one Atleti player does deserve a shoutout. Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau scored another banger to bring his total up to six goals in all competitions — accomplished in just seven games.
Fleuriau Chateau looks unstoppable in the attacking third right now; it's hard to think of another midseason addition in the CPL that has had such a remarkable instant impact. He has been exactly the kind of threat Ottawa have needed all year, making them a much more dangerous side now as they head toward the playoffs.
Awards Watch
Loïc Kwemi is back on top of the Golden Boot leaderboard after scoring his ninth goal of the regular season. However, he's far from secure in that spot, with Tobias Warschewski and Ballou Tabla on eight and Isaiah Johnston, Julian Altobelli and Mohamed Amissi just behind with seven. It's an entertaining race, with the goalscoring talent in the CPL more spread out across the league than it was last season.
Rapidly becoming less of a tight race is the Player of the Year award. Warschewski has eight goals and seven assists, and seems to keep getting better. There's a strong chance he'll break the record of nine assists in a season, with 10 games left to pick up another three. The German forward has been absolutely dominant for the Cavs this year, more than ever now that Caniggia Elva is up top creating space for him.
U-21 Minutes Update
We had a couple of big contributions from U-21 players this week. Aghilas Sadek, Forge's 18-year-old from Montreal, scored a late winner off the bench on Wednesday to beat FC Supra. After that impressive outing, Bobby Smyrniotis gave Sadek the start on Saturday — and the youngster scored again in a Man-of-the-Match performance against Pacific.
The Halifax Wanderers joined Atlético Ottawa in the 2,000 U-21 minutes club, becoming the second team to fulfill the requirement. Several other sides are likely to cross the threshold in the next couple of weeks, too. The only side with some catching up to do is Inter Toronto, but they have 12 games left to do so. Once Shola Jimoh is fit enough to get back into the squad he'll be able to make up a lot of that gap.
| Team | U-21 Minutes |
|---|---|
| Atlético Ottawa | 2,196 |
| Halifax Wanderers | 2,125 |
| FC Supra du Québec | 1,901 |
| Forge FC | 1,892 |
| Vancouver FC | 1,824 |
| Pacific FC | 1,583 |
| Cavalry FC | 1,453 |
| Inter Toronto FC | 1,206 |
Coming up next…
Friday, Aug. 28
Atlético Ottawa vs. Inter Toronto
7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT (OneSoccer, TSN)
FC Supra du Québec vs. Forge FC
7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT (OneSoccer, TVA Sports 2)
Saturday, Aug. 29
Cavalry FC vs. Vancouver FC
5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT (OneSoccer, CBC Gem)
Sunday, Aug. 30
Pacific FC vs. Halifax Wanderers
6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT (OneSoccer)
Photo of the Week
Reaching back to Wednesday for this one, but this is a great shot by Phil Lariviere. Fittingly, this stunning rainbow appeared over TD Place on Pride night.
