For a second straight year, it's Cavalry FC and Atlético Ottawa in the Canadian Premier League Final. The two sides will meet in the climax of the 2026 season on Saturday, Nov. 21 at Calgary's ATCO Field, where Atleti will aim for a second straight title and the CPL Shield-winning Cavs will go for a historic league double.
After last year's memorable Final in the snow globe of TD Place, there's plenty of history between these two sides, but it didn't start there.
Cavalry and Atlético Ottawa have gone head-to-head in some of the most memorable CPL clashes over the years — including a 3-2 Atleti win just a few weeks ago where both sides scored in stoppage time.
Here are a few of the best moments between this year's CPL finalists.
5. Atleti's stars shine in huge comeback
Ottawa had Cavalry's number throughout most of 2025, but the first time the Cavs went to TD Place that year, they nearly flipped the script.
A red-hot start put them in front early, as Ali Musse scored a pair of goals just 12 minutes apart and Cavalry took a 2-0 lead into halftime. Musse was in fine form, having just returned from a three-game suspension the week previously, which allowed him to recover from a knock and get back to his best. He scored the first with a brave run that ended in a collision with the goalpost, causing some fear he might've hurt himself again.
Not long after, though, Musse lined up a free kick from well outside the box and from a wide angle, and he curled it sweetly into the net for his second.
Musse wouldn't end up being the story of the day, however.
Instead, the second half spotlight was stolen by Ottawa's own attacking stars. The Cavs missed a chance to go up 3-0 in the 67th minute, when Tobi Warschewski and Sergio Camargo got in each other's way in the box and neither could finish a golden chance.
A minute later, Sam Salter gave Atleti life, tapping home a rebound after Manny Aparicio's long-distance effort came off Marco Carducci's hands and then the crossbar.
Then just a couple minutes after that, David Rodríguez snatched a point for the hosts when his shot was deflected into the back of the net.
4. Musse returns to play the hero
This game might've been two years ago, but a lot of familiar faces played their part.
Cavalry star Ali Musse had an up-and-down season in 2024, mostly hampered by a lengthy stretch on the sidelines. He missed 13 total games between May and the start of August with a knee injury, which threw a serious wrench in the Cavs' CPL Shield defence.
So, when it emerged that he might make the trip to Ottawa for Cavalry's game against Atleti on Aug. 3, few expected him to have much impact.
With the game knotted at 0-0 deep in the second half, Tommy Wheeldon Jr. turned to Musse for the final 24 minutes, plus stoppage time.
Just six minutes after Musse came onto the pitch, the Cavs won a corner — always a dangerous opportunity for a team that has scored from so many set-pieces over the years. Musse played the dead ball short to Fraser Aird, who laid it back off for Musse, and the Cavalry winger took it to the top of the box, flicking a shot through the set-piece traffic. The ball took a deflection off an Ottawa defender and found the net, giving Musse his first goal of the year.
Ottawa responded quickly: Sam Salter smashed home a loose ball in the 87th minute to send TD Place into a frenzy, thinking they'd just rescued a point at the death.
Musse, however, had other ideas. The Somalia international did it all himself, picking the ball off a heavy touch by Matteo de Brienne and driving toward the box. He patiently drifted to his left, waiting for the lane to open, then curled a perfect shot into the top corner.
Thanks to Musse's heroics off the bench, the Cavs kept pace in their playoff push, and the superstar winger reintroduced himself to the league at the perfect time. He would go on to play a huge part in Cavalry's North Star Cup-winning campaign.
3. Ballou's stunner breaks it open, clinches Ottawa's first playoff spot
The road to Atlético Ottawa's 2022 regular season title was littered with memorable moments, but this might have been the best one.
With three games left in the campaign, Ottawa went to Calgary in late September with just a one-point lead over the Cavs at the top of the table — and only two points ahead of both Forge and Pacific. However, they knew that a win at ATCO Field (much easier said than done) would be enough to clinch Atleti's first ever berth in the CPL Playoffs, in the third year of the club's history.
Ballou Tabla, it seems, is a man built for those kinds of stakes.
Just four minutes into the game, full-back Miguel Acosta curled a cross from the touchline toward Tabla, stationed at the top of the semi-circle of Cavalry's penalty area. The ball came in a little behind the Atleti forward, but that was no problem for him: Tabla turned his back to goal, leapt off his left foot and connected his right with the ball above his head.
The shot carried the ball off the underside of the crossbar and into the net, just beyond the fingertips of Marco Carducci. Few goals in the history of the CPL have been quite as spectacular as that one.
Ottawa went on to score two more, thanks to Brian Wright and Malcolm Shaw, en route to a 3-1 win to make them the first side to clinch a playoff spot that season.
Atleti went on to finish top of the table, and hosted the CPL Final later that year, but that Tabla goal may well be the moment from that year that sticks with fans the most to this day.
2. Akio flips the game around in 97th minute
For much of this game in early September 2023, little was happening. Until it all happened.
At the end of a fairly nondescript first half at TD Place, Cavalry's Sergio Camargo scored to put the visitors ahead on the stroke of halftime — and he celebrated with gusto, miming firing a bow and arrow then riling up the crowd with a hand cupped to his ear.
In response, Atlético made a pair of substitutions at halftime, including bringing on Carl Haworth. The Ottawa native would have a major part to play, as the home side sought an equalizer in the final moments of the game.
Atleti won a corner in the 88th minute, and Haworth whipped it into the box, where defender Luke Singh caught everyone by surprise. He left his feet and snapped his right leg at the ball to fire it into the net, scoring an outrageous volley to tie the game late.
It would all be for naught, though. Cavalry pressed on, and in the seventh minute of stoppage time — seconds before the final whistle — William Akio silenced TD Place with a winner.
Akio launched into his trademark front flip celebration, as the Cavs took all three points. A brief confrontation ensued between the celebrating Cavalry players and some Atleti supporters, and upon the final whistle, Tommy Wheeldon Jr. — happy to play the villain on this occasion — held his hand to his ear toward the crowd.
Since then, there's always been a little animosity between Ottawa and Cavalry, who went on to win the CPL Shield that year as Atleti missed the playoffs.
Almost every time these clubs have met, though, it has been worth the watch.
1. The Icicle Kick
Sorry, Cavs fans. This one would top any list of greatest CPL moments anywhere.
The 2025 Canadian Premier League Final was played in a blizzard at TD Place, with a thick layer of snow covering the field by the time it kicked off.
Both sides battled through the harsh conditions, and Cavalry even took the lead thanks to a first-half penalty.
That would be their final happy memory of the day, however.
Atlético Ottawa talisman David Rodríguez shocked the entire footballing world just a few minutes later, flicking an audacious bicycle kick through the snow that found the back of the net via the bottom of the crossbar.
Few in the building that day could believe what they'd seen, but none will forget seeing that orange ball kiss the underside of the bar and drop in.
The goal went extraordinarily viral, earning over a billion views online in the next few days.
