Five Stories That Defined the Spring

Introduction

This is the Northern 90 Podcast with Pat Sweet, Episode 20.

Welcome to the Northern 90 Canadian Premier League Podcast, covering the beautiful game in the great white north. For more Canadian Premier League content, head over to Northern90.ca. That’s Northern Nine Zero dot ca.

Welcome

Hello, Canada, and welcome to the Northern 90 Canadian Premier League Podcast!

I’m your host, Pat Sweet.

In this week’s episode:

A review of the spring season and the five stories that defined it.

Results

League Play

Cavalry FC won the spring title
Spring standings:
- Cavalry – 24
- Forge FC – 19
- FC Edmonton – 14
- Halifax – 11
- Pacific – 11
- York 9 – 11
- Valour FC – 9
Fall season
- Cavalry 3 : Pacific FC 2
- Halifax Wanderers 1 : York 9 0
- Forge FC 1 : FCE 2

Canadian Championship

No action since the last episode
Starting this week:
- HFX v. Ottawa
- York 9 v. Montreal Impact FC
- Cavalry FC v. Vancouver Whitecaps

Women’s World Cup

Sadly, the Canadian women were eliminated by Sweden in the round of 16
Congratulations to the USWNT, who beat Netherlands 2-0.

Gold Cup

The Canadian MNT also crashed out of their tournament prematurely. The lost to Haiti 1-0 in the quarter-final
Congrats to Mexico who won their 8th Gold cup, beating the US 1-0 in the final.

CONCACAF League

Forge FC will be playing Antigua GFC on August 1 at Tim Horton’s field. The return leg will be on August 8.

News

One Soccer Extends Coverage

Chinese Super League
Chinese FA Cup
Home legs for CONCACAF League
AppleTV app is now live
Roku is coming soon
In August, the global streaming service will expand its supplementary CPL content in the form of daily news programs, mid-week magazine shows, interviews, features, and more.
Kurt Larson, who had been the head of the CanPL editorial team has become the head of content with OneSoccer.

Secondary Transfer Window Opening

Nothing official from the league, but FIFA lists the open of the secondary window in Canada as July 9. It will run to August 7.
This allows players to move within Canada and allows international players to move to Canada.

If you like the headlines, check out the Northern 90 Supporters Group!

Next up – the spring season’s top headlines.

The Headlines That Defined the Spring

League Launch & Inaugural Match
- 17,611 fans at Tim Horton’s Field
- Ryan Telfer scores first goal ever
- Bekker’s elbow
- These guys can ball!
OneSoccer
- Great quality overall, but some room for growth
- Views on the business model
- Views on CSL
- #WipeTheLens showed up on a OneSoccer broadcast
Biphasic Standings
- Cavalry and Forge, then everyone else
- Five points separated 3rd from 7th.
- Five points from 3rd to 2nd
- Five points from 2nd to 1st
- Cavalry and Forge represented more than 40% of the goals scored.
Cavalry FC’s Dominance
- Won the first seven games
- Outscored opponents 16-7
- Scored 10 away goals compared to 6 at home.
- For comparison, HFX didn’t score a single away goal this spring.
- Only shut out once in league play
- Recorded 5 shutouts
FC Edmonton’s Turnaround
- For most of the season, the pundits were scratching their heads trying to figure out what to make of FCE.
- Turns out, there wasn’t anything wrong really – but a small sample size made it look like things were bad.
- Went five games in a row without scoring.
- In the last four games, only one goal against, and scored 6

Next up, the mailbag:

Mailbag

You know how this works – you send me mail and messages and I read every single one of them. If what you send is extra good I read it on the podcast.

Last week’s question: How seriously should Forge FC take their CONCACAF League run?
Ed (who wrote lots in the last week) said that Forge would sacrifice CONCACAF league in favour of league performance, citing brutal travel, fixture congestion, and a hostile environment.
Colin also wrote to say that, while he’d love to see Forge make a push, it would be better to rotate the squad and secure a spot in the league final.
On the other side, both @Crowandcat1 and @alexanderupert vote that they go as far as they can!
Adam (@flameboy84) left a lovely comment about the show on Twitter, saying he liked the last two episodes – thanks, Adam!

This week’s question: Who’s the MVP of the spring season?

Leave a comment at northern90.ca/episode19
Write to me at pat at northern90.ca
Fire me a note on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram @northernninety

The Week Ahead

Tons of soccer!

Canadian Championship
- Jul 10 sees Wanderers take on Ottawa Fury, Cavalry will host the Vancouver Whitecaps, and York 9 will take on Montreal Impact
CanPL
- July 13
  - Wanderers host Cavalry (watch on CBC online)
  - Forge visits Pacific
- July 14
  - York 9 face off against FC Edmonton

The Ultimate CanPL Fan Guide

I made a fan guide!
Check it out at northern90.ca/fanguide

Outroduction

That’s all we’ve got for the show today.

If you liked the show, don’t forget to subscribe to it, and when you do leave an honest review. That helps me make the show better and others find it.

Also, if you’ve been enjoying this show, you should join my supporters’ group. When you join you get a weekly newsletter with curated CPL content, access to a members-only Facebook group, contests, giveaways, fantasy leagues, all sorts of good stuff. And it’s free. Check it out at northern90.ca/join.

Thanks so much, Canada. Have a great week.

Credits

Featured Image

Photo by Mari Carmen Del Valle Cámara on Unsplash

Intro music

CPL Headlines Music

Main Content Intro Music

Mailbag Music

Outro music

Five Stories That Defined the Spring

Five Stories that Dominated the Spring Season

A look back at the first-ever Spring Season.

Introduction

Welcome