Fixture Congestion in the CanPL and Three Ideas for Fixing It

Introduction

This is the Northern 90 Podcast with Pat Sweet, Episode 22.

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:

Recent signings
A recap of three wonder strikes this week
OneSoccer’s Crew calling it an early night
Main content: the problem with the CanPL schedule

Announcements

AMA with Kurt Larson – https://Northern90.ca/AMALarson
- What it’s about
- 100 seats
- July 25, 8PM EST
- This way, we can watch the Canadian Championship Matches

Results

League Play

Jul 17 – Wednesday	Forge	2 – 0	HFX Wanderers	Tim Hortons Field
Jul 17 – Wednesday	York9	2 – 1	Pacific	York Lions Stadium
Jul 17 – Wednesday	Edmonton	0 – 0	Valour	Clarke Field
Jul 20 – Saturday	Forge	3 – 1	Valour	Tim Hortons Field
Jul 20 – Saturday	Pacific	3 – 1	HFX Wanderers	Westhills Stadium
Jul 21 – Sunday	Cavalry	1 – 0	York9	Spruce Meadows

Canadian Championship

Starts again this week

Jul 24 – Wednesday 8:30 pm ADT CanChamp	Ottawa Fury	vs.	HFX Wanderers	TD Place Stadium	TICKETS
Jul 24 – Wednesday 8:30 pm ADT CanChamp	Montreal Impact	vs.	York9	Stade Saputo	TICKETS
Jul 24 – Wednesday 11:30 pm ADT CanChamp	Vancouver Whitecaps	vs.	Cavalry	BC Place Stadium	TICKETS

News

Transfers

Valour FC make another signing in Italian Striker Michele Paolucci
- Played most of his early career in Italy’s Serie A
- Most recently in the Maltese Premier League with Tarxien
- Time will tell if Paolucci is the answer to Valour’s scoring woes
Northern Tribune reporting that FC Edmonton is about to make a big signing
- https://northerntribune.ca/fc-edmonton-signing-july-2019/

OneSoccer

FC Edmonton/ Valour FC game on Wednesday delayed due to severe thunderstroms
One hour delay, then eight minutes of play, then another 2 hour delay
No explanation right away
Eventually came out that the call was made to keep OneSoccer staff safe
Hard to reconcile that with the fact that players and fans were allowed to be there.
Really hope that this is part of growing pains.

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

Next up – tackling the issue of game congestion.

Game Congestion in Canadian Premier League

After Forge FC’s dismantling of HFX Wanderers last Wednesday, coach Hart had some pretty blunt observations to share (courtesy of The Merchant Sailor):

We know things we need to work on from an individual and collective perspective, but we have no time to work on it because you have to give players time to rest, and then you have maybe a half of a training session the day before you play a team like Cavalry–or any team.

So we need to sit down and talk about it. The schedule is way too compact. There are three teams that play nine games this month and one that plays ten.”

We’ve seen plenty of players go down to injury over the last several weeks, and the fall is just getting started.
Hart isn’t the first to raise a flag about fixture congestion.
The concern also has some sound science behind it.
A 2010 study in the American Journal of Sports Medicine investigated the effects of playing 2 matches per week compared to one
The study showed no real impact on gameday performance, but did show an injury rate over six times higher when playing two games a week.
So if we can agree that injuring players is bad, what do we do?
Three ideas
- Make the season longer
- Eliminate mid-week games
- Eliminate back-to-back midweek games
Longer season
- Pros
  - Keep the same number of games – no lost entertainment or revenue
  - Improves rest
- Cons
  - Risky to push earlier than end of April or past early November.
  - Wet/ cold weather would be hard on players and on grass
- How to make it work
  - Focus games on artificial surfaces
  - MLS starts in March, ends in December, though with limited games in Canada
Eliminate mid-week CanPL games
- Pros
  - Only 4.4 midweek games per team – not much lost gameplay
  - 24 week season with 28 season games
  - Creates room for CanChamp
  - Effect of reduced attendance is minimized – poor showing during the week anyway
  - Makes for a more balanced schedule
- Cons
  - Fewer games = less revenue, less entertainment
  - Mitigation: maybe the weekend games would be even better attended
Eliminate back-to-back midweek games
- If we eliminated two mid-week games for each team, you could eliminate, for the most part, teams playing on short rest twice in a row.
- Pros
  - Minimal impact on the season
  - Better rest
- Cons
  - Fewer games

An analysis of rest between games for the CanPL 2019 season.

I’d like to know what you think: is the schedule a problem? How would you fix it? Write me to let me know!

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: What should the Canadian Championship and Canadian Premier League trophy be called?
- Lots of votes for the Voyageur’s Cup – Alex and Febrian
- Michael Miller of the Premier Podcast suggested the CanPL trophy be called the Joe Kennaway Trophy. Look him up – very cool bit of Canadian soccer history
- Best suggestion I heard was from Jeff who wrote me an email suggesting:
  - Can Champ: Voyageur’s Cup
  - CanPL Champion: Canadian Shield

This week’s question: Who’s the best attacking duo in CanPL?

Leave a comment at northern90.ca/episode22
Write to me at pat at northern90.ca
Fire me a note on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram @northernninety

The Week Ahead

Jul 24 – Wednesday 8:30 pm ADT CanChamp	Ottawa Fury	vs.	HFX Wanderers	TD Place Stadium	TICKETS
Jul 24 – Wednesday 8:30 pm ADT CanChamp	Montreal Impact	vs.	York9	Stade Saputo	TICKETS
Jul 24 – Wednesday 11:30 pm ADT CanChamp	Vancouver Whitecaps	vs.	Cavalry	BC Place Stadium	TICKETS
Jul 27 – Saturday 2:00 pm ADT	Valour	vs.	Cavalry	Investors Group Field	TICKETS
Jul 27 – Saturday 4:30 pm ADT	York9	vs.	HFX Wanderers	York Lions Stadium	TICKETS
Jul 27 – Saturday 7:00 pm ADT	Edmonton	vs.	Forge	Clarke Field	TICKETS

Announcements

AMA with Kurt Larson is now on July 25 at 8PM Eastern.
https://Northern90.ca/AMALarson

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 Curtis MacNewton on Unsplash

Intro music

CPL Headlines Music

Main Content Intro Music

Mailbag Music

Outro music

Fixture Congestion in the CanPL and Three Ideas for Fixing It

Fixture Congestion in the CanPL and Three Ways to Solve It

How to avoid injuries while keeping the league awesome.

Introduction

Welcome

Announcements