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Top | Cavalry FC | FC Edmonton | Forge FC | Halifax Wanderers | Ottawa | Pacific FC | Valour FC | York 9 FC |
Let’s be honest, anybody who has any idea exactly how soccer is going to work now or in the immediate future is lying to you. I generally try not to do that unless I can get a laugh out of it.
Seriously, though, the league and its management–owners, staff, and particularly players–deserve credit for getting something off the ground in 2020. One thing we’ve all learned in lockdown is how important it is to have something to do, something to look forward to. There’s an inherent conflict, in the midst of a pandemic, in having professional sports teams take resources away from the public, but I’ve come to think what they give back is worth it. We can’t sit around doing nothing. Nobody in the Canadian Premier League is making millions–it’s very likely the league is losing money by restarting. This is for us.
Which brings us to The Island Games, which I’m calling either the PEI thing (in my own notes) or the Potato Cup (in liveblogs). In what has become true CanPL fashion, I only halfway understand the format and we haven’t had even a sniff of a schedule yet, but the tournament will start on Aug. 13 and conclude some time in September. (It looks like the Voyageur’s Cup competition will be played some time after that, if everything aligns.)
It’s 2020, in the midst of a pandemic. It is what it is.
Think of the 2020 season like a sprint, with 2021 as the “fall season” coming after, the one that really matters and we’ll actually remember (and, hopefully, see in person). In 2019, Wanderers finished fourth in the spring, and last overall. Short seasons are indicative of very little.
This time, teams will have another offseason to take the diagnosis out of 2020 and figure out what to do differently. The soccer world in 2021 is going to look very different. Canada is heading into what could be a 20+ game World Cup qualifying campaign, meaning an already cluttered calendar is going to get even more condensed. Transfer values are likely to plummet, but that may also open up opportunities as the supply/demand equation we’ve been used to for 20 years in world soccer shifts.
A young league like CanPL is actually well-positioned to succeed in the uncertainty ahead. The clubs have a lengthy runway to profitability which means they can adapt to this challenge and play tournaments like this to help build momentum.
That’s what this is going to be. Nobody will remember, in ten years, who won The Potato Cup.
The rosters heading into this thing are already in turmoil due to issues with border restrictions that, obviously, take priority over soccer. Teams are also going to be playing a very dense schedule again, much like in 2019, on artificial turf. There will be injuries. Socially, players are going to be locked in a hotel for two months. Most of the teams haven’t trained eleven-a-side with contact this season.
Even the coaches basically don’t know what’s going to happen, if you read between the lines of their comments. “We would like to put our best foot forward but, realistically, we haven’t been able to play any games and we may be missing players,” Stephen Hart said to CanPL.ca last week. Bobby Smyrniotis, who doesn’t seem to have even seen the format yet, is talking about rotating players even as he sells his back-up goalkeeper. This is all very eleventh-hour. Tommy Wheeldon Jr. is “crossing his fingers” that some of his internationals will show up… and has signed Marcus Haber just in case. We live in desperate times.
The long lay-off means some sacrifices, but also some boons: Atletico Ottawa, who by dint of circumstances around the club’s creation were never going to be properly ready to contend in April, have had a few extra months to sign players, and though fans lost the big home opener, it means Ottleti can use this “season” as a test run and do the real opener in 2021.
Ottawa and others are signing young players, most of whom will get a chance to play. Likewise, a player like Dean Northover, who suffered a bad injury last season, got an extra few months to rehab his knee–he signed today for Cavalry.
The Location
Yes, Prince Edward Island is beautiful. Sadly, players won’t be seeing much of it from the hotel in Charlottetown.
Fortunately, the set-up at University of Prince Edward Island is pretty nice as well, and they will be seeing a lot more of that. I spent a very enjoyable weekend freezing solid in the pressbox back in 2011 for the university women’s nationals. In fairness, that was in November.
It’s a bit unclear which pitch CanPL will use since there seems to be some terminology confusion, but it seems like it’ll be the artificial one on which the UPEI Panthers play, and on which the women’s nationals were played, though it’s been re-laid since then. It’s a biggish field, at least compared to CanPL pitches like York Lions Stadium and Spruce Meadows. The dressing-room facilities are decent by CanPL standards but small–an entertaining diversion occurred back in 2011 when one team lined-up for walk-out across the door of the other team. Hopefully Valour try this at least once in 2020.
One Soccer will be streaming the games, though if you don’t already one, it’s asking a whopping $70 for a subscription that only lasts through December, having axed the month-by-month option. If you don’t value your organic body parts too much, you can join the Collective for almost $200 and they’ll stream One Soccer directly into your subconscious mind. Or you can follow my liveblogs right here, for free, if you can tolerate my sense of humour, implants optional.
Barring any last-minute construction, the camera booth at UPEI isn’t much higher than Pacific’s set-up last year, so go in knowing this is going to look like local soccer, which is fine because local soccer is what it is. The CanPL press releases are blomping about “implementing generational world-historical digital fan experiences” or something, presumably under the daring hypothesis that more adjectives might cure Covid-19. I wish them luck in this endeavour, for all our sakes.
Watch it because it’s local soccer, and local soccer matters.
Previews and Predictions
I’ll have quick-ish previews on each team through this week to make use of some of the notes I took back in January, with the caveat that everything looks a bit different now and there are some question marks re: fitness and availability. There will be lots of footnotes, I promise.
As above, predictions are a mug’s game at the best of time. The teams will play seven games in the first round–one against each team–which makes finding tournament precedents a bit difficult. Four teams get through that. Chances are very good it will take well above a point-per-game pace.
If you are going to try and handicap things, look at games against Ottawa. The newest side have been given something of a reprieve, but they’re still running a thin roster of mostly kids. I actually really like this. They’re going to be all kinds of fun, and I wouldn’t sleep on them, either, but any of those four teams that wants to get through should be taking three points from Ottleti. Probably from Valour and maybe Wanderers, too.
Individual previews with as much of a prediction as I’m willing to give–plus lots of other natter–are below and will be linked as I post them through this week.
I’ll be liveblogging the tournament opener on Aug. 13, all the Wanderers games, the final, and really any other game that I feel like right here, so check back for those. (If you have requests, send ’em in.)
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Top | Cavalry FC | FC Edmonton | Forge FC | Halifax Wanderers | Ottawa | Pacific FC | Valour FC | York 9 FC |
2020 Preview: Wandering Edition
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Top | Cavalry FC | FC Edmonton | Forge FC | Halifax Wanderers | Ottawa | Pacific FC | Valour FC | York 9 FC |
2020 Preview: Stewie Edition
2020 Preview: Forging a Caveat Edition
2020 Preview: York 9 to 902
Preview 2020: Charging Back Edition
Preview 2020: Rally Rabbit Edition
Preview 2020: Everybody’s Second Team Edition
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Preview 2020: Valorous in Defeat Edition
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Top | Cavalry FC | FC Edmonton | Forge FC | Halifax Wanderers | Ottawa | Pacific FC | Valour FC | York 9 FC |
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Top | Cavalry FC | FC Edmonton | Forge FC | Halifax Wanderers | Ottawa | Pacific FC | Valour FC | York 9 FC |
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Top | Cavalry FC | FC Edmonton | Forge FC | Halifax Wanderers | Ottawa | Pacific FC | Valour FC | York 9 FC |
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Top | Cavalry FC | FC Edmonton | Forge FC | Halifax Wanderers | Ottawa | Pacific FC | Valour FC | York 9 FC |
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Top | Cavalry FC | FC Edmonton | Forge FC | Halifax Wanderers | Ottawa | Pacific FC | Valour FC | York 9 FC |
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Top | Cavalry FC | FC Edmonton | Forge FC | Halifax Wanderers | Ottawa | Pacific FC | Valour FC | York 9 FC |
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Top | Cavalry FC | FC Edmonton | Forge FC | Halifax Wanderers | Ottawa | Pacific FC | Valour FC | York 9 FC |
I’m thrilled to see this returning. The preview last season was one of my favourite articles of the year and the in depth analysis was fascinating.