Canada’s defeat of USA earlier this month was seen as a pivotal moment for the men’s national team, their first victory against their southern rivals in 34 years. Another critical point in the country’s relationship with soccer will come when Cavalry and Forge battle it out to become the Canadian Premier League’s first ever champions.
The two-legged CPL final is the culmination of the inaugural season of the competition and its outcome will be an indication of the league’s success. Five years in the making, the league has seen more than 400,000 attendees this season, including 17,611 for Forge’s opening fixture. Average attendance for the year has been a healthy 4,279.
Part of the planning has seen organizers target the return of successful Canadian exports including Marcus Haber and David Edgar, who have enjoyed solid careers in the UK. Teams are limited to seven foreigners, with only five permitted to start any game. Edgar moved to England aged 14 to follow his dream, eventually playing in the Premier League for Newcastle.
“It’s been in the pipeline for a long time and I knew a lot about it because I was one of the ones they wanted to come back because I’ve been involved in the national team, I’ve been abroad and played at a high level,” Edgar explains.
Joining the CPL in its first season was not always part of the plan for Edgar due to “unfinished business” in England. The defender, however, was impressed by what he heard and eventually signed up. The CPL even asked for his advice due to his experience in Europe.
In this week’s two-legged final, Forge will face Cavalry, a side who have been aided by their own imports. They boast Congolese international Dominique Malonga, who has scored 11 times, and Englishman Jordan Brown, who netted their first-ever goal. The striker started his youth career at Arsenal before moving to West Ham where he played in the Europa League, and later had spells with Hannover in the Bundesliga and then in the Czech Republic. Moving to a foreign country for work is one thing, but to do so to compete in a completely new league took some thinking.
“It was a bit of a weird one, I didn’t know what to expect, it just got proposed to me quite randomly,” Brown says. “I was dealing with an agent at the time and he was looking for me to go out to North America. I wasn’t keen on going to America at the time and came up with Canada, which I didn’t know much about in terms of football.”
A key priority for the CPL, naturally, has been attracting fans. There was a big launch to promote the first professional league in Canada since the 1980s. Marketing campaigns were launched across the country with five of the 10 provinces represented. Supporter base growth at Cavalry and Forge has been aided by success, with the latter enjoying the league’s highest average attendance of 6,558.
“The Canadian soccer fans have always been there but they’ve never had the chance to pick a team from where they are from to support,” Edgar says. “I was at the national team game against the States for an historic win and the stadium was full there, so the fans are there and with the national team doing so well now, it will help grow the CPL in turn as success breeds popularity in this country and they haven’t really had anything to get excited about in Canadian football and now they have their own league and the national team is doing well, so it goes hand-in-hand.”
A sign of soccer’s potential in Canada was proven when 54,798 attended a 2016 international friendly against Mexico in Vancouver. The multicultural make-up of the country means there have plenty of fans but who have previously needed to look abroad for their kicks if they do not live in the vicinity of Toronto, Vancouver or Montreal, who host MLS sides. With Alphonso Davies moving to Bayern Munich and Ballou Tabla on Barcelona’s books, there is hope that other such talents are out there and finally have the platform to prove it.
“It also helps that young fans coming to games have the potential to one day play for the clubs,” Edgar says. “When I moved over at 14 there wasn’t this infrastructure in Canada. All the top players would have to leave to go abroad and a lot of talent went to waste because they couldn’t get visas in certain countries or couldn’t play in England due to their parents’ background, so it was difficult. I was lucky as my parents were from Newcastle and I could get a British passport but others weren’t as lucky. To have young Canadian kids comes to watch Hamilton play and be inspired to play for Hamilton when they’re older rather than needing to go abroad to pursue their dreams. They also have the MLS teams here and there wasn’t a Toronto FC when I was young.”
The CPL has already had an impact abroad on players looking for an opportunity to play in a sustainable league. Both Brown and Edgar have been surprised by the standard on display. “I know a lot of players who didn’t even want to come here at the beginning, they turned it down but now they regret it and want to come,” Brown tells me.
There are plans for expansion as a seven-team league is not a long-term prospect and others will need to be brought in to make it more competitive and to offer a greater nationwide impact as Canada looks to make the most of the excitement leading up to the 2026 World Cup. The plan – although nothing has been confirmed – is to have an extra three sides next year.
“It will happen, it’s a long process, it will be difficult but from what I’ve seen so far in the inaugural season it’s been impressive and the fanbase is there,” Edgar says. “There are still kinks to work out but if we go onto win this Championship it’s only going to bring more fans to Hamilton and it will be the same for Calgary.”
In the short term, Cavalry boosted the league’s profile with a cup win in the Canadian Championship over MLS side Vancouver Whitecaps, much to the surprise of many. “At first the TV networks weren’t giving us any credit or recognition,” Brown explains. “Before that Vancouver game on TSN they were saying Vancouver Whitecaps would play ‘a team from Calgary’, so they didn’t give us the recognition of even calling us by our name.
“In terms of the exposure of our league it was massive, people starting rating us more, especially in our league. People started saying we were the best team and we were carrying the league. It was good for the league but even better for our team, it really put us on the map. I heard rumors after that game that a lot of our players were being looked at by MLS clubs.”
With the proof that the top teams can compete with MLS opposition on the pitch, the time has come to prove what can be done off it. The national team has done what it can to advertise soccer in the country, now the domestic game is looking to follow suit and an exciting final could be just the thing to capture the imagination.
