The force is strong with the Premier Soccer Leagues of Canada.

#LangleyUnited of #BCPL holding #CPL side #VancouverFC 0-0 at the half.
And earlier to today #CS_StLaurent of #LSPro beat #InterToronto 1-0. Their keeper made 13 stops and bossed the box.

Earlier this past week #ATO from the #CPL beat a depleted #TFC
#ForgeFC beat #HFXWanderers
#Cavalry beat #PacificFC

#VancouverWhitecaps got a bye to the quarters as holders

Quarterfinals for the #VoyageursCup

#ATO will play #FCSUPRA
#ForgeFC will play #CS_StLaurent
#VancouverWhitecaps plays #CavalryFC
#CF_Montreal plays the wi ner of the Vancouver/Langley match.

I ❤️ ⚽️

#CanPL #Fedifc #mastodonfc #CanadianChampionship

This was such a brutal loss for Pacific FC.

It was a Canadian Championship game. A win could have built the club’s local fanbase.

Instead, Calvary FC are facing the Whitecaps.

#CPL #VoyageursCup #soccer

https://youtu.be/8W5RUBtQLew

Kinda scary and disappointing how many empty seats there are at Starlight right now.

#CanPL #cpl #CavalryFC #cavsfc #PacificFc #MastodonFC #FediFc

If #MLS takes the Whitecaps away from Vancouver, this is going to hurt the league so much. It is such a strategic error that will wreck the long term viability of the league.

The Whitecaps have a storied history, are amazingly successful, and average 24,000 fans every game. They’re still going to be ripped from the community anyway.

Why? Because, at the end of the day, the Whitecaps are a franchise—and MLS ultimately owns them. Basically, MLS wants to raise the valuations of all teams in their league. So why keep a team in a podunk Canadian port city when it can be relocated to Las Vegas?

Sounds great in theory, but only if MLS had the cachet of an actual “Big 4” major league, and locked down pro #soccer in the USA and Canada.

But MLS is not a true major league yet. They are nowhere close to the NFL or NBA. It doesn’t even have the cultural gravity of NASCAR.

And they haven’t locked down the pro soccer market either. They’re competing with #USL. Which has more teams. And is spinning out a Premier league with a full pyramid that has promotion and relegation.

What do you want to bet that USL’s pitch to American fans is the idea that USL itself doesn’t own every team?

Here in Canada, MLS is already competing with #CPL. Watching Atlético Ottawa destroy Toronto FC yesterday—the 7th place CPL team at that—really hammers home that MLS is no longer the only show.

Yet MLS wants to reduce their footprint in Canada from three teams to two. Take away the Whitecaps, which is their best Canadian team, leave Canada with two miserable teams—both which could be beaten in any night by a CPL team. Suddenly, MLS doesn’t look so major anymore and CPL is no longer regarded as “lowly”.

Getting rid of the Whitecaps suddenly transforms two CPL teams, Vancouver FC and Pacific FC, that struggle with attendance into something worth watching. Because even if neither team is as good as the Whitecaps, both are still capable of defeating Toronto FC and CF Montréal in the Canadian Championship. And both could wind up in CONCACAF Champions League where they can prove their international mettle.

Now this is all fine and good if MLS deliberately abandons the Canadian market. CPL simply becomes the top tier league, and that is that.

But do you think all those American fans aren’t noticing what’s happening? Do you think they’re not worried about their team being on the chopping block? Do you think fans in Austin and Kansas City won’t be thinking twice about supporting their local MLS franchise? Do you think they won’t be looking over at USL, seeing the pro-rel format, and thinking, “Yeah, I’m going to support the other guys instead”?

Much hoopla is made about the Apple deal with MLS. Do you think ESPN or Netflix or Amazon can’t look at USL and say, “Hey, this is inexpensive soccer content”?

MLS is taking away a prime bargaining chip: a rabid fanbase that fills stadiums. For Las Vegas, a city that already has an NFL team, an NHL team, and—soon—an MLB team. It also has a WNBA team and an NLL team too.

Also, MLS is changing their schedule so that the league plays during winters. Yeah, you think Las Vegans are going to choose MLS over NFL and NHL? I don’t think so. If the Whitecaps move to Las Vegas, it will have to compete for scraps—with the WNBA and NLL too.

But here’s the kicker. Las Vegas already has a pro soccer team! I’m talking about the Las Vegas Lights, who currently play in USL Championship. And this team could wind up in USL Premier in 2028.

So MLS is relocating the successful Whitecaps because they apparently don’t have right valuation, putting them in a market that’s already saturated with bigger, more popular teams that play during the same time of year, where they could be competing with another pro #soccer team—one that is less likely to be relocated at that.

This is a terrible, boneheaded business move that could easily blow up in their face.

In the Canadian Championships...

#OttawaAtletico #OttawaAtlético, normally playing in tier-2 pro Canadian Premier League (#CPL), beat Toronto FC, normally playing in tier-1 Major League Soccer (#MLS)

Toronto weakened by missing a couple of veterans to injury, but shows how close the tiers are, and that execution really matters. Atlético currently 2nd last in the CPL as well.

Go #Ottawa!

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/toronto-fc-atletico-ottawa-canadian-championship-2026-9.7188280

Reading the online fallout of Toronto FC’s loss to Atlético Ottawa.

Toronto fans are furious. In their mind, Toronto FC has no business losing to a lowly #CPL team. Especially one ranked 7 out of 8 in that league.

And they rightly understand this disaster for what it is. This was their one chance to make it in the CONCACAF Champions League, because they’re not winning anything in #MLS—and they blew it.

But worth considering: Inter Toronto, which is a CPL team, recently decimated Atlético Ottawa.

So does that mean Inter Toronto might also beat Toronto FC if a game were played today? Does it also mean that the CPL is a lot better than Torontonians assumed, and that they all need to stop seeking validation from American sports leagues? Does also mean that this ridiculous Rogers bubble—which seemingly has a monopoly on Toronto’s sports market, yet doesn’t own a CPL team—is vulnerable?

Folks from Toronto are worried that this loss indicates that Toronto Isn’t a serious sports market. I think that’s the wrong way to look at it. Perhaps a better view is that now is the time to start building Canadian domestic leagues instead of always wishing senpai to notice them.

https://www.reddit.com/r/tfc/comments/1t4ynj7/we_should_not_be_losing_to_a_cpl_team/

RE: https://atomicpoet.org/objects/d3e9e5de-29e1-4e6a-a673-df36550b744b

Looking at CONCACAF’s club rankings is fascinating.

Prior to tonight, Toronto FC was ranked the 42nd best team in North America. And yes, these rankings include teams from #LigaMX too. They are nowhere near the best #MLS team, but clearly not the worst either.

The top-ranked #CPL team is Forge FC, ranked 51st, and just leapfrogged Club Puebla and Sporting Kansas City. This is the highest a CPL team has ever been.

Then at 64th is Atlético Ottawa, who just fell three places. And they just embarrassed Toronto FC—Canada’s most winning #soccer team ever—with a 3-1 win.

https://www.concacaf.com/rankings/club

RE: https://atomicpoet.org/objects/a3e6010b-5a57-41a6-be20-07dd1ef0d7a1

New Wikipedia edit for Toronto FC just dropped.

Ballou Tabla is not the owner of Toronto FC. He’s Atlético Ottawa player who just scored a hat track on them—eliminating them from the Canadian Championships in the first game.

My sides hurt. 🤣

#MLS #CPL #soccer

RE: https://atomicpoet.org/objects/65a071bd-dd56-432d-87c7-310a377e968d