Hope you had a lovely long weekend!

It was a fun one across Canadian soccer as the Canadian Premier League kicked off, Phonzie made a brilliant (and injury-free!) return to action, Cyle Larin delivered heroics against Arsenal and Josh Sargent did the same for Toronto FC.

Plus, a special subscriber giveaway, CanMNT played their final BMO Field friendly before the World Cup, CanWNT dropped their latest squad, and plenty more in this week’s edition of The Northern Pitch.

It’s crazy to think that this was less than a week ago, but CanMNT played their final match at BMO Field before they return to the stadium on June 12 for their opener at the 2026 World Cup.

The result itself left something to be desired, a 0-0 draw that left Canada with more questions than answered, leaving a window where they played to two home draws.

For a second straight match, Canada had more of the possession, but couldn’t necessarily pick apart Tunisia the way they would have liked to. Still, there were positives, as Marcelo Flores, in his first start, continues to look like a game-changer.

Liam Millar was also brilliant on the other wing, making a game-saving block that had BMO Field going NUTS. On a tougher note, Ralph Priso’s injury makes an already incredibly thin central defender group even thinner.

Still, no open play goals in two games, not ideal. Big learning: we need the big boys back. This team will look totally different if Bombito, Cornelius, Johnston, Davies and Eustáquio are back and fit this summer.

Canada has just two games left, in June, before they kick off the World Cup against Uzbekistan in Edmonton and Ireland in Montréal. Time to lock in.

With the 2026 World Cup coming to Canada, Winning Pitch by Murray Mollard takes a timely, in-depth look at the state of Canadian men’s soccer—where it’s been, where it’s at, and what it will take to compete on the world stage.

Drawing on decades of experience and interviews with players, coaches, and decision-makers across the country, Mollard explores the systems, culture, and momentum shaping the future of the game.

To celebrate the release, we’re giving away 8 copies to you, our beautiful subscribers. Enter now for your chance to win.

The CPL is back! It’s that time of the year where winter comes to an end and the outside air doesn’t hurt our face. Springtime means the footy season is back. This week we were treated with three matchups with the first game being an absolute classic.

🔨 Forge dispatch the reigning champs. The four-time champions hosted the 2025 champions Atletico Ottawa in their season opener at Hamilton Stadium. This game made history with the first-ever usage Football Video Support. Ottawa gaffer Diego Mejia challenged a penalty decision against his team, in which, the ref went to VAR to check if it was a bad call. Unfortunately for Ottawa, the penalty decision stood. Forge FC defeated Ottleti 2-0.

⚓️ “I’m thinking about resigning, I have a 100% winning record.” Sartini returns to Vancouver with the Wanderers and defeat the home club 1-0. Despite the result, Vancouver applied tremendous pressure on Halifax’s backline. VFC created chances and were relentless on the attack. Alas, a banger of a free kick from Lorenzo Callegari set the game in stone and gave us an iconic quote from Vanni Sartini.

🐴 Cavalry FC were the first team in CPL history to win an FVS challenge, and it helped them defeat Pacific FC — leading to Tobias Warschewski’s first-half penalty kick goal. Harry Paton added another on his debut, in which he was named the man of the match. He looks like he could be a big addition for Cavalry in midfield. Diego Konicks added a late goal for Pacific, but they couldn’t come back and suffered a defeat to end the weekend.

Next weekend is a big one. Supra make their debut, Inter Toronto rise under a new name, and a CPL Final rematch will take place in Calgary. The CPL is ALL THE WAY BACK!

One national team window closes, and another opens.

The CanWNT are back on April 11 as they travel down to Cuiabá, Brazil to compete in the new FIFA Series competition — a group of international friendlies pairing clubs from different confederations. Canada will take on Zambia on April 11, South Korea on April 14 and hosts Brazil on April 18.

Ahead of the tournament, Casey Stoney announced her 24-player squad, which included Kadeisha Buchanan for the first time since she took over as CanWNT manager. Buchanan hadn’t played for Canada since a friendly against Spain in late 2024.

Canada had several other exciting returns for this camp as they named a strong lineup, including Sabrina D’Angelo, Jayde Riviere, Ashley Lawrence and Olivia Smith. Gabrielle Carle, Adriana Leon and Shelina Zadorsky are among those out through injury and therefore unavailable.

After a decent SheBelieves Cup campaign, this is a chance for Canada to take the next step and hopefully emerge from these friendlies with multiple victories and multiple goals as well — plus crucially some more ideas for Stoney as to who is in her best eleven.

😎 Phonzie’s back, in style. It feels a little weird to be saying this so soon after the last time AD19 made his injury return — but it’s just Phonzie things at this rate. He made a trademark run down the left, burning the Freiburg defender before serving the perfect cross to put the cherry on top of a 3-2 comeback win for Bayern.

🔝 Olivia Smith gets recognized. Another week, another Smith story. This time, it’s Liv being named to ESPN’s women’s soccer Top-21 Under 21. We’re not entirely sure how she only came in at #15 after breaking the world transfer record last year, granted, but it’s good to see some recognition at least.

🇮🇹 Évelyne Viens scores. Have we mentioned Smith? check. Viens? also check. These two might as well become permanent fixtures at this rate. It was right place, right time for Év who helped Roma complete a 4-3 comeback over Como on Saturday.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Cyle Larin is off to Wembley. Could FA Cup glory be on the horizon? Well, Southampton did it once and they could do it again, after Larin and the Saints downed Prem leaders Arsenal, 2-1, to book a semifinal spot at Wembley in April. They’ll face Man City for a spot in the Final with Chelsea-Leeds on the other side of the draw.

🇸🇪 Sadie Sider-Echenberg assist. When we last checked in, the Ottawa native and uOttawa / USF alum had just taken her exploits to Kristanstads DFF, former club of Viens and Carly Wickenheiser. This week, SSE picked up an assist as KDFF beat Djurgården, 4-1.

🇳🇴 Patrick Metcalfe joins HamKam. The former Whitecap is on the move. After three seasons with historic Oslo club Fredrikstad, where he won the Norwegian Cup in 2024, Metcalfe is staying in Norway’s top flight with HamKam. Astute followers will remember the club for also boasting Julian Dunn and Clément Bayiha at one point.

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👕 2026 NSL kits dropped this week. All six clubs have unveiling their new home kits for the upcoming 2026 season. The “back-to-work” themed editorial was shot by DARBY. AFC Toronto and Vancouver Rise are our favourites. What are yours?

🤔 NSL to Winnipeg? Pro soccer hopefully won’t be gone from Manitoba much longer. After Valour FC announced their suspension of operations in the CPL last year, Diana Matheson and Winnipeg-born Desiree Scott have touted Winnipeg to be the next NSL club. At a documentary viewing at Winnipeg’s Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Matheson and Scott expressed the desire for this city to be home to a NSL club.

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🔴 TFC clutch it out for Oso’s 400th. That was a rollercoaster of emotions, this time it ended positively. This was a wild one, the Reds hosted the Colorado Rapids in a three red card game. We won’t go over the play-by-play for each red card, but TFC made a comeback from 0-2 and won 3-2. It took a second red card for Colorado for things to truly go down hill. Oh, and Josh Sargent scored the winner. The American striker was one of the biggest influencers to this side. If this continues, Toronto’s attacking strength will be deadly.

🔵 Montréal are down bad. CFM travelled to the New England Revolution and were handed a 3-0 loss. This was not a promising performance. We often find silver linings but this game was tough to watch at times, especially defensively. It appeared that MTL are still missing a defensive leader in the back line. A void that had been left since the departure of Joel Waterman. On the bright side, this is MTL’s final away game before their home opener at Stade Saputo next week against last placed the Philadelphia Union.

🌊 Vancouver with another dub. The Caps hosted the Portland Timbers in the Cascadia Darby. This game had a little bit of everything: dramatic moments, big saves, bangers and last-minute screamers. This was a game of bare limbs. With James Pantemis starting the game way off his line to ending with the Sebastian Berhalter with a screamer in stoppage time. The game ended 3-2 for the Caps and everyone was thoroughly entertained.

🔵 Frankie Amaya is officially a Montrealer. CFM have signed a loan-deal for the 25-year-old midfielder until the end of 2026. Amaya joined MTL from back-to-back Liga MX Champions Deportivo Toluca. Amaya is also comes with MLS experience as he had stints with FC Cincinnati, New York Red Bulls and LAFC.

✍️ Bassong signed an extension. The former CF MTL left-back has signed a contract extension with Sporting Kansas City through 2028-2029 with an option for 2030-2031.

☀️ Jacob Shaffelburg first assist with LAFC. If you live under a rock, LAFC are rocking. On Saturday, LAFC hosted and thrashed Orlando City 6-0, a rough night for Crépeau. In true LAFC fashion, Son Heung-min registered four assists while Denis Bouanga picked up a hat trick. The Maritime Messi came off the bench in the 58th minute and decided to participate with an assist in the 70th minute. This was Shaffs first appearance for the club.

🤠 Jayden Nelson scored against Miami. This was a special night, Inter Miami unveiled their new soccer-specific ground, the Nu Stadium. The home side hosted Austin FC with the game ending a 2-2 draw with Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez scoring for Miami. Despite Messi being the first player to score in the new stadium, Jayden Nelson is the first Canadian to score in the venue as well. The former Whitecaps winger scored a clinical finish from a thundering counter-attack.

👏 Lukas MacNaughton with a late game-tying assist. With how often the injuries are coming for the CanMNT, it’s not a bad thing that this group goes deep. The CB played a perfect cross to the near post that was met by Brendan McSorley to rescue a point for their St Louis in a 1-1 draw against NYCFC.

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🍼 Diana Matheson and Anastasia Bucsis are expecting! Congratulations are due out to two of Canadian soccer’s hardest builders. The pair made the announcement on Instagram this week, sharing a July 2026 due date.

📃 A new CBA. A new agreement is always a landmark moment, and Canada Soccer and the men’s and women’s national team players associations achieved that this week. Announced just before the CanMNT’s friendly against Tunisia on Tuesday, the new deal represents a new future which includes equitable pay and benefits for both teams.

🤌 Let’s make a deal. Canada Soccer brought the banter this week after proposing a jersey swap with Italian fans who saw the Azzurri miss the World Cup for a third-straight time. While no Italian jerseys actually traded hands, with it being more of a giveaway (Canada Soccer didn’t take any shirts from fans), it certainly sparked some opinions this week.

This week’s FanDuel fans of the week are The Footy Culture boys. We caught up with the fellas to talk origins of the podcast and much more. Check out the full interview here.