On a Monday of mourning across Canada, we hope that we can brighten your day a little bit with some news from a different sport.

Unfortunately—and fair warning—there are a few bad stories in the world of Canadian soccer this week as well, but also plenty to look forward to, with the Canadian women’s national team and MLS back in action, the Whitecaps in Concacaf and plenty more.

All that ahead in this week’s Hockey-less edition of The Northern Pitch.

It seems that Toronto FC have got their guy.

After a contentious few weeks of rumours, reports and holdouts, Josh Sargent is reportedly joining Toronto FC for around $30 million CAD, which would be right up there with the biggest transfers in MLS history.

The USMNT striker, who just turned 26, has been one of Norwich’s key players over the past five seasons, with 56 goals in 156 matches in all competitions.

Sargent has been training with the Norwich reserves since he refused to play against Walsall in an FA Cup match for transfer-related reasons. This is a big year for him as he looks to make the US men’s national team for the World Cup.

With the club also adding Dániel Sallói this week from Sporting Kansas City—who looked solid in his TFC debut—there is reason to believe that the attack will be far more dynamic this season.

Time will tell on the quality of what Toronto FC are cheffing up, but there’s no doubt that the bill is once again expensive.

With five straight losses for the Canadian women’s national team to end 2025, it felt like something had to change to start 2026.

Well, Casey Stoney’s first squad of the new year for the 2026 SheBelieves Cup is evidence of just that, with key national team veterans Ashley Lawrence and Adriana Leon left out among seven changes from the final squad of last year. Assistant coach Natalie Henderson also announced her departure from the team on Friday.

Canada begin the tournament on Sunday, March 1 against Colombia in Nashville, take on the United States on Wednesday, March 4 in Columbus, and then finishes up against Argentina on Saturday, March 7 in Harrison, New Jersey.

Among the new players in camp, Brooklyn Courtnall earned her first-ever call-up following her first season in the NWSL, split between North Carolina Courage and Bay FC. Cloé Lacasse also returns after a long time out with injury, and exciting young star Annabelle Chukwu gets the call as well.

This is also the most NSL-heavy Canada squad of all time, with Kaylee Hunter, DB Pridham (and she can play this time), Melissa Dagenais, and Holly Ward all repping the national league. Emma Regan, who recently moved to Denver Summit from AFC Toronto, is there as well. National league to national team, things we love to see.

There will be a lot of eyes on the Canadian team at the tournament, in particular, that US game. After being played off the park by the States this summer, they have to show a response and progress in this one.

Six games down, and only one goal scored for Canadian clubs in the Concacaf Champions Cup, and it was from the penalty spot.

Another tough week of action began in Hamilton, where Atlético Ottawa were playing their home leg of the tournament because TD Place was unavailable due to construction. In their first-ever Concacaf match, against Nashville SC, Atlético Ottawa certainly had chances.

However, they were haunted in the end by a former foe, Woobens Pacius, who, as one of Forge FC’s all-time leading goal-scorers, was incredibly comfortable in his old stomping grounds in Hamilton, and opened the scoring. The real dagger came in two parts: a clearance off the line on a great chance from Kamron Habibullah, before Nashville SC added a second away goal late from star scorer Sam Surridge.

Now they have the really tough prospect of travelling down to Geodis Park in Nashville, where the home side tends to be pretty locked in, and getting a multi-goal win on Tuesday (8 p.m. ET / PT on OneSoccer). If there’s anything we know about Atleti, they aren’t gonna sit back in the second leg.

The Whitecaps will be a little happier with their result as they went on the road to Cartaginés and drew 0-0. But with 75 per cent possession, they surely would have loved to have bagged an away goal and given themselves an advantage heading back to Vancouver this Wednesday.

Elsewhere, Canadians did ball out for LAFC, particularly Stephen Eustáquio who was pulling the strings in midfield during a 6-1 win over Real España. He was then replaced by Mathieu Choinière in the 62nd minute. Jacob Shaffelburg remains out injured.

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🇩🇪 Alphonso Davies is hurt again ☹ We all felt that. When Alphonso Davies fell to the pitch, kit over his face in the 50th minute of Bayern Munich’s match against Eintracht Frankfurt, it felt like here we go again. It has since been revealed that he suffered a torn muscle fibre in his right hamstring. Thankfully, it could have been worse, as German publication Bild is reporting that the timeline for injury return is three weeks. What that means for Canada’s games at the end of March, crucial friendlies for his reintegration into the squad, is another big question mark.

🇧🇪 Promise David stretchered off. What a rough weekend for Canadians. The same day of Alphonso’s injury, David suffered an even scarier injury in USG’s win over Antwerp. The good news? He was released from the hospital after the initial scans showed no fractures. He, however, will be going through additional tests to determine the exact nature of his injury. Fingers crossed, because there’s no question he is Canada’s most in-form striker right now. For him, the March window looks in serious doubt.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Jayde Riviere limps down the tunnel. And if it wasn’t bad enough, the NT had a hat-trick of injuries as Riviere was forced off in United’s win over London City early in the week. With how frequent they’ve become, we’re hoping this one won’t be major.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Olivia Smith helped off. We’re running out of space on the physio tables, and ways to talk about injuries. Liv was also carried off via stretcher in Arsenal’s FA Cup tie against Bristol City on Sunday after landing in a heap following a Gunners free kick. While we wish they’re wrong, early signs aren’t looking good, especially with SheBelieves just around the corner.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Kadeisha Buchanan is back. There was one KB-sized silver lining for Chelsea and the CanWNT. The centreback saw her first minutes on the pitch with the Blues’ U21s earlier in the week and on Sunday, returned for the first-team after 469 days on the sidelines to much applause. Baby steps.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿Simi Awujo scores. And now fully onto the good news! Awujo found herself free on the doorstep in United’s 2-1 loss to Chelsea on Sunday, sweeping home the Red Devils’ consolation in front of the travelling support.

🇮🇹 Évelyne Viens is automatic. When will Serie A defenders learn to not leave Viens unmarked? We’re not sure, but we’re also not complaining. Év broke away at the back stick to poach the only goal in a 1-0 win over Inter.

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🌊 The Whitecaps start the season with a dub. Vancouver started the season with a home opener against Real Salt Lake. The Caps walked out of BC Place with a 1-0 win. Aziel Jackson made his mark with a banger in front of the Southsiders. Good day.

🔴 TFC supporters, don’t be too sad. Toronto FC opened the season away at Texas against FC Dallas. This five-goal game ended 3-2 in favour for Dallas. Despite the loss, TFC showed character and long-term potential. The Djordje Milhailovic and Jonathan Osorio combination is a beautiful thing.

🔵 Bad day for CF MTL. So it begins once again. CF MTL start the season with a shocking 5-0 loss to San Diego. This was a tough way to start the season, especially against a team that had finished in the West Coast semifinals last season. For MTL, this is another year of rebuild but patience from the fan base had already been thin to begin with.

🦩 Dayne St. Clair conceded three. The biggest game of the weekend did not miss. A big victory from LAFC with Stephen Eustaquio, along with Son Heung-Min and Denis Bouanga balling out. Unfortunately for Dayne, this meant the season opener resulted in a 3-0 loss. A rough way to start the season and Messi chased the refs to their dressing room.

🟣 Maxime Crépeau with a strong performance. It is no secret that Crépeau and St. Clair are competing for the #1 spot on the national team. This past weekend, Max had the better weekend. Despite the 2-1 loss against the New York Red Bulls, Crépeau had a brilliant individual performance. Orlando City’s new keeper registered 11 saves out of 17 shot and conceding two. Not a bad day on an individual level.

🔴 TFC is not done shopping. TFC have landed the signatures of Emilio Aristizabal, Raheem Edwards and Daniel Salloi. Aristizabal will be loaned out to TFC for hte season from Colombian top-flight club Atletico Nacional. Toronto mans Edwards returns to the Six after a stint at the New York Red Bulls. TFC have landed the signature of Salloi from Sporting Kansas City for $1 million in GAM with a sell-on %.

🇦🇹 TFC youth to Austria? A transfer rumour has emerged that TFC academy prospect Elijah Roche is nearing a move to Austrian top-division club SK Sturm Graz. Another rumour has been speculating that Bournemouth has been interested in Roche.

➡️ MAK on the move. Mark Anthony-Kaye is on the move out of MLS and into the USL. As reported by Tom Bogert, the CanMNT midfielder has been signed by Sacramento Republic after spending a season with MLS club San Jose Earthquakes.

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🦝 Inter Toronto signed Tomasz Skublak. The Nine-Stripes have landed the signature of the Canadian forward for the 2026 season. Skublak had featured in the inaugural season for the Halifax Wanderers and has since played in the Ontario Premier League, formerly known as the League1 Ontario.

🔱 Pacific FC signed Taras Gomulka. The Tridents have landed the signature of the Aussie box-to-box midfielder Gomulka for the 2026 season with an option for 2027.

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This week’s FanDuel fan of the week is Olu Alege. We spoke with the Bronx-based Nigerian-American for What’s it to Ya? You can read the interview here.