This past week saw the countdown cross the 100-day threshold until the 2026 World Cup is contested on Canadian shores.

Across the board, it was another exciting week for the sport, with the women’s national team and U-20 team in action, potential groundbreaking rules coming to the CPL and plenty of Canadians balling out for their clubs.

Plus, another backline injury for CanMNT, Max Crépeau saw red and plenty more in this week’s edition of The Northern Pitch.

Canada concluded the 2026 SheBelieves Cup with some mixed feelings and mixed results.

On one hand, it was better. A 4-1 win over Colombia to open the tournament felt like a breath of fresh air for a program that sorely needed it. But it remains the only game that Canada has scored in since June. That’s seven of the last eight, donuts.

Canada did put up a good fight on Wednesday against one of the best teams in the World, the United States, losing a hard-fought match 1-0. The Americans were definitely the better team, but Canada showed good fight to limit their chances and make them truly earn that victory.

They then rotated against Argentina in their tournament finale, giving a senior national team debut to Kaylee Hunter, and first national team starts to Annabelle Chukwu and Brooklyn Courtnall. But a stingy Argentine side once again kept them off the board, in a 0-0 draw.

Canada did end up winning the penalty shootout at the end of the match, which is a good sign and good experience considering they have struggled in this regard as of late. They finished the tournament in second place.

Canada’s next matches come in April during the FIFA Women’s Series in Brazil. The hope will be that they can build on the positives of this camp, and continue to trend in the right direction before the crucial Concacaf W Championship at the end of the year.

Arsène Wenger’s dream is coming true in Canada.

The former legendary Arsenal manager has been at the forefront of a global movement for the daylight offside rule — during which an attacking player is only offside if his entire body is behind that of the last defender (i.e no ‘daylight’ between the players).

Now, according to multiple reports, we will be able to see what this rule looks like in practice in our own backyard. The Canadian Premier League has agreed to adopt the rule as FIFA’s pilot project for their upcoming season — providing an opportunity for the international federation to see what it looks like in action.

Whether you like the rule or not, think it will provide more scoring or just end up with the same marginal decisions as before, there is no question that this CPL season is going to once again draw international attention.

Reports also indicate that the program will come with Football Video Support (FSV). A lighter version of VAR, this allows each coach to make two. challenges per match, which calls the referee over to a pitch-side monitor and retains the same ‘clear and obvious’ standard.

As a young league entering just its eighth season, the CPL is a pretty ideal place to try this out before FIFA decides whether or not it wants to adopt Daylight Offside for wider use.

It was job done, but maybe not as emphatically as they would have liked.

Despite a 1-0 loss to Nicaragua in the capital city of Managua, Canada topped their group on goal difference. Big wins over the U.S. Virgin Islands (14-0) and Martinique (8-0) ended up being vital for Canada in that regard.

A 2-0 victory over Aruba, courtesy of late goals from Owen Graham-Roache and Dylan Judelson on Wednesday, proved a huge result as well. Both of Canada’s final two matches, however, were closer than they would have liked.

There were a few standout players for Canada, including Graham-Roache of CF Montréal who had five goals, Aidan Evans of Fulham who scored four times and Marsel Bibishkov of Septemvri Sofia in the Bulgarian top flight who led the team with six.

The lesson for this summer’s U-20 Concacaf Championship, then, is that they can’t take any games off, no matter the opposition.

Kicking off in July, it’s a big competition, one where they could qualify for the U-20 World Cup for the first time in two decades, as well as a spot at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic Games. Canada will learn its path at that 12-team competition at some point in the next few months.

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🇪🇸 Tajon Buchanan scores a worldie. TJ was back on top for Villarreal after a couple on-and-off months on Sunday. His opener against Elche in a 2-1 win is one that you absolutely have to check out. And it comes at a perfect time too, right before the March window.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Cyle Larin (and Saints) move on. Well, Cyle’s first couple months in Southampton red-and-white are going well, aren’t they. He started in Saints’ big 1-0 win over Premier League big boys Fulham to qualify for the quarterfinals of the FA Cup.

🇧🇪 Luc De Fougerolles injured. Canadian CBs are cursed. LDF had to exit Dender’s 2-2 draw with Charleroi before half-time after a last ditch tackle. TSN’s Matthew Scianitti reports it’s a swollen ankle, but still no timeline yet from club or country. Bummer.

🇧🇪 Prognosis from Promise David. The attitude is right in the David camp, despite surgery last week for a lower body injury that could take until the World Cup to heal. In a sideline interview with DAZN this week, he joked about forging his mom’s signatures in school. Yes, really.

🇩🇪 Alphonso Davies is back in training. Hopefully this is the last time we’ll have to say this in 2026, but Phonzie was back involved with his Bayern teammates this week after his latest injury. He wasn’t fit enough to be on the teamsheet vs Atalanta, but he might make it back in March yet.

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🌊 The Caps are rolling. The Whitecaps travelled to Portland to face-off Kamal Miller and James Pantemis in the Cascadia Darby. For the Timbers, this was a rough one as they were handed a 1-4 loss at home. For the Whitecaps, this is their third straight league win.

🔵CF MTL with a surprise win. On Sunday, CFM travelled to New Jersey to play against Michael Bradley’s New York Red Bull. Goals from Prince Owusu and a brace for Wiki Carmona sealed MTL’s 3-0 win over the Red Bull. First win of the season for Bleu-Blanc-Noir.

🔴 TFC complete the set. Who thought at the start of this week that all three Canadian teams would win? Probably not many, including us, but it happened this week. The Reds powered through in Cincy to hand FCC a 1-0 defeat through recent addition Daniel Salloi.

☀️ Staqs picked up an assist. The CanMNT midfielder is enjoying his career at LAFC. Last week, he scored a banger and this week he assisted LAFC’s first goal of the game. It was the only goal of the game as LAFC defeated Dallas 1-0.

🟥 Max was shown a red card. It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Crépeau. Last week, Orlando were handed an L against Miami and this week, they travelled to Yankee Stadium to face-off against NYCFC. This was another game to forget. Maxime was shown the a red card after handling the ball outside the box in the 18th minute. A rough way to start. NYCFC proceeded to defeat Orlando 5-0. Chin up Max!

🤔 Griezmann to MTL? The rumour mill has been buzzing around the Antoine Griezmann’s arrival to MLS. So far, the strongest rumour has been to Orlando City. However, there has been some momentum with the French World Cup winner landing in Montréal. It has been reported by Nilton Jorge, that CF MTL have contacted Griezmann’s team. With Atletico Madrid reaching the Copa Del Rey final, his move to Florida may not happen. We shall see. Patrice Bernier the only real way for MTL land Griezmann is if he rejects Orlando. One thing is for sure, MTL is hungry for a star and to bring in a French star is exactly what the club needs.

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🦅 Vancouver FC signed Isak Ssewankambo. VFC have locked in the 30-year-old Swedish defender through 2026 with an option for 2027. Ssewankambo arrives to Vancouver from Swedish club IF Brommapojkarna.

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This week’s FanDuel fan of the week is Erika Flores. We tapped in with the multi-media artist behind AFC Toronto’s secondary kit in this week’s What’s it to Ya? Check out the full interview here