May 19th Edition

Happy Holiday Monday!

We hope y’all were able to fit in a bit of footy into your holiday weekend, because the footy was good this weekend… unless you are a CF Montréal or Pacific FC supporter.

A few Canadians celebrated League title wins, CanWNT announced another home friendly, Jonathan David played his last game for Lille, and the Canadian Classique turned ugly.

All that plus plenty more ahead in this week’s edition of The Northern Pitch.

In this week's edition:

• 🤔 Where next for Jonathan David?

• 🏆 CanChamp quarter-finals kick off

• 🍁 CPL quarter-season standings

• 🔴 Another Canadian Classique

• 🌍 Canucks Abroad

• 🏡 Canucks at Home

• ⚽️ Canadian MLS updates

• 📰 In Other News

CanMNT

🤔 Where next for Jonathan David?

The Decision: Canada Soccer edition.

Jonathan David made it official this week, thanking Lille for everything the club has done for him during his incredible five seasons with Les Dogues. During that time, he won Ligue 1 in 2020-21, and scored 109 goals in 232 matches in all competitions.

Now, he’s gonna get paid on the free agent market, as he can essentially choose which club he would like to sign for, as one of the most prolific strikers in Europe over the past few years.

Per reporting from TSN’s Matthew Scianitti, David’s decision is close and could come as soon as the next two to three weeks. At the moment, Napoli are the club that has submitted a formal offer, but there is said to be interest from multiple top clubs including (but not limited to): AC Milan, Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Juventus, Manchester United and Liverpool.

Which club he chooses—essentially whether or not it is a club involved in the Club World Cup, and how quickly that decision comes—will have a big impact on David’s potential involvement in the Gold Cup this summer, per Scianitti.

This is the biggest transfer story of the summer in Canadian soccer.

CanChamp

🏆 CanChamp quarter-finals kick off this week

It is quarter-final kickoff week in the Canadian Championship as three of the four matchups take place midweek.

It all starts in Hamilton on Tuesday, where for the fifth straight year, CF Montréal take on Forge FC. Montréal were eliminated by Forge last season over two legs in the quarter-finals and will be desperate for revenge.

Later that night, three-time defending Canadian Champions Vancouver Whitecaps enter the fray, as they travel to Winnipeg to take on Valour FC. On paper, the Winnipeg side look heavily outmatched, but with the Whitecaps in the midst of five games in 15 days before their 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup final against Cruz Azul, what kind of Caps team will show up in Winnipeg?

Then on Wednesday, out west, Vancouver FC host defending CPL champions Cavalry FC. Fresh off their first-ever Canadian Championship win in the Salish Sea DARBY, can Vancouver FC take care of business again or will Cavalry continue to dominate the BC club?

The fourth quarter-final, between Atlético Ottawa and York United, kicks off on June 11. The second legs will all be played on July 8 & 9. All Canadian Championship action is available live on OneSoccer.

CPL

🍁 CPL quarter-season standings

Half of the CPL’s teams have reached the quarter mark for games played, so we think it’s a good time to have a little report card session to see how things stand.

The story of this year so far is undoubtedly Atlético Ottawa. After years of playing defensive footy, Atleti are pure vibes right now. 22 goals scored, 11 conceded, they don’t worry as much about defending because they will outscore you anyway. David Rodríguez is the truth, with four goals and four assists already. Sammy ‘salt bae’ Salter is leading the Golden Boot race, and undefeated Atleti sit at the top of the table with 17 points through seven games.

Defending regular season winners Forge FC, who were not in action this weekend, are the league’s only other undefeated side — but are struggling to find wins right now with four straight ties in the league.

The two sides played to a thrilling 2-2 draw in front of a CPL record crowd of 17,971 at Hamilton Stadium as part of Forge FC’s second annual school day game. There is a lot of football left to be played this season, but it feels like there will be more important matches between the two Ontario rivals ahead in 2025.

After a slow start to the season, going winless in April, defending Champions Cavalry FC have hit their stride and are now up into third place after three straight victories. The usual suspects, Tobias Warchewski and Ali Musse, are leading the charge up the table.

Meanwhile, the Halifax Wanderers have finally found a way to win on the road, and with three road victories already this year, they are second in the table. A new-look backline led by Thomas Meilleur-Giguère and goalkeeper Rayane Yesli is making all the difference.

The league’s two BC clubs, meanwhile, have been fairly inconsistent. After a good start to the year, Pacific FC have been rocked by injuries, and have just one win in its past five matches. Vancouver FC, meanwhile, are still struggling to find goals despite having the top two goal scorers in CPL history in their lineup.

At the bottom end of the table, Valour FC picked up their first victory of the season after going winless in their first five games, 2-1 over York United.

The loss dropped York United into last place, as the Nine Stripes are having a rather frustrating start to life under new head coach Mauro Eustáquio. Despite some good performances and scoring first in five of their seven matches, they keep letting opponents back into games — and have not won since their opening match of the season.

There is a lot of time still for things to change, but these are the first impressions these sides have left during what has already been a thrilling CPL campaign.

MLS

🔴 Another Canadian Classique

Weird context. Both clubs enter their first 2025 MLS Canadian Classique with the worst start of the campaign, with both teams at the bottom of the East. Perhaps more depressing than weird. One Northern Pitch editor referred to this match as “El Trashico.” We say, oui.

Montreal entered the Darby in better form. CFM have knocked out TFC in the CanChamps and have earned four points in their last two MLS games. TFC have earned three points in the last two MLS games and also were knocked out at home in the CanChamps against their arch rivals. On paper, MTL entered this game in better form, but Toronto has an in-form Sean Johnson.

Rain or shine, vibe on point. Stade Saputo never disappoints in big games. Due to the severe thundershowers the morning of, there were empty seats. Despite that, the stadium was alive. Tifo, tension among supporters, a loud TFC section, the vibe was good until…

Joel Waterman received a red card. MTL had conceded a goal in the 14th minute after a Tyrese Spicer solo run. Soon after, Ola Brynhildsen turned on Joel Waterman, and the defender took down the Norwegian. Waterman was given a red card in the 21st minute for denying a goal-scoring opportunity. One can debate if that was straight red or yellow, but it doesn’t change what happened. Things went south for CF MTL from then on.

Toronto FC went brazy. The boys in red took advantage and attacked with venom. Bernadeschi scored in the 30th, and Ola Brynhildsen found the net in the 33rd. Despite being a man down, MTL showed character and had moments of positivity in the first half, but that changed in the second.

We want seven! Montréal had managed to salvage a goal in the 64th minute, but at that point, Toronto had already scored four goals. Soon after, Theo Corbeanu scored two more goals to seal the game at 6-1. The TFC away end were chanting for seven goals. CFM continued attacking, but the team was defeated.

MTL had no answers. Bleu-Blanc-Noir looked convincing in moments of the game and brought them to Toronto. Giacomo Vrioni and Luca Petrasso were dangerous, but in the end, it wasn’t enough.

CanChamp revenge. The Darby is an eternal rivalry with the motivation of revenge living in perpetuity. For TFC, being knocked out of the CanChamps at BMO Field was embarrassing. To come to Quebec and humiliate CFMTL 6-1 at Stade Saputo brings MLS’s best Darby full circle.

Also, happy birthday Theo Corbeanu.

Canucks Abroad

🌍 Canucks Abroad

🇫🇷 Vanessa Gilles leaves Lyon as a champion. OL faced-off against PSG in the league final of the Premiere Ligue. French giants Lyon dispatched PSG 3-0 to lift the title. For Vanessa Gilles, this is her third straight league title with Lyon and she was honoured by the club for her service. Gilles will no longer continue with Lyon with it being rumoured that she is headed to Bayern Munich.

🇮🇹 Tajon Buchanan returning to Inter. For those who forgot, TJ is on loan from Inter Milan to Villarreal with an option for a permanent move. It has been reported that the Yellow Submarine are not interested in securing a permanent move for Buchanan. At least he returns a CL finalist club.

🇪🇸 Tajon Buchanan scored against Barcelona. And, before he departed Villarreal, he had one final gift for the Yellow Submarine. TJ drew Baywatch comparisons (yes, really), after delivering UCL football to the club with an 80th-minute winner in a 3-2 final against the Catalan giants. Talk about picking your moments.

🇫🇷 David for a David? As Jonathan David has officially announced his departure from Lille, Les Dogues are reportedly interested in acquiring another Canadian David, Promise David. The young Canadian forward has been impressing in the Belgian league and could follow in the footsteps of JD. Strasbourg and Stade Rennais are also reportedly interested in PD.

🇧🇪 Also Promise David scored. Union Saint-Gilloise travelled to Royal Antwerp and defeated the home club 4-0. Promise David scored in the 83rd minute. PD now has 22 goals this season.

🇫🇷 Kone scored his second goal of the season. Rennes travelled to Marseille and guess who scored the first goal? Ismael Kone in the 14th minute scored a banger against the club that had loaned him out. Despite Rennes losing 4-2, he is making a statement. Habib Beye is keen on retaining Kone as his loan spell comes to an end.

🇪🇸 Cyle Larin also finds the back of the net. TJ also wasn’t the only Canadian to score in LaLiga this week. Larin found his seventh of the season to go with two assists for Mallorca this campaign. The only unfortunate thing was the goal was only consolation in a 2-1 loss to Getafe.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Alistair Johnston assist. Celtic have already won the league but have decided to pull a Liverpool and still concede points. They must be hungover. No matter, Alistair Johnston has earned himself an assist in the stoppage time to salvage Celtic a 1-1 draw against St. Mirren. This is AJ’s 10th assist of the season.

🥀 Mimi Alidou assist. The Portland Thorns travelled to Texas to face-off against the Houston Dash in the NWSL. The home side were handled a 4-1 loss against Jessie Fleming and Marie-Yasmine Alidou’s Thorns. The former Benfica midfielder was featured in the starting lineup and registered an assist.

🪽 Tani Oluwaseyi with a goal and an assist. It was that kind of night for Minnesota. The clock struck Tani Time after a brief midweek pause with a cool backheel flick for the opener against Kyle Hiebert’s St. Louis. Oluwaseyi also assisted Joaquín Pereyra as the Loons won out, 3-0.

Follow Canucks Abroad on Twitter, Bluesky and Instagram.

Canucks at Home

🏡 Canucks at Home

👀 Triston Blackmon to be a Canuck? Jeff Carlisle has reported on ESPN that Jesse Marsch has been courting Californian Tristan Blackmon into the CanMNT fold. The former LAFC defender has been with the Vancouver Whitecaps for the past four years but has not been called up to the USMNT. Carlisle has given the way in which Blackmon could potentially earn his Canadian citizenship and therefore join the CanMNT — though he’ll also still have to meet FIFA’s residency requirements.

🇨🇦 CanWNT to host Costa Rica at BMO Field. Canada Soccer announced this week that Costa Rica will be the visitors for this year’s Pride Celebration Match. The game has been set for June 27th in Toronto — the weekend of the Toronto Pride Parade — and five days before the already-scheduled July 2nd battle against the USA. Canada drew 1-1 with Mexico in last year’s edition.

🪽Ottawa Rapid routs Vancouver Rise to start the weekend. DB Pridham had the hosts off to a quick start on Thursday, taking the lead in the Golden Boot race with a brace. Vancouver struggled to contain the Rapid’s counter with Ellen Gibson spraying perfect through-balls left and right. Julia Benati wrapped up the day for a 3-0 finale.

🌆 AFC Toronto scores early to win in Halifax. It hasn’t been a great start to the season for the Tides. Halifax’s team continued their winless start, though looked much better once again as the game went on. AFC Toronto shut it down unlike last weekend, making sure that Colby Barnett’s early back-post finish led to a 1-0 win and the team’s first clean sheet.

🦉 Calgary Wild top Montréal Roses at McMahon. Sunday saw the Wild secure their first home win, defeating the league leaders Montréal Roses, 1-0. The result was a pretty deserved one for the hosts too, dominating on chances but lacking the finish. Jenaya Robertson would turn that around in the 86th minute with a Goal of the Month candidate and absolute screamer off the post. Chills.

Follow Canucks At Home on Twitter, Bluesky and Instagram.

MLS

🍁 Canadian MLS updates

There’s been mid-week action in MLS for CF Montreal and Toronto FC.

🔵 CF Montreal are still looking for their first home win. MTL are still searching for their first home win. After a positive result away at NYCFC, CFM were held to a 1-1 draw against Columbus Crew. Considering the opposition, this is not the worst result. MTL’s first half was positive and played great football. The lead up to Luca Petrasso’s goal is of European standards. However, the second half left much to be desired. The Crew’s only goal came in a bad back pass from Dawid Bugaj.

🔴 Toronto FC's good vibes ended abruptly. Just when things seemed like they were looking up, TFC were handed a 1-0 loss to Eastern Conference top boys FC Cincinnati. Given the scoreline, this isn’t the worst result. The goal the boys in red conceded should have been prevented, but TFC’s forward line could not produce against a well-disciplined Cincinnati defence.

🌊 Vancouver held to a draw in Texas. The Caps travelled south to face off against mid-table Austin FC. This was not the most exciting game as both sides were held to a 0-0 draw. Credit to Los Verdes, who pressed the Caps and had a well-disciplined defensive line. For Vancouver, despite the draw, they maintain their spot at the top of the conference. Their focus is on the upcoming CanChamps match against Valour this Tuesday.

Other News

📰 In Other News

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 U21 Wrexham to play against the U21 Wanderers. The newly Championship promoted Welsh club will travel to Canada again. This year, Wrexham’s U21 will play against Halifax Wanderer’s U21 a in three friendlies in Halifax (July 5th), Charlottetown, (July 9th) and Saint John (July 12th).

💼 Vancouver hosts 76th FIFA Congress. FIFA president Gianni Infantino has confirmed in the 75th FIFA congress in Paraguay that Vancouver will host conference in 2026. The yearly conference is considered the most important non competition events. All 211 FIFA members meet yearly as the congress is a vital business meeting and also a “festival” of sorts.