Kia Ora Picnic Day – Sunday September 10, 2023

_{Featured Image Credit: Canadian Premier League}

Picture this: It’s May 2006. You’re watching rugby on the TV. Not just any game, the Super Rugby Final, Crusaders versus Hurricanes. Both teams have been indeniably on-form, and are both leaps and bounds ahead of any other team. This is the most anticipated rugby game of 2006. But when you flick on the television you can barely see anything. Half the field is coated in a thick haze, the commentators sound clueless, and any time the ball is kicked, nobody, not even the players, know where it’s gone. It’s the Final In The Fog.

Canada might not have their “Fog Final,” but they do have their −1 °C “icicle kick” scored in the 2025 CPL final. A final that will go down cult history as it was played in a snowstorm.

Canada’s penultimate football/soccer competition might not initially be on your radar as a newcomer to the country, especially as a Kiwi. After all, there’s ice hockey, Canadian football, lacrosse, baseball and so many other sports that aren’t popular back home to enjoy. This was certainly my attitude when I recieved free tickets to my first game on James Street in Hamilton, Ontario. After attending several games now, I can share with you that this is in fact a competition worth watching, and will give those missing their A League fix a great opportunity to watch football at a better price than Major League Soccer or the International game.

While football might not be on every New Zealanders radar. Admittedly, it’s been almost three years since I’ve supported my local team, the Wellington Phoenix, back when Eden Park and Auckland were considered a second home base, it’s currently incredibly topical, particularly for those of us in North America.

New Zealand football touched down in Toronto in June last year for the Canadian Shield Tournament, bringing countries together from four different continents, the All Whites found themseves underdogs against African and European heavy hitters Côte d’Ivoire and Ukraine. In a shock turn of events, the Kiwis toppled the at the time reigning African champions, finishing the tournament in second place after a narrow loss to Ukraine. It was a phenominal spectacle

Combined with the impending World Cup which will see the All Whites play two of their pool matches in Vancouver, Canada, against Belgium and Egypt, and further matches south of the border such as their pool match against Iran and warm-up against the formiddable English, the number of North American has dominated the mind of New Zealand sports fans living in this part of the world all year.

While the All Blacks taking on the Springboks in Baltimore, Maryland will be a battle for the ages, Sail GP coming to Halifax, Nova Scotia and the Sevens getting tournaments in Vancouver, BC and New York (Actually, New Jersey!) are all incredibly exciting, this year is certainly the year of football, soccer, whatever you’d like to call it. But with the first matches not until June, where can you get your fix in the meantime? The answer is the CPL.

What is the Canadian Premier League?

The Canadian Premier League (CPL) is the second flight of Canadian football, and the largest competition solely played in Canada. It sits behind only Canada’s three Major League Soccer (MLS) teams based in Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver. Major League Soccer is likely more well-known to those from outside of Canada, and has fielded some exciting results in recent history, such as Toronto FC’s record-setting championship season in 2017, and just as of last year, the Vancouver Whitecaps made the final.

While the MLS is an exciting competition, the CPL is a suprising dark horse that can often be seen as a feeder for these three clubs, but in reality, is so much more. The CPL consists of eight clubs spread all accross Canada, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Most kiwis are lucky to be concentrated in British Columbia and Ontario, the only provinces with multiple teams. BC field teams in Vancouver, and Victoria on Vancouver Island, meanwhile there is a team to watch in Ontario if you live in or nearby Hamilton, Ottawa, or last but certainly not least, Toronto.

So what makes this league worth a watch? Aside from the typically far cheaper tickets (Although certain teams with strong followings such as the Halifax Wanderers and Forge FC are slightly more expensive), it’s often just great football to watch, and there will be a team that you can get behind with a style that resonates with you. The previously mentioned Forge FC of Hamilton, alongside Calgary’s Cavalry and Ottawa’s Atlético are certainly reminiscent in terms of their organisation to that of your favourite Auckland FC and Wellington Phoenix. These clubs were the top three performers in 2025 by a country mile. If you’re more into scrappy, shin bruising, Fielding High School Second XI type of football, then one of the ragtag groups from Inter Toronto FC or Pacific FC might be your team to get behind.

This is however, the biggest drawback to the competition at present. In seven seasons thus far, the Hamilton’s Forge FC has dominated with four championships and three regular season wins. Who’s right behind them? Cavalry and Atlético. It’s a story we’ve heard before in football competitions around the world, such as the Scottish Premiership giving us what feels like half a century of Glaswegian dominance, with Celtic and Rangers passing titles to eachother like it’s a tennis match. With only in 2026, Edinburgh’s Hearts are looking like the first team in decades to challenge that duopoly. The difference between the Canadians and the Scots? There is distinct heritage, investment and cult followings behind each and every one of them. It’s not to say that football clubs in the home islands don’t run into financial trouble, or even go into slumps that their supporters rue the day they reminisce, but more often than not, they bounce back.

Just like many other fledling North American sports leagues in the last decade, the Canadian Premier League, founded in 2019, has already seen several clubs change hands, fold and be reborn, or just cease to exist permanently. Out of all the clubs present in the 2026 season I can safely say only half are likley to be secure in their future as a football franchise in Canada, even last year, due to low attendance and interest, Winnipeg concluded the season for the last time, denying the league an opportunity to have a record eight teams with the introduction of Montreal’s FC Supra du Québec. It’s worth noting that fan speculation on the internet rarely had Winnipeg in mind for a potential team to fold in 2025, with the West Coast teams in particular possibly on the chopping block in the future, if you ask a typical Instagram or Reddit commenter.

In amongst all these trials and tribulations though, you get some brilliant football, and for the first time ever, the Canadian Premier League rocked global headlines with their final last year.

The 2025 CPL Final: Cavalry FC v Atlético Ottawa

The 2025 season finished in what some might call a typical fashion for the league. Hamilton’s Forge FC won the regular season title, sitting in a comfortable first, and comfortable favourites. Then the unexpected happened, Ottawa, then Calgary, both travelled to the Hammer and won difficult away games to knock out the title favourites and set the stage for the Ottawa to host the CPL final for the second time in their clubs short history.

Atlético Ottawa, founded by Atlético Madrid in 2020, had the homefield advantage, and the advantage of being able to draw players from Madrid’s network of clubs they own around the world, Auckland FC getting a leg up thanks to Bournemouth, if you will. The Team also featured 29 year old New Zealander Monty Patterson, who after a couple seasons with amateaur and semi-professional teams back home, found himself in Ottawa for the 2025 season.

Cavalry FC, one of the founding clubs of the CPL, also looked on-form and had won the previous year in another upset win over the Forge FC. While certainly not favourites in the matchup, with a previous win and two regular season titles under their belt, the Cavalry had the accolades to suggest there would certainly be fight in them. Invercargill born midfielder Jay Herdman is the closest a New Zealander got to Cavalry’s finals squad, unfortunately placed on loan to Vancouver FC toward the end of the season.

Thirteen thousand fans entered Ottawa’s TD Place, just narrowly falling short of the finals attendance record the city had previously set a few years prior, warm jackets, toques and gloves covering the jerseys of supporters. It’s worth noting that many of these fans would have been learning that they even had a CPL team for the first time! Probably a better watch than Ottawa’s capitulation to Toronto in the Stanely Cup playoffs that year.

Prepare for some deja vu, and some brain freeze. Snowy conditions meant that there was a potential need to postpone the game, but as with a certain final in 2006, two decades on, they decided to press on. Even as the teams exited the tunnels, the football field was covered in a white blanket of snow.

The game kicked off with some real tenacity from both sides, but whether it was the subzero temperatures, the snow on the field, the stop-start nature of the game as they cleared the field, or the crowd presence, the errors kept building up. It’s hard to say who was in control. Ottawa looked particularly strong on the attack, with Mexican-born David Rodríguez shooting on target and exploiting Cavalry FC’s errors, but David, alongside the rest of Ottawa’s attack, couldn’t connect the ball in the net, the snow clearly adding drag to their boots and the ball, sending it in all sorts of directions.

What Cavalry FC lacked in star power and an ability to capitalise on errors, they made up for with a burning desire to maintain possession at all costs, sacraficing field position to hold on to the ball occasionally. Their greed did in fact, eventually work in their favour. Cavalry’s Fraser Aird struck a penalty in the box which was by no means glamorous, but might go down in history as one of the worst keeper efforts by Ottawa’s captain and keeper, Nathan Ingham. The ball thumped and barged along the snow at a snails pace, like an Antarctic icebreaker, or one of those underarm bowls you do for your youngest nephew in backyard cricket, yet Cavalry FC now held the advantage.

After Cavalry celebrations finished up, in amongst a hail of snowballs from the upset crowd, play was resumed and a fire was lit in both teams. Ottawa’s David Rodríguez, several attempts later, finally had fortune favour him in the antithesis to Aird’s penalty, sent an extrodinary bicycle kick into Cavalry’s net off a disorganised corner that was so magnificent, it has rightfully earned it’s title of the “icicle kick” around the world and is possibly the greatest goal ever scored in the Canadian Premier League.

While filed with elation, the snow kept Ottawa or Calgary from capitalising on thier respective goals. The Snow maintained it’s authority on the field for the remainder of the half, and well into the second half. Toward the end of the second, patches of green could finally be seen, and the pace properly picked up, not before the game could go into extra time.

This is when we could finally see the talents of the attack on full display, as the first one-hundred-and-fifty minutes of this three hour battle had been dominated by stalward defensive efforts from both sides, Ottawa’s Roni Mbomio, Noah Abatneh and Loïc Cloutier certainly standout players. But all glory to the plucky Mexican, on loan from another “Atlético” with the last laugh, chipping another beautifully controlled strike, with the only other in the game being his previous goal, straight over the keeper to seal the game for the home side. Ottawa were 2025 CPL champions.

This game alone, makes this league worth watching. The weather a metaphor for the play that for five minutes might look like you’re watching Liverpool take on Chelsea, then the next twenty make you think the Chatham Islands might field a better team. It’s scrappy, it’s hard work, and my goodness it’s a beautiful game.

So, while we wait for the All Whites to arrive on Turtle Island, get out their and go support your local CPL team! You never know, you might get to see some absurdity from David Rodríguez if you’re lucky!

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Current Clubs
Atlético Ottawa – Ottawa, Ontario
Cavalry FC – Calgary, Alberta
Forge FC – Hamilton, Ontario
Halifax Wanderers FC – Halifax, Nova Scotia
Inter Toronto FC – Toronto, Ontario
Pacific FC – Victoria, British Columbia
FC Supra du Québec – Montreal, Quebec
Vancouver FC – Vancouver, British Columbia

2025 CPL Finals Highlights

^{_{Article by Joseph Simpson, 12th April 2026
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