Parity is what every sports league strives for but rarely achieves. The Canadian Premier League of soccer, however, has it in ample ways as seven of the eight teams still have a shot at the playoffs heading into the whiplash final weekend of the first round.
Only four points separates first place from seventh place in the incredibly bunched table as each team has one game remaining. Any number of scenarios are possible as teams look to capture one of four playoff positions amid the league bubble in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
The good thing for Pacific FC (2-2-2) is that it controls its own destiny. But it’s not as easy as win and you’re in against last-place FC Edmonton (0-5-1) on Sunday. PFC may need to win by multiple goals in case it comes to tie-breakers. The first tie-breaker is head-to-head results. But it’s looking as if there could be multi-team logjams that may need to be broken. In that case, it will come down to goal differential followed by goals scored followed by number of wins, followed by most minutes played by players under 21. If those can’t settle it, there will a coin toss.
If there’s one takeaway heading into the final weekend, play to the final whistle. Atletico Ottawa’s 1-0 victory Thursday over PFC in the 90th minute was the 16th goal – of the 63 scored in the tournament – that was tallied at 85 minutes or later. Two of those have gone against PFC and one for it as the basketball-type whistle-beaters have changed the complexion of the tournament.
Meanwhile, it was announced that CHEK-TV will pick up the online feed from OneSoccer to broadcast PFC’s crucial encounter against FC Edmonton on Sunday beginning at 11:30 a.m. PDT. That follows an equally-key game Sunday between HFX of Halifax and Atletico Ottawa.
Both Saturday games are also important – Forge FC of Hamilton versus Valour FC of Winnipeg at 9 a.m. and Cavalry FC of Calgary against York9 at noon – and will be broadcast nationally on CBC. All times are PDT.
The CPL tournament, meanwhile, has also be seen in some far-flung and unexpected locales thanks to its production deal with Spanish giant MediaPro. The first round has been broadcast on Fox Sports 2 and Fox Soccer Plus in the U.S. and Caribbean, the 1Sports channel in India and the pan-African digital TV platform StarTimes.
cdheensaw@timescolonist.com