CPL playoffs preview: What you need to know

The 2024 Canadian Premier League regular season came down to the wire last weekend with three teams vying for the last available playoff spot. 

In the end, Pacific FC beat out Valour FC and Vancouver FC for the fifth and final post-season berth in the eight-team league. Valour’s loss on the last day of the campaign meant it collected the dreaded wooden spoon for finishing in last place, just behind Halifax Wanderers FC and Vancouver. 

With the regular season now out of the way, the CPL turns its attention to the playoffs, where five clubs will be vying to be crowned league champions. 

Here’s what you need to know about the 2024 CPL playoffs. 

Not a traditional post-season format 

For the second year in a row, the CPL will use a unique playoff system to crown its champion. 

Fourth-place York United will host fifth-place Pacific FC (from Victoria, B.C.) at York Lions Stadium on Wednesday night. The winner advances to the quarter-final, where it will play third-place Atlético Ottawa on Oct. 27 at TD Place Stadium in the nation's capital. 

On the same day, table toppers Forge FC (Hamilton) will play second-place finisher Cavalry FC (Calgary) at Tim Hortons Field. The winner of that game will stage the CPL Final on Nov. 9. The loser gets a second chance and will host the winner of the quarter-final matchup on Nov. 2 in the semifinals. 

What’s at stake 

The winner of the CPL Final will lift the North Star Cup as 2024 CPL Champions. It will also earn a berth in the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup, North America’s premier club competition. 

Forge FC seeking a third straight title 

Forge FC enters the CPL playoffs as the heavy favourite. Coach Bobby Smyrniotis’ side lifted the CPL Shield as regular season champions by topping the table with 15 wins and 50 points from 28 games. Forge is looking to win an unprecedented third consecutive North Star Cup, and fifth in six years. Since the CPL’s inaugural season in 2019, only Pacific FC (in 2021) has been able to disrupt Forge’s reign of complete domestic dominance. 

Forge boasted the league's best attack (45 goals scored) in 2024, and was tied with Ottawa for the second-best defence in the league (31 goals against). Influential midfielders Kyle Bekker and Tristan Borges are coming off MVP-calibre years for the club from Steeltown that will host the CPL Final if it beats Cavalry this weekend. With a record of 11-1-2, Forge was the best home team in the league during the regular season. 

But Forge will have to overcome adversity in order to three-peat. Mexican fullback Daniel Parra, another MVP candidate, was hit with a three-game ban for violent conduct in 2-0 home loss to Ottawa earlier this month. He’s already sat out one match, and unless Forge wins the appeal to overturn his suspension, the Mexican defender could miss the entire post-season. 

Can Cavalry FC finally get over the hump? 

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. That just about sums up Cavalry FC’s playoff fortunes, having lost to Forge in the CPL Finals in 2019 and 2023, and bowing out in the semifinals in 2021 and 2022. 

Coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr.’s team suffered the fewest losses (four) during the regular season en route to a second-place finish. Had it been able to convert a few of their league-leading 12 draws into wins, it would’ve pipped Forge for the CPL Shield. 

Nevertheless, Cavalry will feel confident going into the playoffs thanks to a five-match unbeaten streak and with just one loss in their last 14 matches of the regular season. Buoyed by league top scorer Tobias Warschewski and top-rated defender Daan Klomp, the Calgary-based club could finally get over the hump this year and win its first North Star Cup. 

Atlético Ottawa had Forge’s number in regular season 

If there’s one team that stands the best chance of denying Forge a third consecutive league title, it just might be Atlético Ottawa. 

Forge suffered only eight regular season losses in 2024 — three of those defeats were against Ottawa, including a 2-0 setback at Tim Hortons Field on Oct 12. Ottawa was the only team that had a winning record against Forge this season.  

Swiss forward Rubén del Campo had a breakout campaign for Ottawa, scoring 11 goals and tallying two assists, while Canadian international Amer Didić anchored a back line that conceded just 31 times, tied for the second-best defensive record in the league. 

York United finally hosts a post-season match 

Wednesday’s showdown with Pacific FC will be the third playoff match in York United’s history, but it will be the first time it has hosted a post-season contest at York Lions Stadium. The Nine Stripes will also be vying for their first playoff win. 

After a sluggish start, Mexican coach Benjamin Mora was hired in June as a replacement for former Canadian international Martin Nash. York responded to the coaching change by earning a string of positive results from early June to mid-August before slumping across the finish line by winning just two of their last 10 matches. 

“This is one of those years where we realized we went through a lot to get here. But this year is where things started to go right. Not only for the individuals in the team, but also for this club,” York midfielder Elijah Adekugbe told the CPL website. 

Odds stacked against Pacific FC 

As the fifth-place team, Pacific will spend the entire playoffs on the road and won’t get to enjoy the comforts of home at Starlight Stadium in Langford, B.C. The Tridents struggled in their travels during the regular season, winning just three times and scoring a league-low 14 goals in 14 road matches. 

However, they’ll take confidence from the fact they earned a road win over Halifax Wanderers in last year’s playoffs, and that they suffered just two losses in their last eight matches of the 2024 regular season. They closed out their campaign with wins over York United and Forge FC. 

“We’ve done our job to get into the situation and I feel as if we are probably one of the most in-form teams going into the playoffs,” Pacific FC forward Dario Zanatta told the CPL website. 

Player to watch: Tobias Warschewski 

German forward Tobias Warschewski bagged a second-half brace in Cavalry’s 2-1 win over Valour FC in Winnipeg on Saturday to snatch the Golden Boot (league scoring title) from Ottawa’s Rubén del Campo grasp. Warschewski finished the regular season with 12 goals, and also led the CPL in several categories, including goal contributions (14) and shots on target (31). 

John Molinaro is one of the leading soccer journalists in Canada, having covered the game for over 25 years for several media outlets, including Sportsnet, CBC Sports and Sun Media. He is currently the editor-in-chief of TFC Republic, a website dedicated to in-depth coverage of Toronto FC and Canadian soccer.