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CPL In Review: Matchweek 1 – Right Out Of The Gates
By The 2025 Canadian Premier League season kicked off over the weekend, delivering four games, nine goals, and two red cards as fans braved wet weather aplenty to soak in what Canada’s top flight had to offer.
The results? Well, they’re not all the status quo – but any league’s opening day should pack a few surprises.
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Without further ado, let’s get into your weekly CPL recap. We won’t be analyzing each game in deep metrics here, but this should be enough to get you caught up on what unfolded around the league, with all the goals included:
Atletico Ottawa 2 – 2 Halifax Wanderers
The 2025 Canadian Premier League season opened in the nation’s capital, but it was the visiting Halifax Wanderers who looked a fine rising tide on the wet TD Place pitch: while both sides were keen to get forward, it was the visitors who first proved potent with a rocket from Giorgio Probo to open things up in the first half. The Wanderers looked to be setting sail after Sean Rea reignited some of his award-winning form to double Halifax’s lead just after the second half kicked off, too.
Facing an uphill battle, Diego Mejia’s first match in charge would see his home side rally back hard: in the the sixtieth minute, some fantastic interplay between Atletico San Luis loanee David Rodriguez and Samuel Salter allowed the former to collect the ball in the box and dribble it home. Twelve minutes from time, substitute Aboubacar Sissoko finished off an absolute scramble in the box to level the score 2-2 and rescue a point for the home side.
The home comeback was mildly spoiled by a late red card for Tyr Walker – via a second yellow – so Mejia will be hoping Amer Didic (who was rested on the bench as a precaution) will be fit for next week. For Halifax, this will feel like two points lost, particularly when looking at the road form from last year.
Forge FC 1 – 0 Cavalry
Read the full match recap here.
Having wrapped last season with two back-to-back playoff matches against one another, of course Forge and Cavalry’s season opened up against one another yet again. Unlike Cavalry’s last trip to T̶i̶m̶ ̶H̶o̶r̶t̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶F̶i̶e̶l̶d̶ Hamilton Stadium, however, this time things ended in Forge’s favour.
The hammers were fastest out of the gate to generate chances, with Cavalry taking time to settle the tempo and carve out a few opportunities of their own – particularly through German striker Tobias Warschewski, who forced a fine stop at close range from Jassem Koleilat.
The game’s only goal would come in the second half when Molham Babouli opened the scoring following a sharp cross from Marko Jevromovic, and that’s all it took. Despite a second yellow to youngster Zayne Bruno and with Cavalry youngster Mihail Gherasimencov hitting the post in the game’s dying moments, Forge earned an early home win over their rivals, and that could serve as a big mental boost given this was essentially a rematch of the 2024 CPL Final.
Pacific FC 2 – 0 Valour FC
Between two clubs that enjoyed fruitful offseasons, there was a lot of curiosity surrounding this match. While Valour’s offseason rebuild turned heads, it was Pacific who capitalized on momentum in the game’s early moments: Dario Zanatta continued the late-season form of 2024 to secure a rebound goal just 18 minutes in, and it was at the half-hour mark when Ronan Kratt headlined his debut with an out-of-the-box absolute golazo for which he remains committed to saying wasn’t an attempted cross.
Whatever it was, it spelled curtains for Valour: the visitors from Winnipeg couldn’t build up much steam, and Pacific did well to keep the second half under their control as the Isle remained firmly Trident territory.
Vancouver FC 0 – 2 York United
Sunday’s lone match came between two Canadian Premier League sides which both have a lot of new faces on the roster. Mauro Eustaquio’s Nine Stripes’ looked dangerous immediately, and would have been up early if not for some fine heroics from VFC shotstopper Callum Irving.
While Vancouver FC would carve out a few chances in the second half, it was substitute York United striker Julian Altobelli – in what is his second coming with York United, and a truly long-awaited club debut – who made the difference. As the shot count piled up, Altobelli came off the bench and onto the scoresheet five minutes later, pouncing quickly on a deflected ball. He doubled his tally fifteen minutes later, rocketing a tight-angled shot right into the net’s corner to land YUFC all three points on the road.
From the first matchweek, one can’t look to deeply into the standings. Cavalry will feel quite disappointed given this kicks off their playoff championship title defense, and Valour will too as they’ll hear a faint alarm klaxon warning them not to repeat the last six years of bottom-table finishing. For York United, Pacific, and Forge, however, they’ve come storming out of the gate.
Next week will see just six teams in action: Pacific remains out west with Forge coming to the Isle on Saturday, with Sunday’s double-header seeing York United’s home opener against Halifax and Vancouver FC hosting Atletico Ottawa. Cavalry and Valour will get a bye, allowing them time to lick their wounds and come back stronger on Easter weekend.
