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Photo Credit: Jojo Yanjiao Qian
CPL Matchweek 1 Recap – Set Piece Stunners
By The 2026 Canadian Premier League season kicked off over the weekend, an we’ve got your at-a-glance recap of what went down.
There were six goals spread throughout the three opening games, none of which came in open play – and some of which involved the newly-intended coach’s challenges and Football Video Support.
See Also: What Does Success Mean For Each CPL Team?
Without further ado, here’s a quick recap of how the first matchweek of the 2026 Canadian Premier League season went down:
Forge FC 2 – 0 Atletico Ottawa
The reigning regular season champion kicked off against the playoff champion in Hamilton, Ontario, with Forge ultimately securing the bag against an Atletico Ottawa side clearly feeling the absences of star talent like Samuel Salter, David Rodriguez, and Nathan Ingham.
The hosts were put in front through a Brian Wright penalty that was unsuccessfully challenged by Diego Mejia, triggering the first ever use of Football Video Support in CPL history:
While Atletico Ottawa had the possession advantage, it was Forge who were the side testing the opposition keeper. A Borges olimpico attempt struck the crossbar, with Ben Paton extending the host’s lead midway through the second half to cap off a clean corner routine:
By the final whistle, it felt like a comfortable win for Forge FC and a very disappointing opener for the reigning playoff champions, who never really tested Forge shotstopper Dmitry Bertaud through the full ninety.
Vancouver FC 0 – 1 Halifax Wanderers
A club debut for Vancouver FC goalkeeper Matheus de Souza – Callum Irving is returning to fitness from an ankle sprain – was spoiled by a stunning spot kick from Lorenzo Callegari against the run of play.
Martin Nash’s Vancouver FC side came out hot to trot, with full-backs Elage Bah and Morey Doner moving fluidly and putting Halifax on the backfoot for much of the game, threatening to spoil opposition coach Vanni Sartini’s return out west.
Luckily for Sartini, who had a lot of fresh faces in his first starting eleven clearly still learning how to gel together, a second half freekick from Lorenzo Callegari was good enough to claim all three points:
The moment of magic went against the run of play – the Eagles looked the better of the two sides for much of the match, and appeared more likely to score – but some trademark heroics from new Halifax goalkeeper Marco Carducci ultimately delivered three points for his new boss Vanni Sartini, and on the road at that.
Pacific FC 1 – 2 Cavalry FC
The opening matchweek concluded with a tale of two very different offseasons: Cavalry looked to have had a wonderful lead-up to ‘26, while Pacific had a fairly lacklustre few months off and entered with the club both for sale and at financial odds with its landlord.
The visitors struck first as Cavalry head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. made good on his new coach’s challenge card to review a clash in the box that saw Jay Herdman floored by a leaping Joshua Belluz, and after review the referee agreed it was a penalty. Up stepped Tobias Warschewski, who made no mistake to open Cavalry’s account for ‘26:
Cavalry looked the better of the two sides and the scoreline would grow in their favour early in the second half, with a corner kick routine seeing Harry Paton burst into the box in possession and blast the ball beyond Sean Melvin to make it 2-0 for the visitors:
The Tridents earned a lifeline with a tantalizing freekick that was pinged off the crossbar by the towering Joshua Belluz, with former Valour defender Diego Konincks finishing off the rebound from clash range.
While we usually post a Twitter highlight for each goal, the league did not put one up for this – sorry, Pacific fans.
While the Tridents managed to build some momentum, it was too late to save the tie for the hosts. They had some silver linings in the apparent growth of youngster Sami Keshavarz, the long-awaited return of Ronan Kratt, and a reformed backline that looks like it will gel nicely, but for now Pacific lacked its trademark countering speed and clinical finishing for most of the match, with Cavalry claiming all three points on the road.
With Inter Toronto Football Club and expansion side FC Supra du Quebec both having byes this week, it was a three-match affair to open up the 2026 Canadian Premier League season.
We saw plenty of the trial FVS being tested, including for each goal and – questionably – at yellow cards, while Arsene Wenger’s daylight offside rule hasn’t proven a factor yet. In fact, all six of the goals came from set piece opportunities, with the league still awaiting the season’s first goal from open play.
With Forge and Cavalry enjoying the strongest openings, the status quo was clearly intact for week one, which saw each of the two aforementioned clubs score from a Patton apiece en route to three points, perhaps marking the first time two brothers have scored in the same CPL matchweek.
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Next week will see Inter Toronto open against Halifax, Pacific against newcomers FC Supra, Cavalry against Atletico Ottawa (a repeat of the CPL Final is sure to be spicy), and Vancouver FC host Forge.
