Welcome to As It Stands. At the start of each week through the end of the season, we’ll bring you this easy-to-digest wrap-up of everything you need to know from the weekend that was in the Canadian Premier League, and keep tabs on how each team is progressing in its hunt for silverware.

Goals? Late drama? Crunching tackles? A 30-yard screamer? A team’s former young star turned heel against them?

Week 3 had a little bit of everything in the Canadian Premier League, and there’s a lot to talk about.

First we saw reigning champs Cavalry FC return to ATCO Field for the first time in 2025, only for the previously 0-0-2 Vancouver FC to steal the show — mostly. The Eagles were broadly excellent in Calgary on Friday night’s nationally-televised match on TSN, and took a 1-0 lead almost all the way, until Tobias Warschewski dictated otherwise. The 2024 Golden Boot winner opened his 2025 CPL account with a lovely strike in the 95th minute, saving a point for the home side.

Then, Saturday gave us a heart-stopping triple-header. At TD Place, Atlético Ottawa went 1-0 down against York United, but the sides traded blows en route to a 2-2 scoreline by the 90th minute — thanks in part to Manny Aparicio’s outrageous goal from well outside the penalty area. In the fifth minute of stoppage time, Atleti took all three points as former York defender Noah Abatneh fired in a shot for his first goal for Ottawa as the hosts won 3-2 at the death.

In Halifax, the faithful at the Wanderers Grounds were treated to a resounding win in their club’s home opener, as the Wanderers downed Pacific FC 3-1. Wesley Timoteo scored a lovely strike to open things up, and Ryan Telfer finished a well-worked passing sequence for the winner, cancelling out the consolation goal Dario Zanatta would grab for Pacific. Yohan Baï also scored his first for Halifax right at the end, and the fans in the newly-expanded Kitchen went home thoroughly satisfied.

Finally, we ended in Hamilton where Valour were the more impressive side on the day, as Shaan Hundal gave them an early lead, but Brian Wright’s first Forge goal — a strange one, albeit — allowed the Hammers to get away with a point. They nearly had all three, but Jonathan Viscosi denied Dan Nimick from the penalty spot late to seal a 1-1 result.

All that’s to say, we’ve got a three-way tie at the top now:

A note on that Viscosi penalty save: Dan Nimick has now taken 14 penalty kicks in his professional career, and only missed two of them. Both of those two were saved by Viscosi — the first being in a strange match in Halifax last year, where Nimick scored two spot kicks only to be denied on a third.

Also, don’t look now but Atlético Ottawa have quite the diverse attack on their hands. They lead the league with nine goals scored in 2025, and they’ve got eight different goalscorers.

It seems like Ottawa versus York United is quickly becoming the unmissable fixture in the CPL. A rivalry seemed to spring up last year with a few heated exchanges, culminating in that classic playoff quarter-final. Saturday’s game suggested they still aren’t fond of each other, despite new head coaches in both technical areas. This match had the most fouls in CPL history, with 47 (25 for Ottawa, 22 for York).

Also, how’s this for a quote from Bobby Smyrniotis after his team’s lacklustre performance against Valour?

“[At halftime] I put two numbers on the board: one was 60, one was 100. The hundred was the workrate of Valour, and 60 was ours. And I was being generous, just because we still had 45 minutes to go; I didn’t want to tell the guys it was 30.”

I don’t think he was thrilled with that one.

Finally, congratulations to the Northern Super League, whose inaugural season kicked off last week. Welcome to the Canadian soccer scene!

 Monday Reading

Awards Watch

Julian Altobelli got his first start of the year, and scored again to bring him up to three on the season. Meanwhile, a couple of players with Golden Boot aspirations — Brian Wright and Shaan Hundal — got off the mark for 2025.

Let’s give some recognition to 17-year-old Emrick Fotsing, who delivered a man-of-the-match performance against Cavalry on Friday. The youngster was exceptional, and has a very bright future with Vancouver FC; could he be an early candidate for Best U-21 Canadian?

Finally, Forge have played three games and conceded just one goal. It’s hard to single out any of their defenders individually, but surely if they’re as solid as they usually are all year then Alex Achinioti-Jönsson — or perhaps Dan Nimick — will probably be in the Defender of the Year conversation come year’s end.

U-21 Minutes Update

Vancouver FC are almost half of the way to 2,000, thanks in part to Fotsing’s outstanding 90 minutes in Calgary. Meanwhile, Ottawa got a heroic contribution from one of their U-21 stars, as Noah Abatneh scored the last-minute winner for them against York United.

So far, Valour are the only team a little behind the pace, but they got Myles Morgan on the pitch late in Hamilton, and will surely pick up minutes more easily once Erik Pop gets up to full fitness.

Coming up next…

Friday, April 25

Valour FC vs. Halifax Wanderers FC — 7 p.m. CT/8 p.m. ET

Saturday, April 26

Cavalry FC vs. Atlético Ottawa — 3 p.m. MT/5 p.m. ET (Live on TSN)
Vancouver FC vs. Pacific FC — 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET

Sunday, April 27

York United FC vs. Forge FC — 2 p.m. ET

(Watch all games live on OneSoccer, and this week catch the Cavalry FC vs. Atlético Ottawa match on TSN.)

Photo of the Week

I imagine this is the face every Cavalry fan makes when Tobi Warschewski picks up the ball.