2022 Canadian Premier League season

The 2022 Canadian Premier League season is the fourth season of the Canadian Premier League, the top level of Canadian soccer. Pacific FC are the defending champions, having beaten Forge FC in the 2021 final.^[1]

Canadian Premier League

Season	2022
Dates	April 7 – October 9 (regular season)
Champions	Forge FC (3rd title)
Regular season winners	Atlético Ottawa (1st title)
Matches played	112
Goals scored	280 (2.5 per match)
Top goalscorer	Alejandro Díaz (13 goals)
Biggest home win	Forge 5–1 FC Edmonton (July 19)
Biggest away win	Atlético Ottawa 1–6 Valour (April 24)
Highest scoring	Atlético Ottawa 1–6 Valour (April 24) FC Edmonton 3–4 Forge (May 31)
Longest winning run	6 matches Forge (July 8 – August 6)
Longest unbeaten run	11 matches Cavalry (May 1 – July 14)
Longest winless run	11 matches FC Edmonton (April 10 – June 14)
Longest losing run	5 matches FC Edmonton (April 30 – May 31)
Highest attendance	6,574 Atlético Ottawa 2–1 FC Edmonton (August 7)
Lowest attendance	600 FC Edmonton 1–1 York United (April 15)
Total attendance	355,696
Average attendance	3,176
← 2021 2023 →

The regular season ran from April 7 to October 9, 2022. Each team played four games against each of the seven opponents for a total of 28 matches.^[2] Atlético Ottawa won the regular season championship on October 8, securing the club its first trophy.^[3][4]

The top four teams from the regular season qualified for the playoffs where they competed for the league title. Forge FC defeated Atlético Ottawa in the 2022 Final to win their third title.

Team and rule changes

The eight teams that competed in the 2021 Canadian Premier League season returned for the 2022 season. This was the last season to feature FC Edmonton and the last season before the debut of Vancouver FC in 2023.^[5]

The maximum team compensation for this season remained at $1.2 million split between players and coaching staff. The required spend on player compensation was $650,000 to $850,000. In 2022, the U21 player salary rule was introduced which counts financial compensation to players aged 21 or under at 50% towards the cap (up to a maximum of $100,000).^[6]

Teams

Stadiums and locations

See also: List of soccer stadiums in Canada

Atlético Ottawa

Forge

Cavalry

Pacific

HFX Wanderers

York United

Valour

Edmonton

Locations of clubs in the 2022 Canadian Premier League season.

Club	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Atlético Ottawa	Ottawa	TD Place Stadium	24,000
Cavalry FC	Foothills County	ATCO Field	6,000
FC Edmonton	Edmonton	Clarke Stadium	5,100
Forge FC	Hamilton	Tim Hortons Field	23,218
HFX Wanderers FC	Halifax	Wanderers Grounds	6,500
Pacific FC	Langford	Starlight Stadium	6,000
Valour FC	Winnipeg	IG Field	33,000
York United FC	Toronto	York Lions Stadium	4,000

Personnel and sponsorship

Team	Head coach	Captain	Shirt sponsor	Kit manufacturer
Atlético Ottawa	Carlos González	Drew Beckie	ComeOn!	Macron
Cavalry	Tommy Wheeldon Jr.	Mason Trafford	WestJet
FC Edmonton	Alan Koch	Shamit Shome	Swoop
Forge	Bobby Smyrniotis	Kyle Bekker	Tim Hortons
HFX Wanderers	Stephen Hart	Andre Rampersad	Volkswagen
Pacific	James Merriman	Jamar Dixon
Valour	Phillip Dos Santos	Daryl Fordyce	OneSoccer
York United	Martin Nash	Roger Thompson	Greenpark Group

Number of teams by province or territory

Rank	Province or territory	Number	Teams
1	Ontario	3	Atlético Ottawa Forge York United
2	Alberta	2	Cavalry FC Edmonton
3	British Columbia	1	Pacific
	Manitoba	1	Valour
	Nova Scotia	1	HFX Wanderers

Coaching changes

Team	Outgoing coach	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position in table	Incoming coach	Date of appointment
York United	Jimmy Brennan[7]	End of contract	November 23, 2021	Pre-season	Martin Nash[8]	December 21, 2021
Atlético Ottawa	Mista[9]		December 28, 2021		Carlos González[10]	February 24, 2022
Pacific	Pa-Modou Kah[11]	Signed by North Texas SC	January 21, 2022		James Merriman[12]	January 21, 2022

Regular season

Format

The regular season took place from April 7 to October 9. The schedule format is a quadruple round robin with each team playing two matches at home and two matches away against each of the seven opponents for a total of 28 games. The majority of matches were played on weekends.^[13]

Table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Atlético Ottawa (S)	28	13	10	5	36	29	+7	49	Advance to playoffs
2	Forge (C)	28	14	5	9	47	25	+22	47
3	Cavalry	28	14	5	9	39	33	+6	47
4	Pacific	28	13	7	8	36	33	+3	46
5	Valour	28	10	7	11	36	34	+2	37
6	York United	28	9	7	12	31	37	−6	34
7	HFX Wanderers	28	8	5	15	24	38	−14	29
8	FC Edmonton	28	4	8	16	31	51	−20	20

Source: CanPL.ca
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) total wins; 3) goal differential; 4) goals for; 5) away goals differential; 6) away goals for; 7) home goals differential; 8) home goals for; 9) U-21 minutes; 10) coin toss or drawing of lots.^[14]
(C) Champion; (S) Regular season winner

Results

Home \ Away	ATO	CAV	EDM	FOR	HFX	PAC	VAL	YRK
Atlético Ottawa		1–0	2–1	0–4	1–0	0–1	1–6	0–0
	1–1	0–0	0–0	3–2	2–1	1–1	2–2
Cavalry	0–3		3–1	1–2	1–0	2–0	2–1	0–1
1–3		2–0	2–1	3–0	1–0	2–1	1–0
FC Edmonton	1–2	0–3		3–4	1–2	0–0	1–1	1–1
1–0	0–1		1–1	3–2	2–3	3–1	3–0
Forge	1–1	2–2	3–0		1–0	3–0	0–1	1–3
0–1	2–1	5–1		1–0	0–1	3–1	2–0
HFX Wanderers	0–2	2–2	3–1	0–4		1–0	1–0	1–0
1–2	0–0	1–1	0–3		0–2	1–0	2–4
Pacific	1–0	3–3	2–1	2–1	2–1		3–2	0–0
1–1	3–0	1–0	1–1	0–3		2–2	1–3
Valour	0–1	2–4	1–1	1–0	0–0	1–2		1–0
1–1	2–0	1–1	1–0	1–0	1–0		2–0
York United	2–2	2–0	3–2	1–0	0–1	0–0	1–3
0–3	0–1	3–1	0–2	0–0	2–4	3–1

Source: CanPL.ca
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Playoffs

The top four teams from the regular season qualified for the playoffs. The first-place team played against the fourth, and the second-place team played against the third in two-leg semifinals on October 15 and 23. The away goals rule was not used in the semifinals. The winners advanced to the CPL Final, a single match hosted by the higher-seeded team on October 30.^[13]

Bracket

	Semifinals October 15 & 23							Final October 30
	4	Pacific FC	0	1	1
	1	Atlético Ottawa	2	1	3
								1	Atlético Ottawa	0
								2	Forge FC	2
	3	Cavalry FC	1	1	2
	2	Forge FC	1	2	3

Semifinals

Summary

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Pacific FC	1–3	Atlético Ottawa	0–2	1–1
Cavalry FC	2–3	Forge FC	1–1	1–2

Matches

October 15, 2022

4:00 pm PT

Pacific FC	0–2	Atlético Ottawa
	Report	Tabla 79' Verhoven 90+5'

Starlight Stadium, Langford, British Columbia

Attendance: 3,759

Referee: Mathieu Souaré

October 23, 2022

2:00 pm ET

Atlético Ottawa	1–1	Pacific FC
Shaw 83'	Report	Meilleur-Giguère 28'

TD Place Stadium, Ottawa, Ontario

Attendance: 8,428

Referee: Pierre-Luc Lauzière

Atlético Ottawa won 3–1 on aggregate.

---

October 15, 2022

2:00 pm MT

Cavalry FC	1–1	Forge FC
Klomp 42'	Report	Pacius 47'

ATCO Field, Foothills County, Alberta

Attendance: 3,179

Referee: Alain Ruch

October 23, 2022

5:00 pm ET

Forge FC	2–1	Cavalry FC
Choinière 69' Pacius 75' (pen.)	Report	Bevan 78'

Tim Hortons Field, Hamilton, Ontario

Attendance: 7,133

Referee: Yusri Rudolf

Forge FC won 3–2 on aggregate.

---

Final

Main article: 2022 Canadian Premier League Final

October 30, 2022

6:00 pm ET

Atlético Ottawa	0–2	Forge FC
	Report	Hojabrpour 28' Choinière 78'

TD Place Stadium, Ottawa, Ontario

Attendance: 14,992

Referee: Filip Dujic

Awards

Canadian Premier League Awards

Award	Recipient	Finalist
Golden Boot (Hunter)	Alejandro Díaz (Pacific FC)	N/A
Golden Glove (Qimmiq or Canadian Inuit Dog)	Marco Carducci (Cavalry FC)	Nathan Ingham (Atlético Ottawa) Callum Irving (Pacific FC)
Coach of the Year (Owl)	Carlos González (Atlético Ottawa)	James Merriman (Pacific FC) Bobby Smyrniotis (Forge FC)
Player of the Year (Nikisuittuq)	Ollie Bassett (Atlético Ottawa)	Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson (Forge FC) Manny Aparicio (Pacific FC) Ballou Tabla (Atlético Ottawa) Sean Rea (Valour FC)
Best Under 21 Canadian Player of the Year (Polar Bear)	Sean Rea (Valour FC)	Woobens Pacius (Forge FC) Osaze De Rosario (York United FC)
Defender of the Year (Walrus)	Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson (Forge FC)	Amer Đidić (Pacific FC) Dominick Zator (York United FC)
Players' Player of the Year (Muskox)	Ollie Bassett (Atlético Ottawa)	Ballou Tabla (Atlético Ottawa) Alejandro Díaz (Pacific FC)

Team of the Week

The Gatorade Team of the Week is selected by OneSoccer staff.

Team of the Week
Dates	Goalkeeper	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards	Ref
April 7–10	Oxner (HFX)	Fernandez (HFX) Yao (Cavalry) Đidić (Pacific) Mavila (Pacific)	Bassett (Ottawa) Aparicio (Pacific) Warschewski (Edmonton) Morelli (HFX) Gonzalez (Edmonton)	Díaz (Pacific)	[15]
April 15–17	Ingham (Ottawa)	N'sa (York) Espejo (Ottawa) Singh (Edmonton) Acosta (Ottawa)	Bustos (Pacific) Bassett (Ottawa) Gagnon-Laparé (HFX) Musse (Cavalry)	Shaw (Ottawa) Mason (Cavalry)	[16]
April 22–24	Giantsopoulos (York)	Romeo (Valour) Zator (York) Samuel (Forge)	Akio (Valour) Rampersad (HFX) Aparicio (Pacific) Levis (Valour)	Dyer (Valour) Campbell (Forge) Riggi (Valour)	[17]
April 27–May 1	Carducci (Cavalry)	Fernandez (HFX) Niba (Ottawa) Yao (Cavalry)	Tabla (Ottawa) Lamothe (HFX) McKendry (Ottawa) Bent (HFX)	Salter (HFX) Mason (Cavalry) De Rosario (York)	[18]
May 6–7	Irving (Pacific)	Dada-Luke (Pacific) Zator (York) M. Trafford (Cavalry) Đidić (Pacific)	Aparicio (Pacific) Johnston (York) Rampersad (HFX)	Gutiérrez (York) Musse (Cavalry) Tabla (Ottawa)	[19]
May 14–15	Sirois (Valour)	Sissoko (Forge) Klomp (Cavalry) Achinioti-Jönsson (Forge) Abzi (York)	Bassett (Ottawa) Dixon (Pacific) Aparicio (Pacific)	Rea (Valour) Salter (HFX) Diaz (Pacific)	[20]
May 20–22	Vaikla (Edmonton)	N'sa (York) Đidić (Pacific) Achinioti-Jönsson (Forge) Vliet (Cavalry)	Hojabrpour (Forge) Bekker (Forge) Bassett (Ottawa)	Fisk (Cavalry) Wright (Ottawa) Choinière (Forge)	[21]
May 28–June 1	Carducci (Cavalry)	Beckie (Ottawa) Yao (Cavalry) M. Trafford (Cavalry) Sissoko (Forge) Verhoven (Ottawa)	Haworth (Ottawa) Camargo (Cavalry) Rea (Valour) Borges (Forge)	dos Santos (Pacific)	[22]
June 4–5	Vaikla (Edmonton)	Acosta (Ottawa) Espejo (Ottawa) Restrepo (HFX) Levis (Valour)	Hernández (York) Bassett (Ottawa) Rampersad (HFX) Bitar (Edmonton)	Tabla (Ottawa) Garcia (HFX)	[23]
June 11-15	Ingham (Ottawa)	Loturi (Cavalry) Yao (Cavalry) M. Trafford (Cavalry) Morgan (Forge)	Sissoko (Forge) Hojabrpour (Forge) Borges (Forge) Camargo (Cavalry) Salter (HFX)	Pepple (Cavalry)	[24]
June 18-19	Vaikla (Edmonton)	Meilleur-Giguère (Pacific) Bissainthe (Edmonton) Wilson (York)	Abzi (York) Bekker (Forge) Jensen (Forge) Rama (Forge)	Gonzalez (Edmonton) Pacius (Forge) Choinière (Forge)	[25]
June 25-26	Oxner (HFX)	Klomp (Cavalry) Jean-Baptiste (Valour) Gander (HFX)	Riggi (Valour) Polisi (HFX) Bitar (Edmonton) Escalante (Cavalry)	Rea (Valour) Pepple (Cavalry) Daniels (HFX)	[26]
June 29- July 3	Sirois (Valour)	Beckie (Ottawa) Jean-Baptiste (Valour) Acosta (Ottawa)	Timoteo (Edmonton) Bassett (Ottawa) Bitar (Edmonton) Escalante (Cavalry)	dos Santos (Pacific) Camara (Edmonton) Akio (Valour)	[27]
July 8-10	Henry (Forge)	Rama (Forge) Yao (Cavalry) Owolabi-Belewu (Forge) Levis (Valour)	C. Trafford (Cavalry) Sissoko (Forge) Tabla (Ottawa) dos Santos (Pacific) Daniels (Pacific)	Dyer (Valour)	[28]
July 14-20	Giantsopoulos (York)	Dada-Luke (Pacific) Achinioti-Jönsson (Forge) Zator (York) Vliet (Cavalry)	Musse (Cavalry) Bekker (Forge) Johnston (York) dos Santos (Pacific)	Diaz (Pacific) Pacius (Forge)	[29]
July 22-24	Irving (Pacific)	Acosta (Ottawa) Đidić (Pacific) Beckie (Ottawa)	Rama (Forge) Bekker (Forge) Young (Pacific) Tissot (Ottawa)	Campbell (Forge) Bustos (Pacific) Mwandwe (HFX)	[30]
July 27 - August 1	Carducci (Cavalry)	Rama (Forge) Yao (Cavalry) Metusala (Forge) Lawrie-Lattanzio (York)	Sissoko (Forge) Bekker (Forge) Wilson (York)	Diaz (Pacific) Campbell (Forge) De Rosario (York)	[31]
August 3-7	Yesli (Valour)	Rama (Forge) Achinioti-Jönsson (Forge) Mekidèche (Valour) Levis (Valour)	Hojabrpour (Forge) Sissoko (Ottawa)	Forbes (Valour) Dyer (Valour) Tabla (Ottawa) Pacius (Forge)	[32]
August 12-14	Henry (Forge)	Samake (Pacific) Yao (Cavalry) Vliet (Cavalry)	Warschewski (Edmonton) Omar (HFX) Young (Pacific) Verhoeven (York) Escalante (Cavalry)	Heard (Pacific) Mason (Cavalry)	[33]
August 17-21	Himaras (York)	Timoteo (Edmonton) Meilleur-Giguère (Pacific) Beckie (Ottawa) N'sa (York)	Lamothe (HFX) Bassett (Ottawa) Rea (Valour) Alemán (Ottawa) Babouli (York)	De Rosario (York)	[34]
August 27-28	Irving (Pacific)	Timoteo (Edmonton) Romeo (Valour) Espejo (Ottawa) Baquero (Valour)	Bassett (Ottawa) Sissoko (Ottawa) Salter (HFX) Escalante (Cavalry) Rea (Valour)	Warschewski (Edmonton)	[35]
September 2-5	Carducci (Cavalry)	Zator (York) Campagna (HFX) Espejo (Ottawa)	Levis (Valour) Shome (Edmonton) Rampersad (HFX) Dada-Luke (Pacific)	Babouli (York) De Rosario (York) dos Santos (York)	[36]
September 9-11	Baskett (HFX)	Krutzen (Forge) Espejo (Ottawa) Đidić (Pacific) N'sa (York)	Young (Pacific) Babouli (York) Sissoko (Forge)	Salter (HFX) De Rosario (York) Choinière (Forge)	[37]
September 16-18	Irving (Pacific)	Krutzen (Forge) Jean-Baptiste (Valour) Campagna (HFX)	Poku (Forge) Hojabrpour (Forge) Bassett (Ottawa) Alarcón (Cavalry)	Borges (Forge) Mason (Cavalry) Rea (Valour)	[38]
September 23-27	Murasiranwa (Edmonton)	Mourdoukoutas (York) Espejo (Ottawa) N'sa (York)	dos Santos (Pacific) Bassett (Ottawa) Toussaint (Pacific) Smith (Edmonton) Aparicio (Pacific)	Tabla (Ottawa) Babouli (York)	[39]
September 30- October 2	Ingham (Ottawa)	Alarcón (Cavalry) Achinioti-Jönsson (Forge) Owolabi-Belewu (Forge) Tissot (Ottawa)	Bahous (Ottawa) Sissoko (Forge) Aparicio (Pacific) Borges (Forge)	Bustos (Pacific) Musse (Cavalry)	[40]

Monthly Awards

Month	Manager of the Month		Player of the Month		References
	Manager	Club	Player	Club
April	James Merriman	Pacific FC	Marco Bustos	Pacific FC	[41][42]
May	Tommy Wheeldon Jr.	Cavalry FC	Ollie Bassett	Atlético Ottawa	[43][44]
June	Carlos González	Atlético Ottawa	Aribim Pepple	Cavalry FC	[45][46]
July	Bobby Smyrniotis	Forge FC	Woobens Pacius	Forge FC	[47][48]
August	Phillip Dos Santos	Valour FC	Sean Rea	Valour FC	[49][50]
September	Martin Nash	York United FC	Mo Babouli	York United FC	[51][52]
October	Bobby Smyrniotis	Forge FC	David Choinière	Forge FC	[53][54]

Attendance

Pos	Team	Total	High	Low	Average	Change
1	HFX Wanderers FC	81,547	6,500	4,332	5,825	n/a†
2	Atlético Ottawa	56,961	6,574	2,571	4,069	n/a†
3	Cavalry FC	48,883	4,743	2,943	3,492	n/a†
4	Forge FC	48,027	5,129	1,187	3,431	n/a†
5	Pacific FC	44,459	4,107	2,420	3,176	n/a†
6	Valour FC	43,547	5,227	2,395	3,111	n/a†
7	York United FC	17,272	1,802	1,002	1,234	n/a†
8	FC Edmonton	15,000	1,613	600	1,071	n/a†
	League total	355,696	6,574	600	3,176	n/a†

Source:

Statistical leaders

See also: Canadian Premier League records and statistics § Player records — career

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[55]
1	Alejandro Díaz	Pacific	13
2	Osaze De Rosario	York United	12
	Woobens Pacius	Forge
4	Samuel Salter	HFX Wanderers	11
5	Moses Dyer	Valour	9
6	Ollie Bassett	Atlético Ottawa	8
	Joe Mason	Cavalry
8	Ali Musse	Cavalry	7
	Ballou Tabla	Atlético Ottawa
	Tobias Warschewski	FC Edmonton
	Brian Wright	Atlético Ottawa

Top assists

Rank	Player	Club	Assists[56]
1	Sean Rea	Valour	9
2	Tristan Borges	Forge	8
3	Kyle Bekker	Forge	6
	Marco Bustos	Pacific
5	Wesley Timoteo	FC Edmonton	5
	José Escalante	Cavalry
7	Terran Campbell	Forge	4
	David Choinière	Forge
	Zachary Fernandez	HFX Wanderers
	Carl Haworth	Atlético Ottawa
	Ballou Tabla	Atlético Ottawa
	Tobias Warschewski	FC Edmonton

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets[57]
1	Triston Henry	Forge	11
2	Marco Carducci	Cavalry	10
3	Nathan Ingham	Atlético Ottawa	9
	Callum Irving	Pacific
5	Niko Giantsopoulos	York United	6

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
Tristan Borges	Forge	FC Edmonton	4–3 (A)	May 31	[58]
Alejandro Díaz	Pacific	York United	4–2 (A)	July 15	[59]
Woobens Pacius	Forge	FC Edmonton	5–1 (H)	July 19	[60]

Player transfers

Main article: List of Canadian Premier League transfers 2022

U Sports Draft

The 2022 CPL–U Sports Draft was held on January 20, 2022, with Atletico Ottawa selecting José da Cunha of Cape Breton University first overall. Each team made two picks in the draft, for a total of 16 selections.^[61]

Foreign players

Main article: List of foreign CPL players

Canadian Premier League teams can sign a maximum of seven international players, out of which only five can be in the starting line-up for each match. Teams are required to carry a minimum of four international players, either signed through or approved by the league's scouting partner, 21st Club.^[62] The following players were considered foreign players for the 2022 season. This list does not include Canadian citizens who represent other countries at the international level.^[63]

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5	Player 6	Player 7	Injured players[A]	Former players
Atlético Ottawa	Miguel Acosta	Ollie Bassett	Diego Espejo	Vladimir Moragrega	Abdoul Sissoko	Iván Pérez	Sergio Camus
Cavalry	José Escalante	Tom Field	Daan Klomp	Joe Mason	Julian Roloff	Bradley Vliet	Roberto Alarcón
FC Edmonton	Tobias Warschewski	Azriel Gonzalez	Bicou Bissainthe						Julian Ulbricht
Forge	Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson	Daniel Krutzen	Malik Owolabi-Belewu	Rezart Rama					Omar Browne
HFX Wanderers	Akeem Garcia	Andre Rampersad	Peter Schaale	Alex Marshall	Eriks Santos	Cory Bent	Lifumpa Mwandwe	João Morelli
Pacific	Gianni dos Santos	Djenairo Daniels	Nathan Mavila	Umaro Baldé	Jordan Brown				Alejandro Díaz
Valour	Andrew Jean-Baptiste	Moses Dyer	Walter Ponce	Jonathan Esparza	Daniel Ascanio	Kevin Rendón	Billy Forbes
York United	Sebastián Gutiérrez	Mateo Hernández	Lisandro Cabrera	Eduardo Jesus	Tass Mourdoukoutas	Luis Lawrie-Lattanzio	Kevin Dos Santos	Martin Graiciar William Wallace	Daniel Obbekjær

Players in italic denote players new to their respective clubs for the 2022 season, sorted chronologically by their announcement.

Notes

1. Foreign players on the season-ending injury list can be replaced on the active roster