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Canada Soccer releases 2017 Canadian Championship schedule

By Gareth Wolff

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Canada Soccer recently released the 2017 Canadian Championship schedule. We break down the details of the schedule and its implications for the Canadian MLS teams.

The Canadian Championship will be back in May for its 10th edition. The tournament will use the same format as last year. Ottawa Fury and FC Edmonton play off against each other in an initial qualifying round before the three MLS teams get involved.

Toronto FC, last year’s champions, will face the qualifying round winner in one semifinal. Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Montreal Impact will contest the other semifinal.

The winner of the Canadian Championship will be awarded the Voyageurs Cup. TFC have the most titles to their name, with five wins in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2016. Montreal have won three times, in 2008, 2013, 2014. Vancouver finished as runners-up on six occasions, but only lifted the trophy once, in 2015. That win set the Whitecaps off on the journey that has led them to the semifinal of the CONCACAF Champions League.

Full Schedule

Qualifying Round

  • May 3 – Ottawa Fury FC vs. FC Edmonton
  • May 10 – FC Edmonton vs. Ottawa Fury FC

Semifinals

  • May 23 – (Qualifying Round winner) vs. Toronto FC
  • May 23 – Vancouver Whitecaps vs Montreal Impact
  • May 30 – Montreal Impact vs. Vancouver Whitecaps
  • May 31 – Toronto FC v (Qualifying Round winner)

Championship Final

June 20/21 – First leg

June 27 – Second leg

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CONCACAF Playoff

There is an added wrinkle to this year’s championship, which TFC fans in particular will be unhappy about. Toronto thought they had earned qualification for the CONCACAF Champions League after they defeated the Whitecaps with a last-minute away goal in last year’s final.

Not so, it turns out. Due to scheduling changes, including the removal of the group stage, the next edition of the CCL won’t get going for the Canadian representative until February 2018.

Canada Soccer’s solution to this scheduling offset? A one-off match held at BMO Field on August 9th, between TFC and this year’s winner. So Toronto are going to have qualify for the CCL all over again, either by winning this year’s championship outright or winning the final qualifying match.

The US Soccer Federation have yet to announce how they’re going to deal with the same issue.

Canadian Content Rule

In an attempt to boost development of Canadian players, Canada Soccer have introduced a “Canadian Content” rule for the 2017 championship. The rule requires each team to include at least three Canadians in their starting lineup for each game.

The three MLS sides tend to use this competition as an opportunity to give minutes to younger players. So this rule will likely encourage teams to give playing time to young domestic players in their squad.

Canada Soccer president Victor Montagliani’s quote in the schedule announcement seemed to indicate that the target of this rule was indeed youth development.

"“This rule builds on the youth development initiatives announced last year in collaboration with MLS that include the expansion of the Homegrown Player parameters to ensure that Canadian youth players in MLS club academies or Canadian approved youth clubs will be considered as domestic players in MLS.”"

Expansion for 2018

Canada Soccer also confirmed that the Canadian Championship will be expanding next year. Currently, the plan is to add the winning teams from the two Canadian third-tier leagues. That means League1 Ontario will have a representative in 2018, as will the Première Ligue de soccer du Québec.

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Once the Canadian Premier League gets going, the competition will likely see further expansion.

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