Hello October! Movement has been pretty consistent throughout September, with some teams performing better than expected while others seem to only be able to win against teams facing self-relegation. Our Patreons will already be familiar with some of the jostling, so I’ll skip the play-by-play and focus on the actual moves. In September, we saw the League1 Ontario season come to an end, and the first round of matches in the group-stage of their playoffs. Additionally, PLSQ has only 1 match remaining in their regular season, before they move onto Cup action.
In the 2018-only ranking, Montreal Impact has overtaken the Vancouver Whitecaps. At the beginning of September, Vancouver held a 33-point lead in the rankings over Montreal, but the tables have turned and the blue-and-black now hold a 25-point lead over the Caps. The Fury remain in 4th, although they seem to be struggling against any team not moving to USL League One. Thanks to Ottawa’s hard-earned theft of a bunch of points from self-relegating Toronto FC II, we see a change in 5th place. PDL’s… uh… USL League Two’s Calgary Foothills FC are now in 5th ahead of the Young Reds.
AS Blainville’s continuing performance has propelled the team into the 8th position, dropping TSS FC Rovers down to 9th. Vaughan Azzurri and CS Mont-Royal Outremont have switched to 11th & 12th place respectively. With the L1O Playoffs and the PLSQ Cup on the horizon, both of these teams have the ability to move into the top 10 before we put a lid on 2018.
Further down the table, Oakville Blue Devils have moved to 21st from 25th. This has been a gradual rise since their demolition in the L1O Cup and the Canadian Championship at the beginning of the year, but if they continue to perform through the playoffs, we can probably see them move as high as 16th. They likely need to win it out in order to move higher than that this season.
Toward the bottom of the 3rd Divisions, Ottawa South United has dropped to 32nd, behind ProStars but ahead of Windsor TFC. CS Fabrose held onto 34th, but FC Lanaudiere has now fallen below the top PCSL team, Khalsa Sporting Club, to rest in 36th. With only the PLSQ Cup competition remaining, I do not anticipate they can fall any further in the in the 2018-only ratings.
In the cumulative ratings, TFC have dropped a few points, but remain top of the Canadian pyramid. Montreal have overtaken Vancouver as the Caps continue to struggle. Woodbridge Strikers have ended the L1O season on a high point, propelling themselves into 10th above USL League Two’s TSS FC Rovers and Victoria Highlanders FC.
Oakville Blue Devils have continued their ascent, rising from 18th at the end of August to 16th. As predicted last month, the Devils jumped FC London (17) and Dynamo de Quebec (19). CS Longueuil have also overtaken Dynamo to take 18th place.
As we look to the bottom, Windsor TFC have dropped back under PCSL’s Khalsa Sporting Club. FC Lanaudiere has dropped even further to 35th, leaving them just above ProStars FC and the rest of the PCSL as they end their 2018 campaign.
With L1O in the playoffs, only 8 teams are still in control of their own destiny at this point: Vaughan Azzurri, Woodbridge Strikers, Sigma FC, FC London, Oakville Blue Devils, Alliance United, Darby FC, and Unionville Milliken SC. All of these clubs currently sit above USL League Two’s WSA Winnipeg, but poor showing could easily mush them under. Darby FC is only 0.109 points above Winnipeg, so it is likely we’ll see them move to 25th or below.
Looking again to preparation for 2019, the CPL is looking less and less like it’ll be able to pull together an 8th team for their launch year as a result of Ottawa’s shocking decision to remain in the USL, or should I say, USL Championship. With this taken into account, official word (so far) on 2019 looks like:
- 7 new teams in CPL
- 1 new PLSQ side
- TFC II moving from USL Championship to USL League One
- 1 less L1O team (TFC III)
- 2 more PCSL teams
In American Soccer, we haven’t any additional word on sanctioning for USL League One, NPSL Pro, or NISA. Nor do we have any word on how those new leagues will affect the Open Cup. Again, we don’t know how the CPL will fully affect the Canadian Championship, but we’re down to 13 teams competing (unless they expand to also include USL League Two, which would bring us to 18).
Other changes happening in the wide world of Canadian Soccer: the PCSL is planning to relaunch their Premier Women’s Division in 2019. There haven’t been any official announcements as of yet, but we’re keeping an eye open for any announcements from that end of the country. The PCSL has made some strong strides since BC Soccer’s complete failure to find investors in a BC Tier 3 league. If the PCSL can manage to pull the women’s league together it just may be possible that they make a push to becoming BC’s Division 3 for both Men’s and Women’s soccer. Again, there aren’t any solid rumour on this move, just my hopes that BC can pull something together.
We’re in October, which means League1 Ontario playoffs, the PLSQ Cup, and teams in both MLS and USL pushing to try to secure spots in their playoffs before everything shakes out. There’s plenty of high-stakes soccer to watch, and plenty of CPL Trials requiring our attention. If you want to keep on top of the elo rankings throughout the month, a $1/month donation through Patreon will give you regular Friday updates.