The 2019 rendition of the Canadian Championship kicked off on May 15, with matches between Canadian Premier League clubs and provincial clubs. Flash forward to July 10th and it is time for the Major League Soccer clubs of Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps to join in, along with USL’s Ottawa Fury. The winner of the Canadian Championship (Voyageurs Cup) will earn the coveted (?) berth in the 2020 CONCACAF Champions League.

Match Information

When: Wednesday, July 10th, 6:30 pm (PST)

Where: ATCO Field - Spruce Meadows

How: OneSoccer.ca (streaming)

Who is Cavalry FC?

The Whitecaps third-round match will see them face Canadian Premier League (CPL) club Cavalry FC. Calgary’s Cavalry FC is coming off an impressive inaugural season in the CPL in which they finished 8-2, with 16 goals for and 7 against. They dominated the beginning of the season, starting 7-0, but faltered down the stretch, losing two of their last three. However, they had the Spring title wrapped up, so they might have let their foot off the gas in the end. Cavalry has started the Fall season well, with a 3-2 victory of Pacific FC. They will be looking to continue that momentum against Vancouver.

Who is Available?

The Canadian Championship requires that each team start at least four Canadians. While both clubs can easily do this, it means that we are likely to see some players that may not get as many Major League Soccer minutes. Included in that is Russell Teibert, who has the most Canadian Championship appearances, with 23. The next closest is Jonathan Osorio and Eddie Edward, each with 18.

While Ali Adnan is available for this match, we might still see Brett Levis suit up to meet that four-player quota. However, with Derek Cornelius, Doneil Henry, Maxime Crepeau, and some of the other youngsters available, Levis might sit this one out.

Fredy Montero picked up a red card at the end of the LAFC match on the weekend, so he will be unavailable for this Saturday’s match against Sporting Kansas City. This might mean that we see him suit up for Wednesday’s match. More likely though is that Bair gets a start.

Michael Baldismo and Simon Colyn could also suit up for the Whitecaps. Not sure if we will see them, but hopefully we do.

Who is Going to Win?

Cavalry FC have shown that they are the class of the CPL this season, so if any CPL club was to beat a MLS club, Calgary seems the most likely to do it. Combined with Vancouver’s poor outing on Saturday, and it being a home match for Cavalry, we could see an upset. However, as our own Caleb Wilkin’s wrote, it is going to be very unlikely.

Yes #VWFC are in a slump and Cavalry owned #CanPL but if you think Dominick Zator, who couldn't even get into a bad WFC2 team, is going to shut down even a bad MLS offence you're going to be very disappointed — Caleb Wilkins (@wilkins_caleb24) July 8, 2019

Still, there are always upsets and there is nothing to say that Calgary can’t pull out a victory, especially if Vancouver goes with a very young lineup. While it might make the match a little closer, I would like to see Marc Dos Santos ‘play the kids’ as this is a fantastic opportunity for them. What do you think?