CPL General

[Stanley]

6 hours ago, Ams1984 said:

Yeah, I thought of the Costa Rican league which also has something like that. Nevertheless, I think I get what he meant... should we be emulating the Costa Rican league, or the EPL/La Liga/Bundesliga/Serie A/ etc...

Exactly.  And certainly not have a half season that involves only 10 games.

[Ams1984]

Just now, Lofty said:

Fixed your post. 😉

I really would like to see an actual trophy... preferably a legacy one which was used year on year. Also, can they please get more understandable and normal golden boot, mvp, etc awards?! 

[Unnamed Trialist]

55 minutes ago, Kent said:

I like the changes, but man Clanachans math was terrible in the article on canal.ca. 3 teams in the playoffs up from 2 is not double the amount of teams. Single table doesn’t keep more teams in it later, but the third playoff spot does.

Cant wait for this season to start already.

Clanachan is a rather sloppy thinker and speaker on a lot of levels. I honestly think he has other virtues, he's a doer, but he does say foolish things and it seems, often, that he simply does not research nor check what he is saying.

[toontownman]

18 minutes ago, Lofty said:

As a Newcastle fan you should bloody well be used to that by now!

Nah. We have more money to line mike Ashley's pockets to play for. Its just feeling dead as a fan and nothing to support! 

[Rocket Robin]

February 21, 2020 My thoughts on the just released CPL 2020 schedule from the perspective of a York 9 FC fan.

http://www.rocketrobinsoccerintoronto.com/reports20/20york015.htm  

[CanSuffer]

canpl.ca doesn't have Atletico Ottawa on the schedule page for the team dropdown !  LOL

[Kent]

4 hours ago, Lofty said:

I see the options as Apertura/Clausura and Championship Game vs. Single Table and no play-off.

Of course you can do single table and then throw the regular season into the garbage by having a losers' play offs, but all the world's biggest leagues recognize the folly of this approach. Sigh. I won't be attending any "play off" games but as a Valour fan that is a rather rhetorical statement!

I hear lots of people complain about playoffs in the context of MLS and CPL, but I never hear anybody argue that the World Cup, Euro Cup, or Champions League should be a single table balanced schedule.

[Kent]

27 minutes ago, Lofty said:

Not one of your better comments Kent. How on earth could the 32 teams in each of those competitions play a balanced schedule?

Those two competitions are necessarily CUP competitions. When you have played a full balanced LEAGUE schedule, the winner is already decided.

Why would those competitions necessarily have to be 32 (or 24, whatever the Euro is) teams? There was a time when Olympic hockey was a single table round robin. Should it go back to that instead of the knockout competition it is now?

If knockout tournaments (which is what playoffs are) are so inherently boring/stupid/sacrilegious/whatever negative word you think is appropriate, then why are the 3 most popular soccer competitions (the ones I mentioned above) all knockout competitions? Shouldn’t they be less popular than single table balanced schedule competitions? Apologies if the EPL is more popular than one of those by some measures, but even if it is my point remains.

For me I like each of regular season and playoffs for different reasons. Regular season is about the long haul, the percentages. Playoffs is about winning the big game, best teams against best teams. Both are great accomplishments with different merits/downsides.

[CanSuffer]

2 hours ago, CanSuffer said:

canpl.ca doesn't have Atletico Ottawa on the schedule page for the team dropdown !  LOL

Now they've fixed it. Good!

[Kent]

P.S. At the very least, if anti-playoff people think that those big 3 competitions have to go to knockout rounds, wouldn’t you argue that only the group winners should advance from the group stage?

Crap, now I am curious as to how many winners of those 3 won their group. I am guessing it is a large percentage. I feel like there is no payoff but not sure I can resist looking this up.

[CanSuffer]

I don't see a link to a google calendar (or other cal format) that we can add to our calendars. Anyone seen one?

[m-g-williams]

I personally would have preferred the top four teams moving into the playoffs, rather than one bye and a play-in match. To avoid situations like last year where the best team through the season goes somewhat unrecognized if they don't win the playoffs though, I'd do something along the lines of MLS or the A-League and have a shield for the top overall club of the campaign and a trophy for the winner of the playoffs. I know this probably isn't a popular notion, but given precedents elsewhere and this being North America, I think it would be a good fit. 

*braces for bashing* 

[CanSuffer]

1 minute ago, m-g-williams said:

I personally would have preferred the top four teams moving into the playoffs, rather than one bye and a play-in match. To avoid situations like last year where the best team through the season goes somewhat unrecognized if they don't win the playoffs though, I'd do something along the lines of MLS or the A-League and have a shield for the top overall club of the campaign and a trophy for the winner of the playoffs. I know this probably isn't a popular notion, but given precedents elsewhere and this being North America, I think it would be a good fit. 

*braces for bashing* 

bash, bash, bash.

[m-g-williams]

10 minutes ago, CanSuffer said:

bash, bash, bash.

Phew. At least I had braced myself beforehand. 🙂

[Kent]

9 minutes ago, Kent said:

Crap, now I am curious as to how many winners of those 3 won their group. I am guessing it is a large percentage. I feel like there is no payoff but not sure I can resist looking this up.

1982 was the last World Cup that was won by a team that didn’t win their group. Italy was behind Poland in the group. So 9 tournaments in a row where the champion won their group.

The last 10 Euro Cups had 5 champions who won their group and 5 that didn’t. Only 3 of the last 8 were group winners.

6 of the last UEFA Champions League winners won their group, 4 did not. Interestingly enough, the last 3 winners didn’t win their group.

Apologies for this useless tangent! I think that might be two times today. I will self impose a temporary ban on myself for the rest of the night.

[CanSuffer]

Hard to deny the excitement of do-or-die playoffs. Hard to argue that anyone but the regular season champ is not the most deserving since what they accomplished was the hardest. On top of it, the two are pretty much mutually incompatible.

Having said that, "2 vs 3, winner plays 1" was the ONLY playoff format I was willing to entertain. Gives North American fans (of which I'm one, I should say) their playoffs but still offers a lot of meaning to the regular season.

However, as the league expands in the years to come, please DO NOT expand this playoff format. Keep it to the top 3.

Peace out.

[CanSuffer]

Now, we just have to find out if the playoffs are 2-legged affairs or one offs ....

[Blackdude]

I like it if playoffs are one-offs. 

[Watchmen]

2 hours ago, Kent said:

I hear lots of people complain about playoffs in the context of MLS and CPL, but I never hear anybody argue that the World Cup, Euro Cup, or Champions League should be a single table balanced schedule.

That would be a European Super League, and we've had a whole discussion about it, conveniently located in the CPL new teams speculation thread!

[Olympique_de_Marseille]

1) The schedule release was a bit glitchy since the article linked to the schedule - but the website version wasn't actually working yet.

(At 2:10pm EST the https://canpl.ca/schedule link was not working - anticlimactic).

2) Atlético Ottawa wants me to drop $50 on a season ticket deposit and promise a free jersey. Will I get that jersey, or the possibility to purchase any other merchandise before April 18th? If I make the roadtrip to Hamilton, should I wear a Fury kit instead?

3) The closest opponent to Ottawa is of course York 9. The Friday night games is not ideal for us to travel to the GTA . Ottawa hosts York 9 on Saturday nights. You're welcome. 

[Cblake]

1 hour ago, Olympique_de_Marseille said:

1) The schedule release was a bit glitchy since the article linked to the schedule - but the website version wasn't actually working yet.

(At 2:10pm EST the https://canpl.ca/schedule link was not working - anticlimactic).

2) Atlético Ottawa wants me to drop $50 on a season ticket deposit and promise a free jersey. Will I get that jersey, or the possibility to purchase any other merchandise before April 18th? If I make the roadtrip to Hamilton, should I wear a Fury kit instead?

3) The closest opponent to Ottawa is of course York 9. The Friday night games is not ideal for us to travel to the GTA . Ottawa hosts York 9 on Saturday nights. You're welcome. 

Assume York is trying to stay away from TFC who play Saturdays.

[Unnamed Trialist]

Related to the table. 

I am also concerned about the format, in the end it would be better to have a final champion, the league champion. 

I think the Canadian Championship gives all clubs a shot at another trophy.

Nor am I so convinced that fan interest will drop dramatically late in the season if the team is not doing well. I think the drop in fans is only partial, most fans tend to go out to see a team regardless. 

That said, the playoff format, if we have to have it, is a bit thin. Having done semis and finals as knockouts might have been better, gets 4 teams into the mix.

If people think there should be a regular season trophy, maybe people should initiate a trophy project from the fans. It was done for the Voyageur's Cup. I was surprised the combined supporter groups last year did not come up with a proposal, as is the trophy itself is rather poor--I don't even remember what Cavalry got for winning the first half season.

[ted]

13 hours ago, Kent said:

For me I like each of regular season and cup competitions for different reasons. Regular season is about the long haul, the percentages. Cup competition is about winning the big game, best teams against best teams. Both are great accomplishments with different merits/downsides.

Fixed that for you.

We don't need the bastardized "playoffs" when cup competitions have a long and storied history in football.

[Aird25]

I love this format compared to last season, but the league winner and playoff winner should be given separate awards

[Terry_Canuck]

I also think the league did the right thing in having the first place team gain a bye to the final.  A single table is OK as well...I never really warmed up to the split season.  

As it is only 8 teams, I think 4 in the playoffs sort of devalues it a bit in that you may have two really good teams, a decent third-place team, and a poor fourth team.  You may have a situation where the fourth place team has more losses than wins, so I'm OK with this format on the whole.