While U.S.-based teams compete for their national title in a grueling tournament that can force teams to play as many as six extra matches in the middle of their season, the Canadians have been crowning their champions in a considerably less arduous manner. Since starting to crown their own champion in a separate tournament in 2008, there have been no more than three teams competing and the teams haven’t had to play more than four matches. On the plus side, the Canadian tournament has forced the winner to play every other team in the tournament.
Voyageurs Cup Drops Round-Robin Format, Will Play Two Semifinals Instead
With FC Edmonton joining the NASL next season, there will be a fourth team added to the mix. Rather than continuing the round-robin format of the tournament, the Canada Soccer Association has opted to go with a far less time consuming format of playing a pair of semifinals. The four teams will be seeded based on their finish from last year, meaning Toronto FC will play Edmonton and the Montreal Impact will play the Vancouver Whitecaps.
This news did not sit well with 86 Forever’s Benjamin Massey.
There’s obviously a point at which the Voyageurs Cup would have to move on from the round robin. The Voyageurs Cup can’t drag on through the entire calendar. But drawing the line here, with the competition still relatively small and unaccepted by MLS casuals, and a new generation of fans in Vancouver and Montreal having to be introduced to the competition, is the height of absurdity.
The timing of this format change seems particularly poor, as it coincides with Western Canada having two high-level teams for the first time since 2004. As Massey points out, Edmonton and Vancouver are natural rivals - not to mention Montreal and Toronto - and no team is guaranteed to face their most natural rival in this tournament.
This will be the first time in the soon-to-be 10-year-old trophy’s history that the teams won’t all be guaranteed to play one another at home and away (the trophy used to be awarded based on teams’ regular season performances against one another prior to 2008). Now, the teams won’t even play each other once.
Considering a spot in the preliminary round of the CONCACAF Champions League is on the line, this seems like an unnecessarily short tournament. It also seems to be missing an opportunity to reach a new set of fans.
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