Two-thirds of Canada’s Major League Soccer contingent are set to enter the Canadian Championship next month, as the Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps learned their opponents for the tournament’s third round.
Both will face off against clubs from the Canadian Premier League, the new domestic league which kicked off this year.
Montreal will duel with York9 FC, based in the Toronto suburbs, in a two-legged home-and-home series on July 10 and 24 after York9 defeated FC Edmonton 3-1 on aggregate in the second round. Vancouver will meet Calgary-based Cavalry FC, who edged Forge FC 3-2 on aggregate, on the same dates. Both MLS sides will host the second and decisive legs, and the winners of those two series will face off in the semifinals.
As defending CanChamp title holders, Toronto FC have received a bye to the semifinal round of the competition, where they will play the winner of the other third-round series, Halifax Wanderers vs. USL Championship club Ottawa Fury. Both semifinal series are scheduled for August 7 and 14.
The Canadian Championship final will be a two-legged affair, with those matches set for Sept. 18 and 25; the winner qualifies for the Concacaf Champions League. This year marks the first edition of the expanded CanChamp, involving 13 clubs from across multiple levels of the nation’s soccer pyramid competing across five rounds of play.
