The 2023 Canadian Championship () was the sixteenth edition of the

Canadian Championship The Canadian Championship (french: Championnat canadien) is an annual soccer tournament contested by premier Canadian professional teams. The winner is awarded the Voyageurs Cup and Canada's berth in the CONCACAF Champions League. It is contest ...

, the premier men's

domestic cup A domestic cup (also known as association cup or national cup) is a type of sports tournament, particularly common in association football. This tournament type is notable for its participation by professional and amateur teams from many levels of ...

competition in

Canadian soccer In Canada, soccer is the most popular sport in terms of participation rate. According to FIFA's Big Count, almost 2.7 million people played in Canada in 2006. Professional soccer in Canada is played in the Canadian Premier League and Major Leag ...

, and the 22nd competition staged to determine the winner of the

Voyageurs Cup The Voyageurs Cup (french: Coupe des Voyageurs) is the domestic trophy for professional soccer in Canada, awarded to the best men's and women's clubs in the country. The Cup was conceived and commissioned by fans of the Canada men's nationa ...

. It was a

knockout tournament A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking ...

with all eleven

professional A professional is a member of a profession or any person who works in a specified professional activity. The term also describes the standards of education and training that prepare members of the profession with the particular knowledge and skil ...

men's soccer teams in Canada, from

Major League Soccer Major League Soccer (MLS) is a men's professional soccer league sanctioned by the United States Soccer Federation, which represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The league comprises 29 teams—26 in the U.S. and 3 in Canada ...

and the

Canadian Premier League The Canadian Premier League (CPL or CanPL; french: Première ligue canadienne, links=no) is a professional men's Association football, soccer league in Canada. At the top of the Canadian soccer league system, it is the country's primary nationa ...

, competing, along with the champions of the three

semi-professional Semi-professional sports are sports in which athletes are not participating on a full-time basis, but still receive some payment. Semi-professionals are not amateur because they receive regular payment from their team, but generally at a consid ...

League1 Canada League1 Canada (L1C; french: Ligue1 Canada) is a national soccer competition in Canada which acts as the third tier in the Canadian soccer league system below the Canadian Premier League, consisting of the highest level sanctioned provincial le ...

competitions. The tournament marked the first Voyageurs Cup campaign for

FC Laval FC Laval (formerly CS Fabrose) is a Canadian semi-professional soccer club based in Laval, Quebec that plays in the Première Ligue de soccer du Québec. In 2021, CS Fabrose merged with youth clubs CS Chomedey and Delta Laval to form FC Laval. ...

TSS FC Rovers TSS FC Rovers are a Canadian association football, soccer team based in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada that play in League1 British Columbia. Established for the 2017 PDL season by general manager Will Cromack and head coach Colin Elmes, the ...

and

Vancouver FC Vancouver Football Club, commonly known as Vancouver FC, is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club in Langley, British Columbia (district municipality), Langley, British Columbia. The club competes in the Canadian Premier Le ...

. The winners of the tournament,

Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer team based in Vancouver. They compete in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The MLS iteration of the club was established on Marc ...

became the most decorated team in the United States and Canada by achieving a record thirteen major honours, and earned a berth in the

2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup The 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup will be the 59th edition of the CONCACAF Champions Cup, the premier football club competition organized by CONCACAF, the regional governing body of North America, Central America, and the Caribbean. The tournament ...

Format

The winner of the 2022 Canadian Championship,

, and runner-up

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club (commonly known as Toronto FC or TFC) is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matches at BMO ...

, both received byes to the quarter-finals. The remaining 12 teams began the competition from the first round in April. Qualification to the Canadian Championship for 2023 was automatic for Canadian teams within

and for all teams within the

, Canada's tier-one national league. The 2022 champions from the three regional pro-am leagues of

(

League1 Ontario League1 Ontario (L1O) is a semi-professional men's soccer league in Ontario, Canada. The league began play in 2014 and is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the Ontario Soccer Association as a pro-am league in the Canadian so ...

, PLSQ, and

League1 British Columbia League1 British Columbia (L1BC) is a semi-professional men's and women's association football, soccer league in British Columbia, Canada, which began play in May 2022. The league is sanctioned by the Canadian Soccer Association and the British ...

) also qualified. The 2023 Canadian Championship determined a place in the continental

tournament. If the winner had already qualified for the Champions Cup via berths in the 2023 Major League Soccer,

2023 Leagues Cup The 2023 Leagues Cup will be the third edition of the Leagues Cup, an inter-league soccer tournament between Major League Soccer and Liga MX. It will be held from July 21 to August 19, 2023, with all 77 matches held in either the United Sta ...

2023 Canadian Premier League The 2023 Canadian Premier League season is the fifth season of the Canadian Premier League, the top level of Canadian soccer. The 2023 CPL playoff champion and 2023 CPL regular season winner will both earn berths in the newly expanded 2024 CONCA ...

, the place would have gone to the runners-up in the final, and then to the "higher-ranked" semi-finalist based on as-of-yet unspecified criteria, if the runners-up had also already qualified. Matches in the 2023 tournament were each played as a single 90-minute match with additional time. If a match ended in a draw, no

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

was played, and the match went straight to a

penalty shoot-out The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

to decide the winner. Each team competing in the tournament could select up to 30 players to their tournament roster. If a player already nominated to a team's tournament roster was transferred to a competing team during the tournament, they were disqualified from further play in the tournament. For each match, teams could select up to 18 players for a match roster, while their

starting lineup In sports, a starting lineup is an official list of the set of players who will participate in the event when the game begins. The players in the starting lineup are commonly referred to as ''starters'', whereas the others are ''substitutes'' o ...

had to include at least three Canadian players. Both teams could make up to five substitutions and two concussion substitutions throughout the match at up to three stoppages of play, excluding half-time.

Teams

Draw

On January 17, 2023,

Canada Soccer The Canadian Soccer Association (Canada Soccer) is the governing body of soccer in Canada. It is a national organization that oversees the Canadian men's and women's national teams for international play, as well as the respective junior sides ...

announced that the draw for the championship would be held on January 31 at 8:00 pm ET. The draw details and pots were announced on January 24. Due to the early start of the tournament, only 5 of 12 teams were able to host to host a match in the first round. Teams were assigned into pots based on geography (east or west) and hosting ability. Prior to the commencement of the draw, one club from Pot B1 was moved into Pot A1, then one club from Pot B2 was moved to B1, and then both clubs from Pot C were moved to Pot B2, resulting in an even distribution of three teams in each of the first round pots.

Atlético Ottawa Atlético Ottawa is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Ottawa, Ontario. The club competes in the Canadian Premier League and plays its home games at TD Place Stadium, TD Place. The team was founded in 2020 by Spa ...

and the

HFX Wanderers HFX Wanderers Football Club, commonly known as HFX Wanderers, and spoken as Halifax Wanderers, is a Canadian professional soccer club in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The club competes in the Canadian Premier League at the top of the Canadian soccer le ...

were placed in Pot B2 prior to the draw as the eastern teams that did not commit to hosting a match in the first round. The Wanderers were eventually drawn from Pot A1 as the designated home team for their first round match against Ottawa, and Canada Soccer determined a

neutral venue In team sports, the term home advantage – also called home ground, home field, home-field advantage, home court, home-court advantage, defender's advantage or home-ice advantage – describes the benefit that the home team is said to gai ...

for the match. Final positions : Could not host a Preliminary Round match.

Schedule

Bracket

Preliminary round

Summary

Matches

---- ---- ---- ---- ----

Quarter-finals

Summary

Matches

---- ---- ----

Semi-finals

Summary

Matches

----

Final

Top goalscorers

Awards

George Gross Memorial Trophy The George Gross Memorial Trophy is awarded to the most valuable player of the Canadian Championship. It is named after George Gross, a highly respected sports journalist who covered soccer for the ''Toronto Telegram'' and ''Toronto Sun''. Th ...

Julian Gressel Julian Emil Kurt Gressel (born December 16, 1993) is a professional soccer player who plays as a full-back for Major League Soccer club Vancouver Whitecaps. Born in Germany, he represents the United States national team. He began his career in G ...

(Vancouver Whitecaps FC) * Best Young Canadian Player Award: Ali Ahmed (Vancouver Whitecaps FC)

Broadcasting rights

Notes

References

External links

Canadian Championship
at

{{DEFAULTSORT:Canadian Championship, 2023 2023 domestic association football cups 2023 in Canadian soccer 2023 North American domestic association football cups

2023 Canadian Championship The 2023 Canadian Championship () was the sixteenth edition of the Canadian Championship, the premier men's domestic cup competition in Soccer in Canada, Canadian soccer, and the 22nd competition staged to determine the winner of the Voyageurs ...