The 2021 Canadian Championship was the fourteenth edition of the Canadian Championship, contested from August 15 to November 21, 2021. The winners of the tournament, CF Montréal, were awarded the Voyageurs Cup and earned a berth in the 2022 CONCACAF Champions League.
Format The competition followed a similar format to the originally proposed 2020 edition with four rounds and regional pairings in the first two rounds. For the first time in the Canadian Championship, each tie was played as a single-leg fixture. CF Montréal, Forge FC, and Toronto FC entered the tournament in the quarter-finals due to their placements in the 2019 and 2020 editions of the competition. All other teams entered in the preliminary round of the tournament.
A.S. Blainville and Master's FA were originally supposed to participate in the 2020 edition of the competition, as they won the 2019 editions of the Première ligue de soccer du Québec and League1 Ontario, respectively. As the format of the 2020 edition was revised, their participation was postponed to the 2021 tournament.
Distribution + Distribution of teams for 2021 Canadian Championship Round Teams entering in this round Teams advancing from previous round Preliminary round(10 teams) 1 champion of 2019 League1 Ontario season 1 champion of 2019 Première ligue de soccer du Québec season 7 Canadian Premier League teams 1 Major League Soccer team Quarter-finals(8 teams) 1 winner of the 2019 Canadian Championship 2 finalists of the 2020 Canadian Championship 5 winners from the preliminary round Semi-finals(4 teams) 4 winners from the quarter-finals Final(2 teams) 2 winners from the semi-finals
Qualified clubs
Club Location League Round of entry Previous best Prior appearances A.S. Blainville Blainville, Quebec Première ligue de soccer du Québec Preliminary round 2 Atlético Ottawa Ottawa, Ontario Canadian Premier League Preliminary round N/A 0 Cavalry FC Foothills County, Alberta Canadian Premier League Preliminary round 1 FC Edmonton Edmonton, Alberta Canadian Premier League Preliminary round 8 Forge FC Hamilton, Ontario Canadian Premier League Quarter-finals 1 HFX Wanderers Halifax, Nova Scotia Canadian Premier League Preliminary round 1 Master's FA Toronto, Ontario League1 Ontario Preliminary round N/A 0 CF Montréal Montreal, Quebec Major League Soccer Quarter-finals 12 Pacific FC Langford, British Columbia Canadian Premier League Preliminary round 1 Toronto FC Toronto, Ontario Major League Soccer Quarter-finals 12 Valour FC Winnipeg, Manitoba Canadian Premier League Preliminary round 1 Vancouver Whitecaps FC Vancouver, British Columbia Major League Soccer Preliminary round 12 York United FC Toronto, Ontario Canadian Premier League Preliminary round 1 Note Statistics include previous incarnations of FC Edmonton, Montreal Impact, and Vancouver Whitecaps Appearances in the 2020 Canadian Championship are not included for Toronto FC and Forge FC because it was not played until 2022
Schedule Round Dates TeamsPreliminary round August 15–2610 (Atlético Ottawa, A.S. Blainville, Cavalry FC, FC Edmonton, HFX Wanderers, Master's FA, Pacific FC, Valour FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, York United)Quarter-finals September 14–228 (Cavalry FC, CF Montréal, Forge FC, HFX Wanderers, Pacific FC, Toronto FC, Valour FC, York United)Semi-finals October 27 – November 3 4 (CF Montréal, Forge FC, Pacific FC, Toronto FC)Final November 21 2 (CF Montréal, Toronto FC)
Bracket The bracket was announced on July 19, 2021.
Preliminary round
Summary The preliminary round matches were held between August 15 and 26, 2021.
Matches
Quarter-finals
Summary
Matches
Semi-finals
Summary
Matches
Final
Match
Top goalscorers
RankPlayerTeamGoalsBy round 1 Austin RicciValour FC3212 Cory BentHFX Wanderers211 Terran CampbellPacific FC11 Alejandro DíazPacific FC1 1 Ryan GauldVancouver Whitecaps FC2 Ballou TablaCF Montréal 2 Julian UlbrichtYork United2
Awards George Gross Memorial Trophy: Sebastian Breza (CF Montréal) Best Young Canadian Player Award: Jacob Shaffelburg (Toronto FC)
References