The Best Sights of CPL Round Five

One team was feeling very much at home while others strived to pick up good results in the fifth week of the 2021 Canadian Premier League season.

Round five saw a slow start from its opening fixtures: A handful of good chances from either side being blocked and flying short of the goal mouth resulted in the HFX Wanderers and Pacific FC finishing in a goalless draw, as was the York United-Cavalry match-up where tempers ran high as neither team could find the net.

Mo Babouli broke the scoreless streak from the penalty spot thirty-eight minutes in to Forge's match-up with FC Edmonton. Moses Dyer followed that up in similar style but after many failed attempts by Valour led to a late penalty after Miguel Acosta handled the ball in the Atletico Ottawa box - a mistake which cost them the match, in which Valour goalie Jonathan Sirois made history with a record fifth straight clean sheet in the CPL.

The next match was more eventful: after much probing from Cavalry against the HFX Wanderers, in first half extra time Ahinga Selemani released Anthony Novak for a fast-break opening goal. Shortly into the second half, Ali Musse found himself in a congested HFX box, but still found the gap through to the bottom right corner for Cavalry's second goal.

The Wanderers went looking for a goal of their own and Samuel Salter finally broke Cavalry's clean sheet, outrunning their defence and finding the gap to goal. He very nearly had an equaliser but his eighty-eighth minute attempt skimmed over the bar and net and the win was Cavalry's, 2-1.

Following on from that, the disappointment of early near-misses by Pacific grew greater when a handball in the box gave Forge a penalty twenty minutes in, which Paolo Sabak converted. Ten minutes later Kyle Bekker found the back of the net from long range and at an indrect angle to put Forge ahead 2-0. They went looking for a third but Pacific defence were not going to allow any further damage.

A long range pass by Alessandro Hojabrpour found Josh Head in the box and free of the Forge defence to put Pacific on the scoresheet, but they were unable to get another shot on target, so Forge were victorious.

Next up it took just three minutes for the first attempt on goal by Atletico Ottawa. Though their attack on the FC Edmonton defence was haphazardly, but Zach Verhoven's strike was never within doubt to be the opening goal of the game. Edmonton went looking for a response right away but it would be until the last few minutes when a Fraser Arid corner fell to Hunter Gorskie to save proceedings for FCEd. They ended their two-match losing streak after drawing with Ottawa.

Valour continued their win streak against York United; first a Jose Galan corner found the head of Stefan Cabrera in a crowded box to give Valour the lead after just eighteen minutes. York had a chance to equalise after Jordan Wilson was fouled in the Valour box, but Osvaldo Ramirez's penalty was denied by Jonathan Sirois.

Just before half time Austin Ricci came out of nowhere to breeze past York's defence and Nathan Ingham was not able to reach the ball and prevent Valour's second goal. In the second half he scored a carbon copy of his first goal to make it 3-0 for Valour, which became the final score at the conclusion of another commanding performance from the de facto home team.

Playing at home has paid dividends for Valour, who sit at the top of the league table having only lost once so far. They are followed by Forge with Pacific and Cavalry below with an equal record. Ottawa, York, HFX and Edmonton are some distance behind them, but scenes this week show they have the potential to climb the ranks as the season progresses. Head over to the official CPL website for more, including full stats and details on every match.