The opening weekend of the 2022 Canadian Premier League season – and a revised playoff format to go along with it – was unveiled Wednesday during the Canadian men’s national team’s 2022 Concacaf World Cup qualifier against El Salvador seen on OneSoccer and Sportsnet. The 2022 CPL Season Opening weekend, presented by WestJet, will commence on the second weekend of April with York United hosting HFX Wanderers FC in a special Thursday night affair on April 7th (7:30pm ET) at York Lions Stadium. Opening weekend fixtures are highlighted by a rematch of the 2021 CPL Final, with reigning champions Pacific FC hosting Forge FC at Starlight Stadium on Sunday, April 10th (4:00pm PT/7:00pm ET). The remaining opening fixtures are Atletico Ottawa hosting Cavalry FC at TD Place on Saturday, April 9th (3:00pm ET) and FC Edmonton taking on Valour FC at Clarke Stadium on Sunday (2:00pm MT/3:00pm CT). The league will release the full 2022 schedule presented by WestJet on Thursday, February 3 at 2:00pm ET. Also unveiled live on OneSoccer Wednesday is CPL’s new playoff format for the 2022 season. A four-team playoff is still in place, like in 2021, but with the semi-final rounds – set to be played Saturday, October 15th and Saturday, October 22nd – becoming two-legged affairs between 1st vs. 4th and 2nd vs. 3rd in the regular season. This is a change from the 2021 CPL season, which featured single-legged ties in the semi-final round. The 2022 CPL Final will be a one-match winner-take-all affair, set to be played at the higher seed’s home stadium on Saturday, October 29th. Like in 2019 and 2021, the 2022 CPL regular season will include 28 matches per club.
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