Last season, Cavalry and Forge made the Canadian Premier League their own personal horse race. There was a wide gulf between the league’s top two teams and the chasing pack. So, how does the field close the gap, to make sure the CPL’s second season is more competitive than the first? As the expansion team, Atletico Ottawa has the most work to do. But, Valour FC coach Rob Gale and HFX Wanderers boss Stephen Hart are, self-admittedly, going back to the drawing board themselves. RELATED READING: Analyzing each CPL club’s roster as pre-season kicks off "To be honest, Stephen and ourselves, we’re starting all over again," said Gale. "Pacific will have a pretty big turnaround, too. They have some players returning… but I expect they will have a very different starting 11 on the field. York9 and Edmonton, they may be in the position where they feel they just need to tweak it a bit." Valour FC have announced just four returnees. "I have to say we weren’t close to where we needed to be," Gale said. Wanderers, so far, have only announced seven returning players, with 12 new additions. Compare that to the Eddies, who now have 15 returning players after Amer Didic's return from a pre-season stint the Whitecaps. And one of Edmonton’s "new" signings is Hanson Boakai, who played for the club in its NASL days. York9 has 11 announced returnees. Why are returning players, or the lack of the them, so important in the context of catching Forge and Valour? Hart felt that a big reason those two teams dominated was because their rosters featured players who were already familiar with each other. They had built-in chemistry. As teams began making their player announcements before the 2019 season kickoff, Hart recognized three teams should have an advantage. Cavalry FC had brought together a lot of players who were familiar with coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. through their time together with Foothills of the PDL (now USL League Two). Forge FC coach Bobby Smyrniotis had a lot of players who were familiar with each other through various elite Ontario-based clubs. And FC Edmonton, as a team that had existed for nearly a decade in the NASL, was hitting the ground running. "Once we saw how the players were going to be allocated, we sort of knew Cavalry and Forge were going to be frontrunners," said Hart. "And Edmonton as well, because of all of the experience they had as a club." Hart’s predictions were two-thirds correct. Cavalry and Forge, in both the Spring and Fall seasons, ran away from the pack. They were the class of the league, and their rivalry became a focal point for CPL followers throughout the season. Hart feels that this year’s table will be tighter than it was in 2019, but the key for the challengers is creating that sense of continuity, that sense of togetherness, that Cavalry and Forge had right from the get-go in 2019? Wheeldon and Smyrniotis retained many core parts, so it’s not like either have to go back to the drawing board. Heck, Forge has yet to announce a new signing for 2020. The key for the chasing pack will be how each team can have great chemistry from day one. So, in a six-week preseason, Hart has to find a way to build that chemistry, those bonds between players, that might come a lot more naturally to other sides. RELATED READING: 8 questions for each CPL club going into pre-season camps He said the players coming in have to have a "consistency in the way they approach things." And, several times over the course of our chat, he used the word, "balance." A team that has veterans who can show the younger players what it means to be a professional. A team with players who can adapt quickly to their new teammates. This can be accelerated with exhibition games, but Hart admitted it’s likely tougher for him than any other CPL coach to arrange friendlies because, well, location, location, location. "We will be working for six weeks ahead of the kickoff, and we’d like to have some developmental games and some competitive games against very good opposition," he said. "But, located as we are, it’s a challenge for us to arrange those sorts of games." Gale said that he and Hart are at a natural disadvantage to the rest of the league. Alberta, British Columbia and Ontario have more advanced soccer infrastructures, higher player registration numbers and deeper talent pools than Manitoba or the Atlantic Provinces. But, now with a year of experience, Gale feels Canadian players who had their debut pro seasons in 2019, or those on the outside looking in, will better understand the day-to-day commitment it takes to get to the level of a Cavalry or a Forge. "It’s about playing for the crest on the front of the shirt, not the name on the back," he said. "We need players with a ‘we’ mentality, not a ‘me’ mentality. When things get tough, we see what players are in it for themselves. That’s the way sport reveals character."
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