About

Introduction This is the Northern 90 Podcast with Pat Sweet, Episode 16. Welcome to the Northern 90 Canadian Premier League Podcast, covering the beautiful game in the great white north. For more Canadian Premier League content, head over to Northern90.ca. That’s Northern Nine Zero dot ca. Welcome Hello, Canada, and welcome to the Northern 90 Canadian Premier League Podcast! I'm your host, Pat Sweet. In this week's episode, I interview Julian Buscher of Calvary FC. First, of course, let's dig into this week's CPL news and results. News Results Since we last spoke: Thursday, May 2 Pacific FC 1 - Valour FC 2 Saturday, May 4 HFW Wanderers FC 2 - Forge FC 1 Cavalry FC 2 - York 9 1 Valour FC 1 - FC Edmonton 2 Five teams tied for top spot with three points with FC Edmonton and Calvary FC leading on points per game. York 9 and Forge are the only teams who've yet to pick up a win, putting them at the bottom of the table. League leader in goals: Kadel Thomas League leader in assists: Trick question - there are 8 players with one assist each Most tackles: Ndzemdzela Langwa with 18, and 13 of those won Obviously, there's more to come, but I'll keep an eye on these things as the season progresses. News HFX Wanderers FC has signed a former member of the Vaughn Azzurri in defender Matthew Arnone. Arnone joins former Azzurri teammate Thomas Skublak. Arnone will provide defensive depth, and will no doubt be called on for scouting notes ahead of the Wanderers' matchup with the Vaughn Azzurri in Canadian Championship action starting May 15. Of note is the fact that York 9 FC, the other CPL team facing off against a semi-pro team, in this case, A.S. Blainville, also has a former member of their opposition on their roster - Diyaeddine Abzi. There was an interesting article in the Hamilton Spectator about Forge FC's schedule congestion and playing 4 games in 13 days. The article made the point that by the end of that stretch, their spring season will be half over. Other Business I went to my first CPL game! Forge FC visited Halifax last weekend, and I had a blast. A few observations: Great game - high energy. The crowd was into it in a big way. ONEOKODAI and PeterSchaale we’re excellent for the home side. Kyle Bekker had a much better game today. The place was packed. You could hardly turn around in there. Quote of the night was from the school kid behind us saying that seeing this game was a dream come true. I met two of the guys from @FromAwaysHFX and one of the guys from @SeaToSeaPodcast and they are awesome I got to go to the press conference after the match, and it was interesting - neither coach was particularly happy. Have a listen to what the coaches had to say. Stephen Hart was pleased with the win, but still sees a lot of room for improvement. Bobby Smyrniotis was obviously looking for more from his squad. So, I had a blast, and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more games in the future. If you don't have plans to see a game yet - do it. You'll be amazed at the level of play and how great the atmosphere is. If you want even more CPL content, including the most important headlines delivered straight to your inbox, then sign up for the Northern 90 Supporters' group. When you join, you get a weekly newsletter with the top headlines, podcast notifications, access to private supporter's group Facebook group, and much much more. Also, it's free. Check it out at northern90.ca/join. Next up, I have a chat with Calvary FC's Julian Buscher on his deck. Interview with Julian Buscher I caught up with Julian a few weeks prior to the beginning of the CPL season. He's a really interesting player with respect to his experience prior to coming to the CPL - he'd featured regularly for DC United of the MLS and was captain of L.A. Galaxy II, and is someone that has come up on the podcast a couple of times already as someone to watch this year. Here's my interview with Julian Buscher. In talking to Julian it was clear to me that he saw the CPL as an excellent opportunity to reinvigorate his career. This is one of the more interesting things for me as an interviewer - the question of why people join this league. Some are getting their start, others are trying to get back into the groove, while others are making this where they spend their prime and make their mark. I really want to thank Julian again for his time and his candor! If you have ideas for someone you'd like to hear on the podcast, please do let me know in the show notes at northern90.ca/episode16. Next up, the mailbag. Mailbag You know how this works - you send me mail and messages and I read every single one of them. If what you send is extra good I read it on the podcast. Last week, my question of the week was about what you thought the good, the bad and the ugly were in the first week of the CPL. I got lots of good responses, but I'll share a few of the best on the show here: Febrian posted in the Northern 90 SG Facebook group that he thought the Good: positive play used by all 5 teams so far. With some highlight-worthy stuff. Bad: number of players cramping. Players tackling are not so refined that it often cross to the point of recklessness. Ugly: Bekker late tackle and that no disciplinary review has been made (yet). The Haber: back to back post. (he's not that bad otherwise though) Joe wrote me an email to say: The good - no team seems to be running away with the league so far. - the officiating has been outstanding. - officiating #2: not restricted to only males. Very impressed that a female was the head ref in Halifax. She was very good. - player conduct - so far very little if any diving  The bad - player maturity - mostly in the Valour PFC game. One Valour player was chirping at a down player. I think he got a yellow and hen chirped the ref. Gale was caught on camera telling his player to stop (which was good). - HFX vs Forge - not quite sure what was going on at the end of the game. There was a lot of blatant time-wasting followed by pushing and shoving on both sides. Do not want to see that The Ugly- nothing from the league yet on Kyle Bekker's elbow. It doesn't matter if he's a perceived star. It needs to be dealt with - fans chanting 'ref you suck'. Really? Let's leave the hockey hooliganism at the rink, which even there is not good. Heard that at a few games. Question of the Week Thanks so much for your answers to the question last week. This week's question: What has surprised your the most so far about the league? Leave a comment at northern90.ca/episode16 Write to me at pat at northern90.ca Fire me a note on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram @northernninety Of course, I love hearing from you on any topic - so whatever you want to share, just drop me a line. The Week Ahead There are a few games to look forward to over the next week or so: Wednesday, May 8 Pacific FC Visits Hamilton to play Forge FC and Valour FC take on Calvary FC at Spruce Meadows on These game will have been played by the time this episode airs. Sunday, May 11 Halifax travels to see Valour FC in Manitoba at 2:30 local time Sunday, May 12th, Cavalry FC is at Forge FC at 1PM local time. FC Edmonton takes on Pacific FC for their first game of the season at Clark Stadium. All games will be broadcast on One Soccer, and the Calvary versus Forge game will also be broadcast on CBC TV, CBC Sports, and CBC Gem. Take note also that the Canadian Championship gets underway next week with Halifax Wanderers FC visiting Vaughn Azzurri at the Ontario Soccer Centre in Vaughn, Ontario. Meanwhile, York 9 FC will travel to Blainville to take on A.S. Blainville. Finally, Cavalry FC and Pacific FC will duke it out in Westhills stadium. All games will be played on Wednesday, May 15th, and will be available through One Soccer. Outroduction That's all we've got for the show today. Next week, we'll be talking all about the Canadian Championship, and digging specifically into the non-CPL teams that are competing in the first round. I've got interviews lined up with the President of A.S. Blainville and former Impact de Montreal player Wandrille Lefevre, as well as some recordings from the Vaughn Azzurri, so you'll definitely want to tune it to that. If you liked the show, don't forget to subscribe to it, and when you do leave an honest review. That helps me make the show better and others find it. Also, if you've been enjoying this show, you should join my supporters' group. When you join you get a weekly newsletter with curated CPL content, access to a members-only Facebook group, contests, giveaways, fantasy leagues, all sorts of good stuff. And it's free. Check it out at northern90.ca/join. Thanks so much, Canada. Have a great week. Credits Featured Image Photo by Wuilmar Matias-Morales on Unsplash. Intro music Move Like This by spinningmerkaba (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: Texas Radio Fish, Alex Beroza, and Snowflake CPL Headlines Music Calm the F*** Down by Broke for Free (c) copyright 2010 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Main Content Intro Music 260809 Funky Nurykabe by spinningmerkaba (c) copyright 2010 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Mailbag Music I dunno by grapes (c) copyright 2008 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: J Lang, Morusque Outro music Urbana-Metronica (wooh-yeah mix) by spinningmerkaba (c) copyright 2011 Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (3.0) license. Ft: Morusque, Jeris, CSoul, Alex Beroza