2015 Canadian Championship

The 2015 Canadian Championship (officially the Amway Canadian Championship for sponsorship reasons) was a soccer tournament hosted and organized by the Canadian Soccer Association. It was the eighth edition of the annual Canadian Championship, and took place in the cities of Edmonton, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver in 2015. The participating teams were Ottawa Fury FC and FC Edmonton of the North American Soccer League, the second-level of the Canadian Soccer Pyramid, and Montreal Impact, Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps FC of Major League Soccer, the first-level of Canadian club soccer. Montreal Impact were the two-time defending champions.

2015 Canadian Championship

2015 Amway Canadian Championship (in English) Championnat Canadien Amway 2015 (in French)
Tournament details
Country	Canada
Dates	April 22 – August 26, 2015
Teams	5
Final positions
Champions	Vancouver Whitecaps FC (1st title)
Runner-up	Montreal Impact
Tournament statistics
Matches played	8
Goals scored	25 (3.13 per match)
Attendance	88,844 (11,106 per match)
Top goal scorer(s)	Tomi Ameobi (4 goals)
Awards
George Gross Memorial Trophy	Russell Teibert
← 2014 2016 →

The winner, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, were awarded the Voyageurs Cup and will become Canada's entry into the Group stage of the 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League. This is a permanent change from procedure used in the past, where the Canadian Champion qualified for the CONCACAF Champions League beginning the same year (in this case, 2015–16).

The tournament moved to an April–August timeframe from its usual April–June timeframe^[1] to accommodate the schedule of the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup held in Canada. It was permanently moved to a June/July timeframe in 2016.^[2]

Qualified teams

Team	League	Position	Appearance
Vancouver Whitecaps FC	MLS	9th	8th
Toronto FC	MLS	13th	8th
Montreal Impact	MLS	19th	8th
Ottawa Fury FC	NASL	6th	1st
FC Edmonton	NASL	9th	5th

Bracket

The three Major League Soccer and two NASL Canadian clubs are seeded according to their final position in 2014 league play, with both NASL clubs playing in the preliminary round, the winner of which advance to the semifinals.^[1]

All rounds of the competition are played via a two-leg home-and-away knock-out format. The higher seeded team has the option of deciding which leg it played at home. The team that scores the greater aggregate of goals in the two matches advances. Vancouver Whitecaps FC, was declared champion and earned the right to represent Canada in the 2016–17 CONCACAF Champions League.^[2]

Each series is a two-game aggregate goal series with the away goals rule.

	Preliminary round						Semifinals						Final
							4 FC Edmonton[a]	1	1	2
							1 Vancouver Whitecaps FC[a]	1	2	3
	FC Edmonton	3	3	6
	Ottawa Fury FC	1	1	2
													Vancouver Whitecaps FC	2	2	4
													Montreal Impact	2	0	2
							2 Toronto FC	0	3	3
							3 Montreal Impact (a)	1	2	3

1. Although Vancouver was originally scheduled to host the second leg, the order of legs were reversed as heavy snow caused the match in Edmonton to be postponed.

Matches

Preliminary round

Ottawa Fury FC	1–3	FC Edmonton
Oliver 1'	Report	Fordyce 83' Laing 87' Ameobi 90+4'

April 22, 2015

19:30 EDT (UTC-04)^[3]

TD Place Stadium, Ottawa, Ontario

Attendance: 2,402

Referee: Geoff Gamble

FC Edmonton	3–1	Ottawa Fury FC
Ameobi 9' Nyassi 15' Fordyce 81' (pen.)	Report	Wiedeman 32'

April 29, 2015

20:00 MDT (UTC-06)^[3]

Clarke Stadium, Edmonton, Alberta

Attendance: 1,858

Referee: Drew Fischer

FC Edmonton won 6–2 on aggregate.

---

Semifinals

Montreal Impact	1–0	Toronto FC
McInerney 68'	Report

May 6, 2015

19:30 EDT (UTC-04)^[3]

Saputo Stadium, Montreal, Quebec

Attendance: 12,518

Referee: Silviu Petrescu

Toronto FC	3–2	Montreal Impact
Altidore 22' Cheyrou 56' Giovinco 58'	Report	Cooper 25' Oduro 84'

May 13, 2015

19:30 EDT (UTC-04)^[3]

BMO Field, Toronto, Ontario

Attendance: 21,069^[4]

Referee: Mathieu Bourdeau

3–3 on aggregate. Montreal Impact won on away goals.

---

Vancouver Whitecaps FC	1–1	FC Edmonton
Koffie 87'	Report	Ameobi 4'

May 13, 2015

19:00 PDT (UTC-07)^[3]

BC Place, Vancouver, British Columbia

Attendance: 15,183^{[citation needed]}

Referee: David Gantar

FC Edmonton	1–2	Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Ameobi 90+1' (pen.)	Report	Morales 9' (pen.) Laba 90+7'

May 20, 2015^[†]

20:00 MDT (UTC-06)

Clarke Stadium, Edmonton, Alberta

Attendance: 3,803^[5]

Referee: Silviu Petrescu

Vancouver won 3–2 on aggregate.

1. ^
   Edmonton had originally been scheduled to host the first leg of the semi-finals against Vancouver in Edmonton on May 6, 2015 but the match was postponed due to snow.^[6]

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Final

Montreal Impact	2–2	Vancouver Whitecaps FC
Ciman 84' Jackson-Hamel 85'	Report	Mattocks 65' Morales 72'

August 12, 2015^[1]

Saputo Stadium, Montreal, Quebec

Attendance: 12,395

Referee: David Gantar

Vancouver Whitecaps FC	2–0	Montreal Impact
Rivero 40' Parker 53'	Report

August 26, 2015^[1]

BC Place, Vancouver, British Columbia

Attendance: 19,616

Referee: Silviu Petrescu

Vancouver won 4–2 on aggregate.

Goalscorers

Rank	Player	Team	Goals
1	Tomi Ameobi	FC Edmonton	4
2	Daryl Fordyce	FC Edmonton	2
	Pedro Morales	Vancouver Whitecaps FC
4	Jozy Altidore	Toronto FC	1
	Benoît Cheyrou	Toronto FC
	Laurent Ciman	Montreal Impact
	Kenny Cooper	Montreal Impact
	Sebastian Giovinco	Toronto FC
	Anthony Jackson-Hamel	Montreal Impact
	Gershon Koffie	Vancouver Whitecaps FC
	Matías Laba	Vancouver Whitecaps FC
	Lance Laing	FC Edmonton
	Darren Mattocks	Vancouver Whitecaps FC
	Jack McInerney	Montreal Impact
	Sainey Nyassi	FC Edmonton
	Dominic Oduro	Montreal Impact
	Oliver	Ottawa Fury FC
	Tim Parker	Vancouver Whitecaps FC
	Octavio Rivero	Vancouver Whitecaps FC
	Andrew Wiedeman	Ottawa Fury FC

References

1. "Schedule for 2015 Amway Canadian Championship set" (Press release). Canadian Soccer Association. February 4, 2015. Archived from the original on October 12, 2016. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
2. "Canada Soccer announces move to new time-frame for future Amway Canadian Championships" (Press release). Canadian Soccer Association. March 21, 2014. Archived from the original on August 20, 2016. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
3. "Canada Soccer confirms Amway Canadian Championship kick off times" (Press release). Canadian Soccer Association. April 9, 2015. Retrieved April 19, 2015.
4. "Match Timeline". mlssoccer.com. Soccer United Marketing LLC. May 13, 2015. Archived from the original on May 16, 2015.
5. "Eddies Fall Short 2-1 In Dramatic ACC Semifinal Thriller". fcedmonton.com. May 21, 2015. Archived from the original on May 21, 2015. Retrieved May 21, 2015.
6. "Storify: Snowed out in Edmonton". Vancouver Whitecaps FC. Retrieved May 10, 2015.