PAIN ... AND GAIN
Elks' challenges could work out for soccer fans
It may be a poison pill for the Edmonton Elks. But it could be a sweet treat for Alphonso Davies and Canadian soccer.
The result of schedule shuffling will force a torture test for the unfortunate CFL teams that test positive for COVID. But it almost certainly will mean that arguably two of Canada's most important World Cup qualifying games will now be held in Commonwealth Stadium.
The CFL has informed the Edmonton Elks that in order not to forfeit a game and cost players a paycheque due to their 13-player COVID -19 outbreak, that they'll be forced to play an insane three games in seven days — all on the road — to conclude the shortened 14-game regular season schedule.
They'll now be forced to play in Regina on Saturday Nov. 13, in Toronto on Tuesday Nov. 16 and in Vancouver on Friday Nov. 19. While the CFL will allow an expanded roster for the Toronto-edmonton game to help compensate, that's still the type of schedule not seen since the best-of-three playoff series in the West in the 1950s and '60s.
That's the bad news for the team that for years used to play on Labour Day Monday in Calgary, then back in Edmonton on the Friday. This year Edmonton finds itself having to play the now Monday-saturday Labour Day doubleheader following a 10-day quarantine with 17 days between games.
But there appears to be good news — and it would be very good news for Edmonton, a city already awarded the London, England HSBC Rugby Sevens stop Sept. 25-26.
It hasn't been announced yet, but the Edmonton Elks COVID outbreak is expected to result in Edmonton getting the gift of a double homecoming of Davies and Canada's national men's soccer team in two of their biggest games of World Cup Qualifying.
Davies, the Edmonton product who became an international soccer star with Bayern Munich in the German Bundesliga, has never played a game before the paying public in Edmonton before.
Now, the schedule has been cleared to allow him to play the likely massive matches against Mexico and Costa Rica in mid-november in Commonwealth Stadium.
The shuffle of CFL dates required to reschedule Edmonton's postponed visit to BMO Stadium in Toronto has resulted in the change of a home game date in November in Commonwealth Stadium.
The Elks at Argos game that was postponed from Aug. 26 because of the Elks COVID-19 outbreak has been rescheduled to Tuesday Nov. 16.
Another organization that previously had a hold on that date at BMO Field — believed to be Soccer Canada — agreed to relinquish it if accommodated elsewhere.
“Elsewhere” almost certainly translates to be in Edmonton.
While a game against Jamaica is scheduled on the BMO grass in Toronto Oct. 10, sandwiched between games in Mexico City and Panama, the sites of the Nov. 12 game versus Costa Rica and Nov. 16 game against Mexico were on hold.
The obvious assumption is that Soccer Canada freeing up the date in Toronto contributed to the need to get the Saskatchewan Roughriders to switch dates with the Elks for their back-to-back November games.
Edmonton's Friday Nov. 5 game in Regina will now be played in Edmonton on the same date. The Roughriders game scheduled for Saturday Nov. 13 in Edmonton will now be played in Mosaic Stadium on that date.
That clears Commonwealth Stadium to be able to play the two games here during the FIFA World Cup Qualifying window in which players are permitted to leave their club teams to attempt to qualify for the 2022 World Cup.
Canada opened the final round of World Cup qualifying Thursday with a 1-1 draw against Honduras in Toronto. They'll play an away game against the United States Sunday in Nashville and return to Toronto to play El Salvador Wednesday.
In all there are eight nations in the CONCACAF qualifying double round robin to send the top three teams to the World Cup (and fourth to a playoff against a team from another federation). Only once has Canada ever played in a World Cup previously — failing to win a game or score a goal in Mexico 1984.
Canada hadn't made it to this stage of World Cup qualifying since 1908 when games were also held here.
Davies went more than a calendar year without visiting his family and friends in Edmonton due to the coronavirus quarantine requirements but did get home for about 10 days at the end of Bayern Munich's season.
The 2026 World Cup will be shared by Canada-usa-mexico. It was Davies, a teenager most Canadians had never heard of, who was Canada's presenter in the bid presentation in Moscow.
While the mid-november dates are normally reserved for the CFL'S Western Final — and there have been some frigid finals here over the years — forcing Mexico and Costa Rica to play here in such weather would be welcomed by Soccer Canada officials as a way to balance the altitude and heat the team usually has to deal with in Mexico City.