2023 Canadian Championship

The winner of the 2022 Canadian Championship, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, and runner-up Toronto FC, both received byes to the quarter-finals. The remaining 12 teams began the competition from the first round in April.^[1] Qualification to the Canadian Championship for 2023 was automatic for Canadian teams within Major League Soccer and for all teams within the Canadian Premier League, Canada's tier-one national league. The 2022 champions from the three regional pro-am leagues of League1 Canada (League1 Ontario, PLSQ, and League1 British Columbia) also qualified.^[2]

The 2023 Canadian Championship determined a place in the continental 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup tournament.^[3][4] If the winner had already qualified for the Champions Cup via berths in the 2023 Major League Soccer, 2023 Leagues Cup or 2023 Canadian Premier League, the place would have gone to the runners-up in the final, and then to the "higher-ranked" semi-finalist based on league points totals,^[5] if the runners-up had also already qualified.^[4]

Matches in the 2023 tournament were each played as a single 90-minute match with additional time. If a match ended in a draw, no extra time was played, and the match went straight to a penalty shoot-out to decide the winner.^[6] Each team competing in the tournament could select up to 30 players to their tournament roster. If a player already nominated to a team's tournament roster was transferred to a competing team during the tournament, they were disqualified from further play in the tournament.^[6] For each match, teams could select up to 18 players for a match roster, while their starting lineup had to include at least three Canadian players. Both teams could make up to five substitutions and two concussion substitutions throughout the match at up to three stoppages of play, excluding half-time.^[6]

Pacific FC

Vancouver

Cavalry FC

Valour FC

Forge FC

Toronto

Atlético Ottawa

Montreal

HFX Wanderers

• Vancouver teams:
• TSS Rovers
• Vancouver FC
• Vancouver Whitecaps

• Toronto teams:
• Toronto FC
• Vaughan Azzurri
• York United

• Montreal teams:
• CF Montréal
• FC Laval

2023 Canadian Championship (Canada)

Locations of teams competing in the 2023 Canadian Championship

On January 17, 2023, Canada Soccer announced that the draw for the championship would be held on January 31 at 8:00 pm ET. The draw details and pots were announced on January 24.^[1] Due to the early start of the tournament, only 5 of 12 teams were able to host to host a match in the first round.^[7] Teams were assigned into pots based on geography (east or west) and hosting ability.^[7]

Prior to the commencement of the draw, one club from Pot B1 was moved into Pot A1, then one club from Pot B2 was moved to B1, and then both clubs from Pot C were moved to Pot B2, resulting in an even distribution of three teams in each of the first round pots.^[8] Atlético Ottawa and the HFX Wanderers were placed in Pot B2 prior to the draw as the eastern teams that did not commit to hosting a match in the first round. The Wanderers were eventually drawn from Pot A1 as the designated home team for their first round match against Ottawa, and Canada Soccer determined a neutral venue for the match.^[7]

Final positions

†: Could not host a Preliminary Round match.

Rank	Player	Team	Goals	By round
				PR	QF	SF	F
1	Sunusi Ibrahim	CF Montréal	3	1		1	1
2	Simon Becher	Vancouver Whitecaps FC	2		1	1
	Julian Gressel	Vancouver Whitecaps FC			1	1
	Noah Jensen	Forge FC		2
	Matteo Polisi	TSS FC Rovers		2
6	Ali Ahmed	Vancouver Whitecaps FC	1			1
	Molham Babouli	York United FC		1
	Ollie Bassett	Atlético Ottawa			1
	Kyle Bekker	Forge FC			1
	Myer Bevan	Cavalry FC		1
	Zachary Brault-Guillard	CF Montréal			1
	Diego Espejo	Atlético Ottawa		1
	Massimo Ferrin	HFX Wanderers FC		1
	Ryan Gauld	Vancouver Whitecaps FC					1
	Josh Heard	Pacific FC			1
	Lorenzo Insigne	Toronto FC			1
	Levonte Johnson	Vancouver Whitecaps FC			1
	Ariel Lassiter	CF Montréal				1
	Ivan Mejia	TSS FC Rovers		1
	Anthony Novak	Valour FC		1
	Chinonso Offor	CF Montréal			1
	Easton Ongaro	Pacific FC		1
	Woobens Pacius	Forge FC		1
	Sean Rea	CF Montréal		1
	Adonijah Reid	Pacific FC			1
	Austin Ricci	York United FC			1
	Malcolm Shaw	Atlético Ottawa		1
	Maxim Tissot	Atlético Ottawa		1
	Brian White	Vancouver Whitecaps FC					1

• 1 own goal - Elijah Adekugbe

• George Gross Memorial Trophy: Julian Gressel (Vancouver Whitecaps FC)^[13]
• Best Young Canadian Player Award: Ali Ahmed (Vancouver Whitecaps FC)^[13]