The Northern Super League has released its schedule for 2026. The season will open on April 24 with a rematch between Vancouver Rise FC and AFC Toronto, who faced each other in last year’s final. Those two are the only teams who took home hardware last season: Toronto won the shield after finishing at the top of the standings, but Vancouver beat them in thrilling fashion to take home the championship. The season opener will take place in British Columbia at Swangard Stadium.
Each team will have their home opener within the first two matchweeks.
Notably, the season will only pause for FIFA international windows — not for the men’s World Cup, which is taking place across North America, including in Toronto and Vancouver. The Vancouver games will take place at BC Place, not Vancouver Rise’s home grounds at Swangard. In Toronto, the World Cup games will take place at BMO Stadium, where AFC Toronto will play six of their 13 home matches (last season, they played just two regular season matches there). The rest of their matches, including every match in June and July, will take place at the smaller York Lions Stadium, which played host to almost all their home games last year.
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The regular season will run until Oct. 26, followed by playoffs then the Final on Nov. 14. The playoffs, which start in a spooky fashion on Oct. 31, will consist of home and away semifinals that will be scored on aggregate. The top four teams will make the playoffs.
The league’s second season will have the same structure as its first: each of the six teams will play each other five times, for a 25-match schedule. Diana Matheson, league co-founder and Chief Growth Officer, has said that one of the reasons the league is looking forward to adding a team in 2027 is it will allow each team to play each other home and away equally; five games per opponent is awkward for scheduling.
The NSL’s first offseason has seen plenty of player movement. Halifax Tides FC, which finished in last place in 2025, will look especially different, with at least eight new players on the roster. Two players were traded from Vancouver to other NSL clubs: Lisa Pechersky heads to the Montreal Roses, and Samantha Chang joins Toronto.
The league will be without two of its former marquee players for its second season. Longtime Canadian international Desiree Scott, who had been the face of Ottawa Rapid in the NSL’s inaugural season, retired, and is now the Director of Technical Development & Initiatives at a youth club in Winnipeg.
Emma Regan, the 26-year-old midfielder who has made a name for herself on Canada’s senior team and captained Toronto on their way to regular season glory while playing every minute, transferred to Denver Summit FC, one of two expansion teams entering the NWSL in 2026.
