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NSL PHOTO
While the Calgary Wild and AFC Toronto are the Northern Super League’s red-hot clubs, the Week 26 matchup between the two teams sees the Mighty Maroons in desperation mode to maintain home-field advantage in the post-season.

Around the NSL: Penultimate matchup playoff implications

Grace Anne Paizen 4 minute read Friday, Oct. 16, 2026

And we’re back!

Hopefully the bye week gave everyone a chance to collect their breath as Week 23 only amplified the drama in the standings.

Ottawa drew 0-0 on the road against Montreal, Calgary drew 0-0 on the road against Halifax and Toronto took a 2-1 victory at home over visiting Vancouver.

While there was minimal shuffling in the standings — mainly the Mighty Maroons leapfrogging the Rapid for second overall — here’s a look at the remaining games and their implications with two weeks left in the regular season.

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Opinion

Thibault Camus / THE ASSOCAITED PRESS FILES
Former Girondins de Bordeaux defender Paul Baysse (left) has been hired as the club’s assistant coach. Baysse is part of Bordeaux’s rebuild after the team was sold early last month for one euro.

Rock bottom best thing to happen to Les Girondins

Jerrad Peters 4 minute read Preview

Rock bottom best thing to happen to Les Girondins

Jerrad Peters 4 minute read Friday, Oct. 16, 2026

You know things are dire when hitting rock bottom is a relief. You might be at your lowest point, but you still exist. The ground hasn’t swallowed you up, and while you lay prostrate, humiliated, you eventually understand that the only way is up.

Girondins de Bordeaux is at rock bottom — and lucky to be there. It is still, just barely, a football club. But it exists. And given how close it came to oblivion, existence is good enough for now. Not that it doesn’t hurt.

The dizziness of the drop, and pain of the landing, is felt in relation to the height from which you fell. Bordeaux fell from the top of the mountain.

On May 30, 2009, Les Girondins won its 11th match in a row and was crowned Ligue 1 champions for the sixth time. A month earlier, it had lifted the Coupe de la Ligue — a competition in which it drubbed Paris Saint-Germain at Parc des Princes in the semifinal.

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Friday, Oct. 16, 2026

Opinion

JON SUPER / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES
Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo (left) and Liverpool’s Florian Wirtz fight for the ball the last time the two sides met back in April. The Sky Blues are certain to get a rough welcome by Reds fans as the two clubs meet at Anfield next Sunday for the first time since Man City’s guilty verdict of breaking more than 100 Premier League financial rules between 2009 and 2018 — a span that saw Manchester take the league title and Carabao Cup over Liverpool.

Premier League would be all too relieved if Blues simply went away for a while

Jerrad Peters 5 minute read Preview

Premier League would be all too relieved if Blues simply went away for a while

Jerrad Peters 5 minute read Friday, Oct. 2, 2026

Manchester City will face Liverpool in the Premier League next weekend.

That is a statement of fact. The match will kick off Sunday, October 11 at 4:30 p.m. local time (10:30 a.m., CT, FuboTV) at Anfield, though the 90 minutes that follow will be more a spectacle than a game, if not a circus.

By now the football world — as well as the general news cycle and relevant authorities — has had more than a week to absorb the shock of the sport’s biggest tremor of recent times.

Man City, according to the findings of an independent commission, broke more than 100 of the Premier League’s financial rules between 2009 and 2018. Its breaches, per the ruling, were deliberate, premeditated and at industrial scale.

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Friday, Oct. 2, 2026

Soccer

NSL Photo
AFC Toronto forward Lena Silano (far right) robbed Ottawa goalkeeper Mollie Eriksson of the ball last Saturday before a beauty of an undefended finish to open the scoring. The Mighty Maroons would shut out the Rapid 3-0.

Around the NSL: Silano’s spectacular strike; Rapid treading water; Post-season posturing

Grace Anne Paizen 4 minute read Preview

Around the NSL: Silano’s spectacular strike; Rapid treading water; Post-season posturing

Grace Anne Paizen 4 minute read Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026

And just like that, the Northern Super League playoffs are nearly set with only fourth place — and home-field advantage, of course — up for grabs.

AFC Toronto is on a tear, and the Wild continue to terrorize the post-season race. Week 23 was a wild ride — pun intended.

With three weeks of the regular-season schedule remaining, the crystal ball of who has the best chance of taking the Diana B. Matheson Cup has never been cloudier.

And with a pivotal Friday night matchup, here’s an early edition of View from Row Z.

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Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026

Local Sports

Sports Looking Back: Oct. 1, 2026

1 minute read Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026

ON TELEVISION

MLB — Phillies at Braves, 1 p.m. (SNW); Red Sox at Yankees (if necessary), 7 p.m. (SNO); Cubs at Padres (if necessary), 9 p.m. (SN360)

NFL — Steelers at Browns, 7:15 p.m. (TSN3)

WNBA — Fever at Aces, 8 p.m. (TSN5)

Mike McIntyre / FREE PRESS
Landon Ferraro returns to Winnipeg as the colour commentator for TSN’s regional Winnipeg Jets broadcasts.

Ferraro gets call-up to the Jets

Mike McIntyre 6 minute read Preview

Ferraro gets call-up to the Jets

Mike McIntyre 6 minute read Wednesday, Sep. 30, 2026

Landon Ferraro vividly recalls the moment his NHL career came to an extremely painful end — Oct. 20, 2017, in downtown Winnipeg.

“My last play was a breakaway on Connor Hellebuyck,” Ferraro told the Free Press this week.

“I tried to poke the puck past the first D. It was me and (Dustin) Byfuglien chasing it down. I thought he was going to throw me across the ice, so I tried to cut in on him, and he moved. I overextended, and I literally ripped my abductor off the bone and gave myself a hernia.”

Ferraro — at the time playing forward for the visiting Minnesota Wild — said he managed to get off a weak shot that hit the Jets goaltender square in the chest. But his 77th appearance in the big leagues would be his last following previous stops with Detroit (which drafted him 32nd overall in 2009) and Boston.

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Wednesday, Sep. 30, 2026

Golf

Flop wedge needed at Phantom Lake Golf Club

Ryan Desjarlais 4 minute read Preview

Flop wedge needed at Phantom Lake Golf Club

Ryan Desjarlais 4 minute read Friday, Sep. 25, 2026

In a remote land of spruce, ptarmigan and rock, Flintabbatey Flonatin — an adventurer exploring the depths of Phantom Lake with his little submarine — discovered an underwater treasure trove of minerals. Once word spread among the prospecting community, the miners came, and the head frame of Flin Flon was born.

Now, that’s not exactly how The Sunless City novel reads, and Phantom Lake is actually in Saskatchewan, but my re-interpretation connects the dots enough to introducing Flin Flon’s links.

Phantom Lake Golf Club does not technically reside in Flin Flon, but rather in its twin community, Creighton, Sask. Indeed, as soon as you cross the border, you immediately turn south for a couple of clicks to the shores of Phantom Lake.

The very old river-stone clubhouse is up the hill from the parking lot. Folks with movement challenges might want to send the young bucks ahead to get the rental cart and bring it back to the parking lot to collect you and your sticks.

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Friday, Sep. 25, 2026

Soccer

Mark J. Terrill / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILES
Canada’s head coach Jesse Marsch will have to rely on a number of prospects during the team’s friendlies, a move that’s necessary due to injuries and absences rather than a generational shift.

Friendlies more of a juggle for Team Canada bench boss than homecoming

Jerrad Peters 4 minute read Preview

Friendlies more of a juggle for Team Canada bench boss than homecoming

Jerrad Peters 4 minute read Friday, Sep. 25, 2026

Ahead of the roster announcement for Canada’s upcoming friendlies, it might have been tempting to want a glimpse of the younger and fringier players who might just be the future of the national men’s program. An experimental squad, in other words.

Well, that is not what head coach Jesse Marsch has assembled in the run-up to matches against Chile, Peru and the United States. Yes, a number of prospects will see action, but their minutes have been necessitated more by injuries and absences than a generational shift.

After all, the purpose of this international window isn’t to anticipate coming accomplishments, but rather to honour past ones.

It’s right there in the branding for Saturday’s tussle with Chile in Toronto (6 p.m., TSN 4) and next weekend’s appointment with Peru in Montreal (Oct. 3, 1 p.m., TSN 4 & 5).

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Friday, Sep. 25, 2026