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This snow-covered game was the most Canadian soccer match ever played

Adam Laskaris
Adam Laskaris
|
Nov 10 2025, 3:50 pm
This snow-covered game was the most Canadian soccer match ever played
OneSoccer

The 2025 Canadian Premier League final certainly delivered on being a memorable soccer match.

But while there was a highlight reel goal scored in the first half by Atletico Ottawa’s David Rodriguez, most of the headlines from this game had to do with the adverse weather conditions in which it was being played.

 

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Taking place on the second weekend of November in Ottawa, the match featuring the aforementioned home side and the Calgary-based Cavalry FC might take the cake as the most Canadian soccer match of all time.

The TD Place Stadium grounds were absolutely covered in snow, making the pitch a bit of a winter wonderland out there for an eventual 2-1 Ottawa win.

Cavalry FC struck first in the opening half, but Ottawa’s David Rodriguez scored what can only be described as one of the wildest goals in not only Canadian soccer ever, but the entire sport’s history.

In the 40th minute, Rodriguez connected on a bicycle kick that sent a very cold crowd into a frenzy.

It immediately brought back scenes of the “Iceteca” in 2021, the nickname given to Edmonton’s snowy Commonwealth Stadium that hosted a Canada-Mexico World Cup qualifying match, also memorably won 2-1 by the hosts.

The match actually needed a break before extra time to clear the pitch of snow, resulting in a lengthy delay while a pair of trucks attempted to get rid of some of the slippery stuff on the field.

After his legendary bicycle kick, Rodriguez also played the hero in extra time, scoring a cheeky chip goal to give his team a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

 

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The title was the first in Atletico Ottawa’s history, and surely one the players will tell their grandkids about one day.

“Zero,” the Mexican-born Rodriguez told canpl.ca of his prior experience with snow. “February, when I got here, but it was just from my apartment to the car… like I say, I came to a locker room and I was excited. I saw it was snowing, and I was like, ‘It’s gonna be a good day.'”

Since its first season was held in 2019, the Canadian Premier League has dealt with all sorts of challenges that would come from an upstart domestic league in a vast, relatively sparsely populated country.

But they’ve never quite had a match like this, and given that the vast majority of their season is outside of the typical snowfall months, who knows when they’ll have one like it again.

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