2024 CPL Regular Season — Match #78
Cavalry FC vs. Pacific FC
August 24, 2024 at 3 p.m. MT/5 p.m. ET
ATCO Field in Calgary, Alberta
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Just a month ago, Cavalry FC were in roughly the same position as their opponents on Saturday, Pacific FC, find themselves now — on the outside looking in of the league’s playoff positions.

Four straight wins, and five undefeated, however, suddenly put the Cavs ten points above the playoff line, and just four points off the top of the CPL table. Pacific, meanwhile, are winless in their last five, a run which has seen them drop to seventh in the table — three points below the playoff line.

The Tridents, however, will see in Cavalry what is possible for them if they can regain form over the final third of the season. And how a rare win for them in Calgary could go a long way toward launching an ascendency of their own.

“Everyone knows, in this league, if you can put a run of games together, if you can win two weekends in a row, everything changes,” said Pacific FC head coach James Merriman. “The table changes. There’s a lot of inconsistency from top to bottom, and we need to believe in that. We can’t stop. We need to continue to fight, we need to push, and we need to keep perspective that it’s right there.”

Pacific remain the only side that Cavalry has not defeated yet this season, as both of their previous matchups have ended in draws. The two sides drew 0-0 back on April 28 at ATCO Field, before a 1-1 draw, with goals from Steffen Yeates for the Tridents and Tobias Warschewski for Cavalry, on June 1 in Langford.

But the Tridents have historically struggled at ATCO Field. They have won just twice there in all competitions, and never in a CPL regular season match, having not done so since the 2021 CPL semifinals.

They have also been shut out in five of their last six visits to Calgary, with their lone goal coming in a 2-1 loss that eliminated them from the 2023 CPL playoffs.

Pacific are coming off a humbling 3-0 loss to Atlético Ottawa, in which they allowed three goals inside the first 22 minutes at Starlight Stadium. It goes without saying, but they will need a much better start on Saturday, having scored first just once in ten regular season trips to ATCO Field, and not since their first trip to Calgary in CPL action back in August of 2019.

The Cavs, meanwhile, are flying high after winning four straight matches — three of those four away from home, including handing York United their first home loss under new manager Benjamín Mora last weekend. They return to ATCO Field on Saturday, where they have lost just two of their past 25 regular season matches.

As they prepare for a hectic schedule of three matches between Saturday and next Friday, including a Tuesday trip to BC Place to face Vancouver Whitecaps in the second leg of the Canadian Championship semifinal, expect rotation from the Pacific FC squad. Josh Heard and Marco Domínguez are day-to-day with injury, and as a result, are unlikely to be risked for the trip to Calgary.

3 THINGS TO WATCH

• Intense week ahead for the Tridents: It doesn’t get much tougher than the week Pacific FC are about to face. First up, it is Saturday’s clash with the CPL’s hottest team, Cavalry FC on the road at ATCO Field. Then they head to BC Place on Tuesday to take on the Vancouver Whitecaps for the second leg of their Canadian Championship semifinal clash, a series they currently trail 1-0. Finally, it’s off to Hamilton on Friday where they face the current league leaders, Forge FC. For a Pacific team that has struggled with maintaining a healthy lineup all year, it will be intriguing to see how James Merriman and his staff balance the lineup in these three crucial matches. Ahead of their last Canadian Championship matchup, for example, the Tridents left a lot of players back home as the group travelled to Ottawa, but were still able to emerge 1-0 winners on that day. Will we see a similar squad rotation on Saturday against Cavalry? Or will they perhaps look to see if they can get a few players, like new acquisition Moses Dyer in further form and integrated before a crucial clash with the Whitecaps?

• Cavalry FC locked into thrilling CPL shield race: After spending the first few months of the season fluttering around the CPL’s playoff line, the regular season title defence for Cavalry FC has become a whole lot more compelling in recent weeks. They now sit in fourth, but just four points below top-of-the-table Forge FC, just two below second place Atlético Ottawa, and a single point behind York United in third, who they beat last weekend. With York United and Forge playing on Friday, Cavalry know they have the opportunity to gain ground on at least one of them. A team playing with confidence right now, they are ready to continue to put pressure on that lead group. “We’ve been in really good form, to have been able to go to Ottawa and win, to go to York and win, these were teams that were significantly ahead of us that we brought them back into the mix,” said Cavalry FC manager Tommy Wheeldon Jr. “Now what we have to turn our focus to is putting in the same type of performances at home in front of our fans.”

• Can Pacific regain defensive identity?: All season, the talk around the Tridents has been what they have lacked in the opposition’s eighteen-yard box. But as they begin to make their final push for the 2024 CPL playoffs, it might come down to what they have been able to do well this season, protecting their own box. That ability has fallen off to some degree in recent weeks, as with three goals allowed twice in their past four matches, the Tridents have now allowed 20 on the season, two more than the league low kept by their opponents on Saturday, Cavalry FC. In particular, they struggled with defending set pieces against Atlético Ottawa, with all three of their goals conceded coming from them. Cavalry are a team that has traditionally been known for their dominance on set plays, so Pacific will unquestionably have to tighten up that aspect of their game, while looking to find more balance defensively in general. “I think part of that was we weren’t happy with what we were doing with the ball earlier in the season, and we weren’t taking chances,” said Merriman. “We were creating some chances, but not taking chances, and we were trying to get more attack and more play in the attacking half. When you do that, you can start to get a bit stretched, you know, and start to open the game up.”

PROJECTED STARTING XIs

Cavalry FC: Carducci; Aird, Kobza, Klomp, Kamdem; Shome, Gutiérrez; Musse, Camargo, Wähling; Warschewski

Pacific FC: Gazdov; Dada-Luke, Meilleur-Giguère, Ceceri, Mukumbilwa; Toussaint, Yeates, Young; O’Hea, Reid, Dyer

ALL-TIME SERIES

Cavalry FC wins: 14 || Pacific FC wins: 8 || Draws: 6

Last meeting:

June 1, 2024 — Pacific FC 1-1 Cavalry FC

KEY QUOTES