Cavalry FC have one more chance to qualify for the CPL Final this weekend, when they host Pacific FC at ATCO Field in Saturday’s semifinal (2 p.m. MT/4 p.m. ET). Forge FC await the winner in the final the following weekend, and Cavalry will hope to get there and lift the North Star Cup, as well as avenge last weekend’s playoff-opening defeat to the Hamiltonians.

Ahead of Saturday’s match, Cavalry boss Tommy Wheeldon Jr. spoke to reporters in a virtual press conference. Here’s some of what he had to say:

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On responding after a loss to Forge:

“It’s a feeling we hadn’t experienced for a while. It’s always humbling, because that’s the two parts of football and in life; we were lifting trophies and smelling of champagne the week before and then suddenly we’re smarting on a bit of a loss. But it wasn’t an elimination game, so we just had an opportunity to learn from it, put it into a good week and we get to go again.”

“Once we’d lifted one trophy, we had two games to lift another. That hasn’t changed, we still have two games to lift another. All it is has been a reset. I think sometimes you need to be humbled because it’s that bit of adversity that leads you on to greater things. We had that at the start of the season, we hadn’t won in six games and were looking around, but that bit of adversity made us stronger. I’m sure it’s the same focus here. We get to go again on Saturday and you can see that the guys want to put it right, because it didn’t feel like it was a bad performance. It was a bit of luck here and a bit of magic there, and we finished the game strong so we go into it confident in ourselves because one defeat doesn’t make you a losing team, nor does just one win make you a winning team. It’s what you do over a series of time, and we’ve got a good winning record, especially against Pacific so we have confidence going into this game.”

On familiarity with Pacific FC this year:

“That’s the nature of our league, we’re only an eight-team league playing a 28-game season plus cup competitions, playoffs, so it ends up a little bit like in 2019 where we’ve played Forge something like nine times. It’s just one of those things; Pacific have had a nice little run of late and I think it’ll be a cracking game, because now it is an elimination semifinal. We know they’re a good side, they’re well coached by James, they’ve got some players that can hurt you, but also they have their flaws like any team. It’s up to us now to put our strategy ahead of theirs.”

On having an extra chance in the playoffs by finishing first:

“I’ve said this before: In playoffs you need a bit of luck and you need a bit of magic. We’ve bemoaned officials’ calls and things like that, things that have gone against us, and we had a bad error for the first goal on the weekend. But I reminded the lads, we earned our luck to still be in the playoffs. Because of the way the format is, and because we finished the season in first place in the manner in which we did, we earned our luck to have another life, and here we go.”

“Adversity is a great humbler and it could prove to be the trigger for us to go on and do it. You look at Pacific for example, they didn’t want to finish fourth; they lost to us, and now back to back have won two games in a row. It happens in football. So we’ve got to now go out and earn our next bit of luck.

“At the start of the season our clear objective was to win a trophy and get to Concacaf. We’ve done that. Now this is the bonus round; we lost a life last week, we’re now playing a bonus round and it’s due to our quality over the course of the season. I can’t emphasize that enough; what the league has done is almost mirrored around the rest of the world where the regular season should matter. I think with it, we’ve created the best regular season in our short history, we’re delighted to have won that trophy, but when you win one it’s no different. You want to have that feeling again, it becomes an addiction and we want to be the first team that wins a double, so why not us?”

On the fine margins of a knockout playoff game:

“We’ve got to take these playoff games a little bit different than the league. They are free money, aren’t they? It will come down to always three things: a bit of magic, a mistake, or somebody with a bit of a nuance in the tactical switch. It’s a game of fine margins, but I think a lot of our games against them, other than the recent 3-0 win, have been a game of fine margins. We’re prepared for it, we’ve won more one-goal games than anybody else, so if it does come to that on the weekend I think we’re well prepared for it because of the repetition we’ve had leading into those games.”