If this were an ordinary Canadian Premier League season for Cavalry FC, the club would likely just be starting training camp.

Instead, essentially ever since the calendar turned to 2024, Fraser Aird and his teammates have been out on the pitch ramping up the intensity as they prepare for their first game of the year — which comes 48 days earlier than any other official match in club history.

Ahead of most campaigns, pre-season is spent preparing for the 28-match marathon, with playoffs at the end, that is the CPL regular season. Instead, this year, it is focused on meticulously preparing for just one opponent.

As 2023 Canadian Premier League regular season winners, Cavalry earned what will be a first in the club’s already impressive history, an opportunity to play continental football in the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup. They open their first-round clash with Major League Soccer’s Orlando City SC on Wednesday, Feb. 21 (10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT) at Starlight Stadium in Langford, B.C.

“It’s the biggest game in club history, it’s the first time that they’ve won the league and qualified for this Concacaf Champions Cup, so we’ve put all our eggs into one basket,” Aird told CanPL.ca. “The boys have been ready for it, we’ve been working hard. For some boys, it is probably the biggest game that they’ll probably play in their career to date. We are not taking it lightly, the club is not taking it lightly and the boys are going to be as ready as possible going into this game.” 

The clubs then meet in a second leg in Orlando on Tuesday, Feb. 27 (6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT). At 29, and in his 11th season as a professional footballer, Aird has played in his fair share of important matches. As a teenager, the fullback played for Rangers in the first Old Firm match against Celtic in three seasons back when they were in the Scottish Championship.

While he was on loan from Rangers with the Vancouver Whitecaps, he actually participated in the 2016-17 Concacaf Champions Cup, starting four matches during the Group Stage as the Caps went 4-0-0 to top their group, which also included Sporting Kansas City and Central FC from Trinidad and Tobago.

For Aird, each and every one of those big matches brought with it lessons and growth opportunities as a player. In particular, he remembers a match in November of 2016 against the South Korean national team in Cheonan, South Korea. That Korea squad featured Borussia Dortmund’s Park Joo-ho, Augsberg’s Ji Dong-won and Hwang Hee-Chan among other top-division European players.

“It was just a friendly game but just seeing the level, I think they were ranked like 30th in the World, playing against opposition like that, boys are playing in the Premier League and highest levels in Europe, it was a massive learning opportunity for me,” said Aird, “and just a great occasion, one that you’ll remember forever, playing against some of the players that we did it was definitely an eye opener. Just kind of shows you where I am in my career and what I need to aspire to go to the next level.”

He and his teammates will get that opportunity once again as they face Orlando, a club with a number of notable players, including the likes of Uruguayan international Facundo Torres, Peruvian national team goalkeeper Pedro Gallese and (possibly) promising USMNT forward Duncan McGuire. Orlando also recently announced the signings of two-time MLS champion Nicolás Lodeiro, formerly of the Seattle Sounders, and 32-year-old Colombian international forward Luis Muriel from Atalanta in Serie A as a designated player.

“They are bringing in big names because they want to push on and domestically they want to reach the pinnacle in MLS and win that,” said Aird. “But not only that, I’m sure they want to do well in this competition. It is great for them to go and showcase their talents against other opposition and we can’t take them lightly. At the end of the day, it is a team that is well rounded, they’ve been around for a while, they’ve had success before, they’ve played in this competition before, and it’s our first time. We can’t take them lightly.” 

Orlando made their first and only appearance to date in the Concacaf Champions Cup last year, losing narrowly on away goals during a hard-fought tie with Tigres (1-1) in the round of 16. Neither of the clubs have played an official match yet this year, however, nor have they ever come head-to-head before, adding an extra degree of intrigue into the matchup — especially the opening leg.

“This is going to be a kind of blank slate for both teams going in, we won’t really know what to expect from them,” said Aird. “The only kind of good thing is that we’ve started preseason at the same time, they are obviously in a lot warmer climate than us, being able to train outside but it is going to be a fun game.”

It is also an excellent opportunity for the club and its players to showcase themselves within the region. Cavalry have won more regular season matches than any other Canadian Premier League side since the league launched in 2019, but their failure to win in the playoffs had previously denied them the opportunity to play continentally. In 2024, they have finally earned that long-deserved chance.

“For us in the CPL, looking upwards, I feel like that is maybe the next step for some of the boys in the league, that are inspired to kind of go and push on to the next level,” said Aird. “It is a great opportunity to showcase their talents against a team that is kind of playing in the league above us, to see where we are at as a club and also individually. It is a great opportunity to go out and put on a good performance, because at the end of the day you never know who is watching.”

Cavalry won the Canadian Premier League regular season by a stunning 13 points in 2023, consistently a class above in domestic competition last year. With most of the squad returning, they are looking to extrapolate that culture of success onto the continental stage. Keeping the group together for a run at Concacaf is a big reason why the club is so confident in its ability to do something special in 2024.

“For me, in the CPL it has been kind of a downfall in the last few years in teams having big overhauls and getting rid of boys,” said Aird. “It is not easy to keep that consistency and the core group together, especially with the salary cap and boys wanting to move on and pursuing different paths in their career. But I think we kept 14-15 of the core boys who were there last year who either got contracts or were still in contracts. The manager did his best, the club did its best, to try to keep all that core together. I think keeping that core together just breeds consistency. You’ve seen it with Forge the last few years, they have kept their core together and they have went on and had success.” 

In total 16 players are set to return for Cavalry from their squad last year. Aird said that Wheeldon Jr. worked quickly to start having contract conversations with players immediately after the end of the season with an eye toward keeping the squad together. Aird was one such player, On December 18, Cavalry announced that Aird had signed a new contract until 2025.

Cavalry have supplemented that group with an exciting influx of talent from both around the league and abroad. That includes former Valour captain Diego Gutiérrez, ex-FC Edmonton attacker Tobias Warschewski as well as Lleyton Brooks from Melbourne Victory and loan deals for midfielder Lucas Dias (Sporting Lisbon) and goalkeeper Jack Barrett (Everton). That has added immense competition to this preseason as starting spots throughout the roster as up for grabs.

“[Wheeldon Jr.’s] brought boys in that have played in the league before, that know the league that have stood out on different teams and just tried to improve the squad,” said Aird. “We have two players in every position and when you have that competitive edge in training and have the decision that the manager has to make to put the best eleven out there it is only going to breed good habits and a good culture around the football club.” 

Still, on paper, that eleven will be underdogs to an Orlando team full of international experience. In practice, however, knockout matches like this are notoriously unpredictable. Cavalry knows that in cup competition the opportunity for an upset becomes even higher, and they intend to do everything in their power to make history as the first CPL club to advance in the Concacaf Champions Cup.

“You see it in England all the time in the FA Cup, these stories of the underdog team winning,” said Aird. “Anything can happen, we have seen cup upsets every year around the world so it is not impossible. We’ve just got to have our game plan right and execute it to the best possible way that we can, have everyone on board, it doesn’t matter who is starting or not starting. It is a two-legged game and whatever part and boys play, just be ready and all on the same page and you never know what can happen.”