Ahead of Saturday’s Canadian Premier League Final in Calgary, players and head coaches from both Cavalry FC and Forge FC met with the media to discuss their mindsets a day before the championship game.

Cavalry manager Tommy Wheeldon Jr. and players Marco Carducci and Shamit Shome spoke on a variety of topics, from last year’s CPL Final defeat to Forge, to the pregame excitement around Calgary.

Here are some of the highlights of what they had to say.

RELATED: MATCH PREVIEW: Cavalry FC vs. Forge FC — 2024 CPL Final

Tommy Wheeldon Jr., head coach

On Cavalry’s history over the years with Forge in big games:

“If you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best, and they’re the best. We go into this with a challenging mindset to test them. It’s an opportunity for us to be the best, to win the last game of the season. I think that’s a great opportunity for these lads.

“You can talk about this being the trilogy, the third, final revenge match; you can talk about all of that, but I’ll tell you what it is. It’s an ongoing war. We’ll always be there, they’ll always be there, so this is just going to be another chapter of that. We just brought it back to our home environment, and we’ve got the opportunity having gone to their place and won there in a playoff game; now we’ve got another challenge that we’ve not done yet, and that’s what we’ve dialled in to do.

“It’s like a hydra — you cut one head off, two appear. They’re a bloody good team. I think we’ll talk about their team for years to come, but it’s up to us now. If you want to change a dynasty, someone has to stand in their way.”

On how a more challenging regular season has made Cavalry more prepared for a final:

“I think it prepares us. That’s a great word, because it was a strange one. We’ve gone from not being in the playoffs the first half of the season, we couldn’t get wins but we also weren’t losing. I think we’ve lost the fewest in the league, and we went for low goals against. We found what our superpowers were, got our players fit again, and then to have a Golden Boot winner like Tobi [Warschewski] gives you something extra special. Every game had to play like that; we knew three points was like a final. Every single game we had to climb that table because we knew if we couldn’t get first, second was almost as good — just doesn’t have the silverware.”

Did beating Forge in the playoffs already give Cavalry more confidence?

“Belief is probably the better word, because they believe in their ability to come through tough circumstances. We ran out of time in the final [in 2023]; tough circumstances happened in the second half of extra time, the 18 minutes or whatever it is, so you don’t have time to respond. Our time to respond was to lick our wounds and go again. I think that’s what shows what a resilient football club we are, and the players that we have, and that’s what you’ll see out there tomorrow.”

On what he expects from Forge’s approach to the game:

“[Forge] have shown that you don’t have to be the best team in the final, you just need to win. I think we’re prepared for anything. They dominated the ball against us, but we had the position. I think they’re going to be prepared to do both. We’ve got to be adaptable if they want to sit back and absorb and hit on the counter, which they’re very good at, or they want to have the ball and get their cycles and rotations, they’re very good at that too.

“I think what you will always see in games between Cavalry and Forge is a chess match that will go back and forth. You’ll see change of formations, you’ll see different subs coming in. It’s certainly been an enjoyable journey; we’ve played each other over 30-odd times, but I love these games because they stretch you, test you, they make you suffer, but also make you enjoy it as well.”

On his team’s mindset and managing nerves heading into a final:

“Humble and hungry. They’re not over-confident, over-zealous. We know we have an advantage by bringing the game back here. We know the bumps in here, and I think our fans are going to make a big difference; Tim Hortons Field is a cracking stadium, but sometimes 13,000 spread out isn’t as loud as 6,000 packed in. I think that’s what we’ve got to use today. Last time we played the final [here] in 2019 there was different circumstances, we were a goal down in a two-leg affair. This one’s 0-0 from the first whistle, and I think our fans are going to make a big difference tomorrow.”

Marco Carducci, goalkeeper

On what’s different in 2024 for Cavalry vs. 2023:

“I think all the experience is important. This is now our third CPL Final; for me personally, I’ve been here for every one, so you learn to appreciate those experiences, which is great, but we’ve talked about this, this team from last year is different. There’s so much that’s different; for one, we’re at home, and that makes a big difference for us. But the team has learned a lot from that time. We faced a lot of different challenges this year.”

On the pre-final buzz in Calgary, and growth since 2019:

“It’s been everywhere. As a player, I’ve just tried to maintain my focus on preparing well and then training and being ready for tomorrow, but even as you look around the room there’s a lot more people than I remember in 2019. The city is buzzing, the city is excited for the game, and we’ve seen that there’s so much energy around what’s happening. But across the league, so much has grown since 2019. It’s special just to be able to experience it then and experience it now, and the excitement for the future as well.”

Shamit Shome, midfielder

On anything Cavalry can learn from last year’s final:

“I wouldn’t say we’re really focused on the past, we’re more focused on the present, but we know that details are important. Details are what makes it special; set plays, and just knowing little tactical nuances and how that can affect the game. With the extra week of preparation, we made sure we focused on those things.”

On his chemistry in midfield with Diego Gutiérrez:

“I think it’s just an understanding of each other. We balance each other out in the way he plays and the way I play, and obviously we’ve had that consistency of playing games together and building that relationship over time. It wasn’t game one where we hit it off perfectly and everything was great; it took time to understand each other’s movements, our thinking, how we see the game. But we’ve built a great relationship now, he trusts me and I trust him, and we’re able to play in sync with each other.”

The 2024 Canadian Premier League Final between Cavalry FC and Forge FC will be played Saturday, Nov. 9 at ATCO Field, kicking off at 1 p.m. MT/3 p.m. ET. Watch the match live on CBC or OneSoccer.