Final Score: Cavalry FC 2-1 Pacific FC
Goalscorers: Klomp 26′, Musse 61′; Manneh 66′
2023 CPL Playoffs
Semifinal

Match in a minute or less

Cavalry FC have booked a place in the 2023 CPL Final in Hamilton, where they will face rivals Forge, after a 2-1 semifinal victory over Pacific FC on Saturday at ATCO Field.

Daan Klomp opened the scoring from a header in the 26th minute, before the man that set him up, Ali Musse, gave Cavalry a two-goal lead in the 61st minute on another set-piece routine — deserved reward for a dominant first hour from the hosts. Pacific’s lone goal came courtesy of a brilliant individual effort from Kekuta Manneh.

That goal ignited Pacific as they came close to equalizing in the dying moments, but a brilliant save point-blank by Marco Carducci helped to preserve a massive victory for the Cavs. In the end, Pacific are headed home empty-handed, having been eliminated from the 2023 playoffs, while Cavalry punched their ticket to the CPL Final, which goes Saturday, October 28 (6:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 p.m. MT) at Tim Hortons Field.

Three Observations

Relentless Cavalry advance in the CPL playoff for the first time, will meet rivals Forge in the Final

History was made at ATCO Field on Saturday, as for the first time in a CPL Playoff game at the Calgary stadium it was the home side who emerged victorious. It was also the first time that Cavalry FC have advanced in the CPL playoffs, which to this point had been a big mark on the record of the Canadian Premier League’s most successful regular season team.

It was a relentless performance from Cavalry, who made it their mission to test Pacific’s 20-year-old goalkeeper Emil Gazdov as often as possible, doing so for the first time in just the third minute and continuing to ask questions of Gazdov and the Pacific FC backline throughout the match.

“Absolutely, pepper them,” said Cavalry FC manager Tommy Wheeldon Jr. “This was a Pacific team that kept a clean sheet away at Halifax, a clean sheet at home to York after coming away from here, they are a good side.”

“We created it in different ways, the only disappointment our lads had was that we kept it too close near the end but that’s playoff football.”

This was particularly true during a near-perfect first half, the best any side has put in during this postseason so far. In the end, Cavalry’s two goals came on 2.74 expected goals, 17 shots (eight on target) and four big chances as they ‘peppered’ the Pacific net.

In big matches in the past, Cavalry perhaps have lacked game-changing performances from their top players. On Saturday, however, they finally got that through an outstanding performance from Ali Musse. The Cavalry attacker set up his side’s opener with a pinpoint cross that dropped on the head of Daan Klomp, before scoring one himself. He also created five chances, and had four shot attempts as Cavalry’s main deliverer of set pieces.

It was a total shift from Musse, as he played brilliantly on both sides of the ball, pressing well to win possession three times in the final third, while also tracking back to win seven of twelve duels. A particular highlight was his 51st-minute tackle on Sean Young, where he tracked back, slid in well and ultimately forced the Pacific winger into taking a yellow card.

“This is a playoff game, if you lose you are out,” said Musse. “We know the type of players they have, especially on the wing so I just had to help out and do a double shift, both sides of the ball, so I just want to do what I can for the team and today I offered both. I’m glad with the work I put in and I’m happy with this win.”

Aside from Musse, Klomp, a fellow nominee for the CPL’s Player of the Year award, was tremendous again. Meanwhile, Golden Glove nominee Marco Carducci made some big stops to keep the Cavs in front late.

“Today, big players played big,” said Wheeldon Jr. “and that’s what you ask of them and that is what you expect of them. If they are going to be nominated as an MVP you’ve got to put yourself out there and that’s what they did today.”

They will need their game breakers to come up big again, perhaps even bigger, next week in Hamilton as they now try to overcome the biggest hurdle to their success since the CPL first kicked off: Forge FC.

“We keep writing new history, and that is what we have done tonight, we’ve buried a ghost of the past,” said Wheeldon Jr. “It is around Halloween time so there’s another ghost to be buried, and what better way to do it than go to Tim Hortons Field. Because, they’ve won three out of four playoff trophies, why not go win it in their house, and we believe we can.”

Set piece masterclass as Cavalry live up to reputation as dead ball destroyers

With Pacific content to defend in a resilient defensive shape with the majority of their players behind the ball, as they had done to great success during this postseason, it was on Cavalry to try to find a way through their stingy opposition.

They did that, as they often have, through set-piece excellence. It came as no surprise then when Cavalry’s first goal on Saturday came from a free kick in the 26th minute on a play that has been a go-to this season — a Musse curled delivery onto the head of Daan Klomp at the near post.

“Musse’s delivery has been brilliant this year, the guys know their roles, Daan Klomp is a threat, Kobza, Charlie [Trafford] coming in, and it was a well-worked one,” said Wheeldon Jr. “We knew that if we kept putting them in there and we had a high volume, something was going to click.”

The Flying Dutchman does it again!

Two Player of the Year candidates link up, as Ali Musse finds Daan Klomp for a header in the box to give @CPLCavalryFC the lead 🐎#CanPL I 📺 @onesoccer pic.twitter.com/lNSjw8VZk9

— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) October 21, 2023

With this in mind, Wheeldon Jr.’s one adjustment to the lineup was to bring in Fraser Aird at right back for the dependable Shamit Shome. What Aird brings to the lineup is an ability to get forward on the overlap and deliver dangerous balls into the box and on set pieces. During the match, Aird delivered five crosses and created four chances, playing a key role in the clever set piece that led to Cavalry’s second goal.

“That’s why we went with Fraser Aird, that was the tactical difference that ends up winning the game,” said the Cavalry gaffer.

It's two for @CPLCavalryFC!

After assisting the opening goal, Ali Musse has one of his own on another well-executed set piece 🐎#CanPL I 📺 @onesoccer pic.twitter.com/ofI2UzR2qU

— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) October 21, 2023

All three of Cavalry’s goals this postseason have now come from set pieces as their lone goal against Forge came from a corner kick where Musse connected with Joe Mason. Safe to say that set plays will be a big focus of both Forge and Cavalry’s training this week in the lead-up to the final.

Pacific FC give another outstanding fight, but fall just short with late push

Pacific FC gave a good fight during their third playoff match in the last week and a half, and again showed impressive buy-in and togetherness in their third tactical transformation in as many matches.

After switching to a 4-4-2 for the first time during last Saturday’s 1-0 win in Halifax, Pacific FC head coach James Merriman elected to go with five at the back on Saturday, bringing in 20-year-old Paul Amedume to play central defender, and converting Zakaria Bahous into a right wingback with Kunle Dada-Luke missing the match due to a two-game suspension for his post-match actions in Halifax.

“Kunle Dada-Luke the ways that he plays and his athleticism to get up and down, he provides our width on the right side but he is also able to get down and defend,” Merriman explained. “Losing him has been difficult and also we have had trouble here with some of the movement with Cavalry and their rotation so we went to a back five. I thought it was quite good, I don’t think that was our issue, like I said the set pieces we knew we couldn’t give away cheap set pieces, we knew we couldn’t give away too many corners and that’s what they are very strong at and they took advantage of it.”

Critically, however, Pacific were unable to get out of that defensive shell enough during the first half and wave after wave of Cavalry attack eventually resulted in the opener in the 26th minute. A key to the Tridents’ success in the postseason had been scoring the first goal themselves, so losing that control midway through the first half ended up being lethal for Pacific.

Things got ugly in the 55th minute when Amer Didić was removed from the match for injury reasons, but clearly appeared to disagree with the decision as he came off the pitch. Cavalry added a second goal just a matter of minutes after Pacific’s key defender was removed.

The Tridents, however, kept pushing, and gave a glimpse of the quality they have shown when they are at their best this season. Kekuta Manneh scored an outstanding goal to cut Cavalry’s lead in half, and in stoppage time they had two tremendous opportunities to equalize as substitute Ayman Sellouf first found Adonijah Reid in the 94th minute, who forced an outstanding save from Carducci, before Manny Aparicio missed a chance from in close less than a minute later.

But in the end, like their season as a whole, Pacific were left wondering what could have been as they head back to reflect on a season that had a lot of highs, but ultimately ended on another crushing low.

“Like we saw in the second half, maybe the last 30 minutes, we saw we could play, we were ready to play, we were ready to battle, we were first to everything,” said Pacific FC defender Thomas Meilleur-Giguère. “That’s how we should have started and in games like this it is not a two-legged game, it is one-leg and now we lose that semifinal again this year and that hurts. But that’s part of the process and next year we will be back stronger.”

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Ali Musse, Cavalry FC

It was a Musse masterclass on Saturday at ATCO Field, as Cavalry’s talisman set up their opener, scored the second himself and put in an absolute shift on both sides of the ball during his 83 minutes on the field.

What’s next?

Cavalry FC are off to Hamilton for the 2023 Canadian Premier League Final, where they will meet rivals Forge FC on Saturday, October 28 (6:00 p.m. ET / 4:00 p.m. MT). For Pacific, this is the end of what was an impressive playoff run, as they have been eliminated.

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