Final Score: Cavalry FC – Pacific FC
Goalscorers: Bevan 52′ (pen.)
Game of the 2023 season: 85
CPL match: 452

Match in a minute or less

Cavalry FC moved four points clear at the top of the CPL table on Sunday, beating second-place Pacific FC 1-0 at ATCO Field in a tense, boisterous matchup in Calgary.

After a scoreless first half that saw each side feeling the other out and not quite able to break each other down, Cavalry came out of the break firing and, within five minutes, won a penalty — in controversial fashion — via Maël Henry. Myer Bevan stepped up confidently to score (low to his left) and make it 1-0, giving the hosts a lead they would not relinquish.

The Cavs did well after scoring to suffocate the Tridents’ attack, limiting their avenues into the box en route to a clean sheet. Pacific, meanwhile, leave Calgary not only with a loss, but with a suspension looming for Georges Mukumbilwa, who picked up two yellow cards in his substitute appearance and was thus sent off.

Three Observations

Cavalry take tactical chess match, continue to roll at home

With this game, Cavalry have now won four games in a row at home (six of their last seven), and they lead the league with a 7-3-1 record. In the course of those four straight wins, they’ve scored seven and conceded just one goal.

Beating Pacific, who had been league leaders for so long, to put some breathing room between themselves and the rest of the pack, is evidence that Cavalry are the team to beat in the CPL at the moment, and by now likely the frontrunners to take the regular season title.

This was a contest with several discernible phases, from the early fireworks, to the first-half settling as Pacific pressed and Cavalry possessed, to the Cavs’ lead protection, to the chaotic transitions of the final few minutes. Cavalry hosting Pacific could well be a matchup in the playoffs — and in fact, if they’d started this weekend it would’ve been. So, it’s not surprising to see the game shift and change as the managers attempted to find an edge over each other.

Ultimately, it was Cavalry who prevailed, narrowly. That they pulled out a one-goal win, on its own, is a testament to improvement; they remain the CPL’s leaders in points dropped from wining positions, having surrendered a lot of leads earlier in the season. Now, though, they seem far more comfortable playing in front, demonstrating an ability to see out a match rather than leave themselves open after scoring in a desperate search for the second goal. They let Pacific have the ball, and trusted themselves to keep it out of their net.

“[Pacific] have got a really exciting attack, they’ve got weapons they can bring off the bench, they’ve got centre-backs that could go and play as strikers and the game becomes chaotic,” Tommy Wheeldon Jr. said postgame. “What we’ve planned is we knew we’d added the ability to score, we do often at home, but we needed to protect the lead. As you’re going into now where everything’s a bit cagier, you want to be able to protect the lead.”

With another savvy showing at ATCO Field, Cavalry have taken further steps to ensure the road to the playoff championship goes through Calgary, as well.

Pacific, meanwhile, found themselves stymied by this chess match, although they did show improvement — more on that shortly. They were, though, frustrated with the penalty, feeling that Henry had sold the contact in order to earn the call. James Merriman did feel his side had done well in the first half to play the game on their terms:

“I thought it was a difficult match both ways, not much for either team — not many clear chances,” he said. “The penalty ended up being the difference in the match. For sure we could do more in the end, together as a team, but we take it one match at a time.”

The Tridents remain in second, but three other teams are breathing right down their necks, with another shortly behind.

Pacific press, off-ball running causes problems, creates transitions

James Merriman said in some of his prematch remarks that he’d been imploring his Pacific side to get back to its identity of front-foot defending, playing aggressively without the ball.

This being a match where Cavalry commanded a majority of possession on their home pitch, the Tridents had plenty of opportunity to disrupt and put pressure on the hosts — especially when they played out of the back.

“In the first half I don’t think they were able to find a rhythm,” Merriman said postmatch. “We created problems in the buildup; we could have taken better care of the ball in transition, when we won the ball we gave it away a little bit cheaply which is difficult when we’re running that much without it and pressing that aggressively, so we could be better there.

“But for sure, we were there on the front foot together, to put pressure on them, to not allow them to find rhythm. We just needed to be better with the ball ourselves to get something out of it, and then I think after the goal, the game was still there for us.”

Cavalry’s back three often looked to distribute the ball through midfield via Shamit Shome or Charlie Trafford, who would often step back toward them to receive the ball — at which point several of Pacific’s front line would close in on the passing options to press. Pacific’s attacking players did very well running relentlessly at Cavalry’s ball-movers to block off more dangerous areas and therefore force either a pass backward or a long ball that often didn’t find its target.

In the first half especially, when Cavalry had a heavy possession advantage (about 63.5 per cent), Pacific managed to hold them to just 25 final third entries — compared with 27 for themselves — and just 68 per cent passing accuracy in the attacking half. The Tridents kept Cavalry to three shots in the first half, and none of them on target, shutting them down in that portion of the match.

When they did win the ball, or recovered it from a long ball, Pacific were quick to transition, but as Merriman said they weren’t quite dynamic enough to find the attacking motions they needed. Then, Cavalry scored; at that point, the game turned on its head and Pacific found themselves forced to build their own attacking phases with possession.

“When Cavalry went up 1-0 they allowed us to have possession,” Manny Aparicio explained. “At the end of the day that’s part of the game, they kind of buckled in and played well defensively. It’s also part of that, we didn’t have to press as much because they were content with the 1-0, and it was on us to try to break that down and create chances, and we weren’t able to.”

‘New Cavalry, old values’ drive professional clean-sheet for Cavs defence

Cavalry’s tactical setup to begin this game was another fascinating evolution of the side under Tommy Wheeldon Jr. this season. Like they did last week against York United (until the second half when they reverted to a back four), they sent out a back three with a midfield pair of Charlie Trafford and Shamit Shome in front of it, but it had a few more nuances in possession.

With Cavalry’s squad getting healthier, they have a wealth of talented central midfielders and seem to have found a way to get them all on the pitch. Jesse Daley joined Ali Musse in attacking midfield, creating a kind of box in the centre of the park just below striker Myer Bevan, as Maël Henry and William Akio tried to stretch things out wide and create central openings.

That setup did work in possession for Cavalry for stretches of the first half, as they retained possession and moved the ball very well — although they did have to contend with the aforementioned Pacific press, which Wheeldon gave credit to postmatch.

After they scored, however, Cavalry became much more reserved and didn’t try to stretch themselves in possession.

The defending from the home side was excellent, particularly in how they positioned themselves to suffocate the key weapons and prevent Pacific from getting into the most dangerous areas — which meant they didn’t have to do much last-ditch defending (although their goalkeeper Marco Carducci did bail them out on one Easton Ongaro header).

Pacific had six shots in the second half, and only two were on target. Several times, the ball came out to Manny Aparicio at the top of the box, but Cavalry were so effective at getting bodies in his way that Aparicio was forced either to shoot high and often over the bar, or to put it low and see it harmlessly cleared by a defender’s foot.

“There’s a collective belief now that we’re the last line of defence and the first line of attack,” Carducci said about his backline’s effort on Sunday. “Whether we’re playing a back three, or whatever the fluidity of the tactics is, I think the principles stay the same.”

Wheeldon has spoken repeatedly about how his side is becoming more tactically flexible over the course of the season, and that was a driving factor in the victory today.

“What you’ve seen is this is the new Cavalry, with old values,” he said. “I think the old values finish the game and I think the new Cavalry started the game. What we’ve got now is we’ve got a little bit of risk-reward. We know Pacific play on the front foot, they like a press. Credit to them, they gave us hell in that first half, but we knew in doing so they would leave gaps, and hence where the chance for the penalty came, because they were on the front foot. You’ve got to have different ways to win football matches.”

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Eryk Kobza, Cavalry FC

The 21-year-old was outstanding in Cavalry’s back three, winning possession nine times and leading his side with 79 touches and 61 accurate passes. Kobza had a difficult assignment in a somewhat unfamiliar position, and he handled some very talented Pacific attackers well.

What’s next?

The title race continues for both sides next Saturday, Sept. 2, beginning with a matinee at Starlight Stadium as Pacific host Valour FC (1 p.m. PT/4 p.m. ET). Following that, Cavalry will be in the capital to take on Atlético Ottawa (7 p.m. ET/5 p.m. MT).

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