Final Score: Pacific FC 1-4 Cavalry FC
Goalscorers: Zanatta 38′ (PK); Herdman 35′, Warschewski 61′ & 75′, Wright 77′
Game of the 2024 season: 102
CPL match: 586
Match in a minute or less
Cavalry FC launched themselves back into second place on Saturday, dominating Pacific FC at Starlight Stadium en route to a 4-1 victory.
Jay Herdman opened the scoring in the 35th minute, heading a pinpoint cross from Ali Musse past Sean Melvin, who replaced Emil Gazdov in the Pacific net after a third-minute red card for the young goalkeeper for an intentional handball outside the penalty area. Dario Zanatta responded four minutes later from the penalty spot, with a chipped shot that beat Marco Carducci, who was judged to have committed a foul on Moses Dyer.
Cavalry took over in the second half, putting three more past the Tridents as they charged to three massive points. Tobias Warschewski picked out the bottom right corner of the net in the 61st and 75th minutes, before Lowell Wright made it 4-1 with his first goal for the club in the 77th minute.
With the win, Cavalry move up to second in the Canadian Premier League table, while Pacific drop out of the playoff positions after Vancouver FC drew Halifax Wanderers FC earlier on Saturday.
Three Observations
Cavalry move closer to coveted top-two finish, Pacific drop out of playoff positions
Cavalry’s three points at Starlight Stadium lift them over Atlético Ottawa into second place in the CPL standings, with the capital city club set to visit York United in Toronto on Sunday night.
Finishing second rather than third comes with huge advantages come playoff time, and Cavalry are keen to take advantage of them once again. The teams in the top two play in the first playoff semifinal, with the winner moving on to host the CPL Final and the loser getting a second chance to reach the final, playing in the other semi. Last year the Cavs benefitted from that as they won the regular season but lost their semifinal, before beating Pacific with their second chance.
The CPL Shield appears to be heading to Hamilton with Forge FC, and the Hammers have won four of five CPL Finals. If they do manage to win a historic double, the team that finishes second in the regular season gets the CPL’s second qualification spot for the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup. That’s a big if, but it’s also certainly not out of the realm of possibility.
A big win on Saturday for Cavalry puts the pressure on Ottawa to respond against York United on Sunday, before Ottawa head to Tim Hortons Field next week.
“I think that’s been our main focus, trying to get as high as we can,” said Cavs goalscorer Jay Herdman after the match. “I think we did our job tonight, a solid win, so I think we just keep doing what we’re doing and hopefully we can get as high as we can.”
For the Tridents, Saturday’s results leave them in a difficult position with just two matches left to try and finish in the top five.
Rivals Vancouver FC overtook them earlier with a draw in Halifax, and now hold onto the final playoff spot that Pacific occupied heading into the weekend. The Tridents have two difficult matches coming up — visiting York United on Thursday before ending the season at home against Forge on the final weekend, who by that point may have locked up the regular season title.
Pacific don’t have a lot of time to dwell on this difficult defeat, though, as they get set for a few days of training before making the trip to Ontario.
“We all know the situation we’re in,” Merriman said. “We can look at different reasons why [having a short turnaround is] good or bad, whatever, but we know we need to go and we need to get a result in York now and nothing else. We can’t focus too much on this game, we need to move forward very quickly.”
The Tridents end the day in sixth, but could finish the weekend as low as seventh if Valour, who host Forge on Sunday, pick up a win.
Next week Valour visit Vancouver and they host Cavalry on the final day of the season. Vancouver host Valour before visiting Ottawa on the final day. Pacific no longer control their destiny after back-to-back defeats, and might need six points from six to make it to the postseason for a fifth year in a row.
Cavalry’s second half changes work as they power to lopsided victory
After going into halftime tied at 1-1, despite having over 70 per cent possession of the ball and having the majority of the scoring chances, Cavalry knew they needed to step on the gas pedal and find another goal in the second half. Tommy Wheeldon made a bold triple substitution that not only swung the momentum further in their favour, but led to three more goals, and most importantly three more points.
To get an extra attacker on the pitch against a depleted Pacific side, Cavalry brought on Lowell Wright for Diego Gutiérrez, also bringing on Fraser Aird — one of the best fullbacks in the league on both sides of the ball — for Michael Harms at right back. Charlie Trafford came on for Shamit Shome to round out the triple change, providing a bit of extra steel in midfield and some extra defensive cover.
Fifteen minutes after play resumed, Tobias Warschewski broke a personal scoreless streak that went back to mid-July, finding the back of the net to put his side in front, before he extended Cavalry’s lead to 3-1 shortly after. Wright put the icing on the cake two minutes after Warschewski’s second, scoring his first goal for the club and putting the game well and truly out of reach, if it wasn’t already.
GOAL 🐴🐴🐴🐴
IT’S 4 FOR THE VISITORS! Lowell Wright gets his first goal for @CPLCavalryFC and has all but secured the 3 points for his side ✅
🔴 Watch the #CanPL LIVE on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/pdcjTjSiwi
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) October 5, 2024
Jay Herdman, who scored a great header for the opening goal and assisted the match-winner as part of a clinical team buildup from the Cavs, was replaced by Niko Myroniuk in the 64th minute after picking up a yellow card moments earlier, while Eryk Kobza replaced Sergio Camargo late in the match to freshen up the midfield again.
“I thought we played a bit too emotional, a bit too rushed, it wasn’t a calmness,” said Wheeldon Jr of the first half after the match. “Instead of going in and waving the stick, we actually dangled the carrot and we said, ‘Look, these are the three changes. Here’s why we felt that we didn’t need two midfielders in there.’
“We felt Charlie could deal with the physicality and the directness of them, they’re a big side, and then we felt if we put on an extra attacker, it would free up Tobi, and obviously the changes worked.”
Pacific respond well to early red card, but Gazdov’s mistake proves costly
Saturday’s match at Starlight Stadium got off to a chaotic starts for the Tridents, as goalkeeper Emil Gazdov made a reckless decision that put his side in trouble from the get-go.
With the ball played over the Pacific defenders, Gazdov was forced to come out of his box, and punched the ball away from Jay Herdman instead of trying to control it with his body. The intentional handball was met with a straight red card in just the third minute of the game, leaving them with just ten men for pretty much the entire match. Eventually that number became nine when Kevin Ceceri picked up two yellow cards in under five minutes late in the second half, and the Tridents will now be without two key defensive players ahead of a crucial trip to York Lions Stadium on Thursday that just significantly grew in importance.
Both red cards will be costly in the next match, but in terms of Saturday’s contest it was Gazdov’s that had a significant impact on the result. It will be a learning moment for the 21-year-old goalkeeper, who James Merriman thinks will use this to build character going forward.
“His head was down and the boys picked him up as soon as we all came in the locker room,” Merriman said of Gazdov. “He needs to move forward and be strong, because he’s got a lot of football in front of him.”
RED CARD 🛑
Goalkeeper Emil Gazdov inexplicably punches the ball away OUTSIDE THE BOX! @Pacificfccpl will be down a man for the entirety of the match 😱
🔴 Watch the #CanPL LIVE on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/hOw2a4VFAF
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) October 5, 2024
Devin O’Hea, making his first appearance since August, was the player sacrificed by Merriman to bring on backup goalkeeper Sean Melvin, taking a piece out of a Pacific attack that has, despite a recent improvement in that regard, struggled to score goals for stretches of this season.
Melvin had a good half after coming into the match, but the floodgates opened in the second half as the Tridents broke down defensively with ten players, and eventually down to nine. Melvin’s quality as a goalkeeper is a big reason why they brought him to his local CPL club this season, but the veteran leadership he can provide to Gazdov was also a key factor.
That will be needed more than ever in the aftermath of a costly mistake and the red card.
“He’s been in the game a lot longer at this level than Emil,” Merriman said. “We see that partnership day in, day out. Sean’s incredibly competitive, he wants to play, he wants moments, he wants opportunities, but he’s going to support Emil of course.
“We see the relationship and the strength of the relationship that they’ve created over the season and I’m sure he’ll be there for for him and and I know Emil will be there in support of Sean.”
CanPL.ca Player of the Match
Jay Herdman, Cavalry FC
Making his first start for the Cavs, Jay Herdman combined well with several teammates, resulting in a well-taken headed goal to open the scoring and an assist on the match-winner scored by Tobias Warschewski.
What’s next?
Pacific FC visit York United FC on Thursday night for the penultimate match of their regular season (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT), while Cavalry FC host Halifax Wanderers FC on Saturday (5 p.m. MT/8 p.m. AT).
Watch all CPL matches live on OneSoccer. In addition to its website and app, OneSoccer is now available on TELUS channel 980 and on Fubo TV. Call your local cable provider to ask for OneSoccer today.