Final Score: Halifax Wanderers FC 1-0 Cavalry FC
Goalscorers: Telfer 49′
Game of the 2024 season: 47
CPL match: 531

Match in a minute or less

The Halifax Wanderers celebrated Canada Day with their first home victory of the season on Monday, beating Cavalry FC 1-0 at Wanderers Grounds to extend their unbeaten run to five matches.

After a scoreless first half, Ryan Telfer scored the game’s lone goal four minutes after play resumed. Telfer charged toward the Cavalry net after picking off an errant pass from Malcolm Shaw, cut to his left, and beat a diving Marco Carducci with a driven shot into the bottom right corner. Cavalry pushed hard for an equalizer after going down a goal, but they were unable to rescue a point despite their best efforts — partly due to hitting the woodwork three times during the match.

It was a second consecutive win — and clean sheet — for the Wanderers, who are hoping this sudden resurgence can see them climb quickly up the table.

Three Observations

Wanderers unbeaten run reaches five matches with first home win of 2024, another clean sheet

It’s no secret that the start of the season was a tough one for Halifax, with the team winless through nine CPL matches to start the year and struggling to keep the ball out of their net.

The last two matches have been the polar opposite, with the Wanderers picking up back-to-back victories — one a dominant 4-0 victory away to Vancouver FC, and this 1-0 win in front of their home crowd. Also part of this now-five-game unbeaten streak are draws against teams currently above the playoff line — Atlético Ottawa, Forge FC, and Pacific FC, although frustrating stoppage time goals in the Ottawa and Forge matches denied them three points on both occasions.

Things have been improving defensively as well, with three of their four clean sheets coming in their last four matches, including this one which led to just their third-ever win against the Cavs.

“The confidence is very good in the group,” said defender Cale Loughrey after the match. “We’re getting a good morale and we’ve just gotta keep stringing them together. [Keeping a clean sheet] really helps us get these three points, and we just gotta keep building off of that.”

“It’s one week at a time, one game at a time, and I guess going back to what we used to say: never too high, never too low,” said Wanderers boss Patrice Gheisar after the match. “The boys got the job done. Calgary just continues to impress me with the combination of their warrior mentality and football.

“I thought it was a very tactical game, maybe not as many chances and as open as we wanted it to be for the fans and for both of us, but what a great Canada Day present to the city, to our fans and for ourselves. I thought, the boys were really committed on both ends of the game and really, really pushed in every moment of the game to continue to progress.

“I was very happy and back-to-back clean sheets is not a bad thing. We’ll take it.”

Ryan Telfer continues scoring form with well-taken goal

With Monday’s goal four minutes into the second, Ryan Telfer now has three goals in the last two matches, as has scored back-to-back game-winning goals for the Halifax Wanderers. Telfer also scored for Trinidad and Tobago in a 2-2 draw in World Cup Qualification in early June, currently riding a bit of a hot streak that the Wanderers will be hoping continues.

Telfer’s goal on Monday was incredibly well-taken. After picking off a pass from his Trinidad and Tobago teammate Malcolm Shaw, Telfer immediately started running at the Cavs backline. When he cut to his left suddenly at the edge of the penalty area, he had sent Daan Klomp the wrong way before firing a shot along the ground and into the bottom right corner, past a diving Marco Carducci.

A month ago, a less-confident attacker might have tried to pass the ball to the charging Massimo Ferrin, but Telfer knew what he wanted to do and executed — taking advantage of an opportunity gifted to the Wanderers by Shaw’s giveaway for his fourth goal of the season. The strike puts him in a tie for fifth in the CPL Golden Boot race, just three back of York United’s Brian Wright — who the Wanderers will come up against next weekend.

GOAL ⚓️

Ryan Telfer gets the party started early in the second half for @HFXWanderersFC, striking to give his team a 1-0 lead over @CPLCavalryFC

🔴 Watch our @tonybet_canada #CanPL MOTW on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/egdzM11Akq

— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) July 1, 2024

“You talk about unsung heroes,” started Patrice Gheisar. “There’s so much you get off the ball. An early yellow limited their defender. He runs behind, he’s such a big body, so athletic, but he’s also a very talented footballer.

“I’m really enjoying watching him grow and grow. That guy’s played attacking mid for us, he’s played left back for us, he’s played left wing back for us, he’s a striker. His value to our team is extremely high.”

Cavalry youngsters take advantage of opportunities with key players out of the squad

With several key players out of the squad — namely Ali Musse, Willy Akio, and Lleyton Brooks in particular in the wide areas — Cavalry called on 18-year-old Niko Myroniuk to start on the left side of a makeshift 4-4-2 formation, with Shamit Shome playing out of his normal position on the other wing.

In just over an hour of work, Myroniuk used his pace on the left wing to cause trouble for Riley Ferrazzo and the Wanderers backline, trying to progress the ball up to Malcolm Shaw and Tobias Warschewski in the areas higher up the pitch. Defensively, he also chipped in with an interception and a couple of successful tackles to halt a pair of attacks and help out left back Tom Field, who he combined well with for a lot of Monday’s match.

It was a promising performance from the youngster, who was making his fifth appearance of season — the third in a row, and his second start of 2024 in CPL action. His next evolution, should he continue to get the opportunities to do so, is to be even more involved in Cavalry’s attacking play and help produce some goals.

Cavalry assistant coach Nik Ledgerwood, who was one of the club’s first-ever signings before retiring in 2022 and stepping into a coaching role with the club, was in charge on Monday as Tommy Wheeldon Jr attended to a personal matter. Ledgerwood brought two more young Canadians off the bench late in the second half — bringing on Chanan Chanda and Maël Henry in the 76th minute to replace Malcolm Shaw and Jesse Daley in a double-substitution.

Both showed flashes of their quality in a 20-minute run out. Henry especially was a central figure in Cavalry’s late push for an equalizing goal, winning a couple of fouls as he ran at the deep Wanderers defensive unit, having a shot blocked by a defender, and completing all eight of his attempted passes. Chanda only had four touches of the ball, but completed his one attempted dribble and made a couple of runs in behind the Wanderers backline to try and draw a defender away from his teammates.

“Niko’s been great for us, to start the game and and affect it like he did,” said Ledgerwood. “Then to have the options with Chanan to come on as under-21 minutes as well. It’s really great to have Maël now back in the mix as well, you can see the energy and the quality that he brings to the team when he came on the pitch for the last 20 minutes there.”

Young players stepping into the professional ranks and , but especially so on a day like Canada Day where the Canadian Premier League celebrates the opportunities it has provided for Canadian players over the past six seasons.

On Canada Day, we celebrate the incredible achievements by Canadian players in the CPL to date. As we continue to grow the Beautiful Game in our country, we are proud to play our part in providing opportunity for the wealth of soccer talent that exists from coast to coast . ⚽️🇨🇦… pic.twitter.com/M7nmwexKjX

— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) July 1, 2024

“That’s what the league’s all about, right? It’s about giving Canadian kids a chance, so it’s brilliant,” said midfielder Charlie Trafford. “Niko’s been on great form, and Chan’s been unbelievable with the u21s and earned himself a chance to come here. Congrats to both of them. It shows the pathway in our system at Cavalry, and we’ve always been doing that, whether it’s selling players or bringing young players through and doing well.

“You don’t want to depend on it but that’s the the reality of our situation right now and we need them. They’re doing well to step up and take their opportunity and do that, so it’s it’s great to see.”

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Ryan Telfer, Halifax Wanderers FC

With his third goal in two matches, Ryan Telfer won the game for Halifax with a great strike that found the bottom right corner of the net.

What’s next?

Halifax will be back in action next Saturday, July 6, when they visit York United at York Lions Stadium (4 pm ET/5 pm AT). Cavalry visit Winnipeg the next day for a match at Princess Auto Stadium against Valour FC (4 pm CT/3 pm MT).

Watch all CPL and Canadian Championship 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.