Final Score: Cavalry FC 1-2 York United FC
Goalscorers: Warschewski 90+8′; Babouli 63′, Jimoh 83′
Game of the 2024 season: 53
CPL match: 537

Match in a minute or less

York United FC became the first Canadian Premier League team this year to win as the away side at ATCO Field on Saturday, as they defeated Cavalry FC 2-1 to ensure they’ll remain in second place at the midway point of the 2024 season.

After a scoreless first half, York made an attacking change at halftime — swapping out Noah Abatneh for Marki Voytsekhovskyy — and just after the hour mark they broke the deadlock, as Mo Babouli blazed a free kick off the bottom of the crossbar and in. Not long after, the Nine Stripes doubled their lead as 16-year-old Shola Jimoh smashed in a pass from Brian Wright to become the CPL’s second-youngest ever goalscorer and make it 2-0.

Cavalry would get one back at the end courtesy of Tobias Warschewski, but it wouldn’t be enough as they suffered defeat at home for the first time in the league this year, while York improved to 4-1-1 under Benjamín Mora.

Three Observations

York make timely changes, continue run of spectacular confidence under Mora

After shuffling around his lineup a little bit over the course of his first few weeks in charge York United coach Benjamín Mora made another significant tactical change on Saturday.

With defender Oswaldo León back to full health, Mora slotted the Mexican centre-back into his backline, but opted not to remove either of his other players in that position, instead choosing to play a back three of León with Frank Sturing and Noah Abatneh. That alignment allowed Max Ferrari and Kadin Martin-Pereux, playing as right and left wingbacks, respectively, to get more involved in the attack from the wide areas, as well as rotate into the middle occasionally with the more central midfield players.

The effect of the back three — which became a clearer back five when York were defending in their own half — was that Cavalry found it very difficult to connect passes into dangerous areas, with York putting extra bodies toward the middle of the pitch at the back. Despite a possession advantage for the home side in the first half, they were often forced to resort to crosses into the box from wide, which their opponents were able to defend with three centre-backs collapsing into the centre.

It was a physical first half, though, and two of York’s central defenders picked up yellow cards, with Abatneh a persistent offender. Still, York did well frustrating Cavalry, although they weren’t able to create much for themselves in possession.

At halftime, Mora decided to be proactive and inject some life into the match. He brought Abatneh off and replaced him with Markiyan Voytsekhovskyy, a much more attack-minded player who had scored the week before. The change switched York into a back four, with Voytsekhovskyy joining the attack alongside Brian Wright and Mo Babouli.

Mora explained that the initial back five (with Ferrari and Martin-Pereux) was designed partly to neutralize Fraser Aird on Cavalry’s right side, which they did well, and also to contain Shamit Shome. He added that the move to four at halftime was, in part, forced by Abatneh feeling some dizziness, but still presented an opportunity to make a tactical tweak.

Moving to a four-man defence did open the game up a little bit at both ends, and while Cavalry did find a little more space out wide to go forward, York also looked more intent on getting up the pitch. That’s how Brian Wright managed to get into a one-on-one duel with Callum Montgomery, which drew the foul that set up Babouli’s free kick for the opening goal.

York’s changes throughout the game proved effective; Shola Jimoh came on around the hour mark and scored the winning goal, while Orlando Botello made a few key defensive interventions late in the game to keep the lead safe.

This is a Nine Stripes team playing with incredible confidence right now; no team in the CPL would want to play them at the moment.

“We’ve said it all year and we’re saying it more and more now, we’re a family on and off the field,” Ferrari said postgame. “We’re just enjoying our football right now, whether it’s in training, off the field, whether it’s game day. Four wins in six games with a draw is excellent. We want to improve on that even more, and we’re excited to keep going.”

Cavalry possession still not translating into goals as chances squandered

It’s not the first time in 2024 this has happened, but on Saturday afternoon Cavalry had 57 per cent possession, outshooting York 13 to eight with 1.85 expected goals.

Only one of those 13 shots was on target though, and that came in the eighth minute of second-half stoppage time, and ended up in the back of the net thanks to Tobias Warschewski.

This is a frustrated Cavalry side at the moment; they sit outside of the playoffs with 17 points. Last year, en route to winning the regular season title with 55 points, they had 21 after the 14-game mark, which might be some solace for them at this point — they really began piling up points in the second half of the campaign — although their 14th match was the end of a stretch of four wins in five.

“We have to be better,” Tommy Wheeldon Jr. said postmatch on Saturday. “I can make all the excuses about missing firepower — Myer Bevan leaving, Ali Musse’s injury, Sergio Camargo’s out, Willy Akio, that was the firepower that brought us the attack we had. But now we’ve got a striker in Tobias Warschewski that’s leading the league with Brian Wright. So we’ve had one person replace the other three, we’ve got to now have others that chip in. That’s the difference now; we’re not having our defenders scoring as many from set plays, our midfielders chipping in, and our wingers…

“We’ve got to start chipping in with goals, because every other metric now — possession, shots, xG, xGA — is all going for us, but the most important metric of all is the scoreline, and we’re not winning that.”

Some good news for Cavalry was the appearance off the bench from German attacker Nicolas Wähling, who had a lively half hour in his debut for the club. Wheeldon Jr. added after the game that he’d been impressed with the newcomer, who drove toward the box with his first action on the pitch and attacked York’s defence more aggressively than the Cavs had been before.

This first home loss might be a wake-up call to Cavalry, who have undoubtedly been playing good football for most of this year, but desperately need to start putting the ball into the net, before a frustrating start to the season turns into something more concerning.

York youngster Jimoh rewarded amid rookie season, becomes CPL’s 2nd-youngest goalscorer

Shola Jimoh was the first player to sign an Exceptional Young Talent contract with York United, which he did at the beginning of June — just a few days after Benjamín Mora took over as the club’s head coach. The 16-year-old had been training with the club since last year, but has now been given an opportunity to contribute at the professional level.

Mora has trusted Jimoh to be a legitimate contributor off the bench for his side, with Saturday’s 40-odd minutes (including stoppage time) being the longest of his four appearances for York since he signed for the club.

Every time he’s been on the pitch, Jimoh — in spite of his age, and his small stature — has managed to get himself involved. He’s clearly a sparkplug player, eager to run at defenders from wide and attempt to lift the tempo of the game.

After this game in Calgary, Jimoh sits tied for third in the CPL in expected assists per 90 (0.32) and fifth in dribbles attempted per 90 (8.06). No matter how short his time on the pitch is, he finds a way to make an imprint on the match; indeed, his quick footwork and energy is impossible to miss.

Jimoh’s goal on Saturday — which turned out to be the winner after Warschewski’s late marker — makes him the second-youngest goalscorer in CPL history, at 16 years and 96 days of age. He’s behind only Vancouver FC’s TJ Tahid, who scored last year at the age of 16 years and 42 days last season.

GOAL 👑👑

THE #CanPL ALSO HAS 16-YEAR-OLDS SCORING GOALS! ⚽️

Olusola Jimoh taps in @yorkutdfc’s 2nd of the match after a great play from Brian Wright 😎

🔴 Watch LIVE on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/9KzZCJbuMg

— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) July 13, 2024

“Sometimes I forget how young he actually is, but to see a 16-year-old come on, and he did well the past three games, even surprised a lot of us,” York’s Max Ferrari said of his young teammate. “And then today he comes on and wins us the game; we’re excited to see what he brings to us even more.”

Mora added that he’s been excited to see Jimoh do well, but cautioned that as a coach it’ll be his job to manage the youngster, who is still taking his first steps in the professional game.

“He’s a young boy with a lot of quality and a lot of valuable assets as a person,” Mora said. “He’s humble and he likes to follow instructions. I’m trying to groom him to be a better player every day in training sessions. We needed to put him in to take advantage of his speed down the side, and that’s what he tried to do. … I’m very, very happy for Shola. He’s growing; that’s what Shola needs, is a lot of time to grow. He has done nothing in football, so today was a good day for him, and I’m going to treat him the best way so he can help us.”

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Mo Babouli, York United FC

The York captain was at his best in this match, and not only because he opened the scoring with a gorgeous free kick off the underside of the crossbar. Babouli had three successful dribbles and made 10 passes in the final third, also winning five duels. He looked confident and aggressive, constantly running at defenders and trying to create for his fellow attacking players.

What’s next?

York will be back on the pitch next Saturday, July 20, remaining on the road as they take on Vancouver FC (3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET). Cavalry, meanwhile, are at home again next Sunday, July 21, as they host Forge FC (3 p.m. MT/5 p.m. ET).

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