Valour FC coach Rob Gale says “there are no days off in football.”

That’s certainly true for Gale, Cavalry FC coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr., and FC Edmonton coach Jeff Paulus. While their three teams aren’t in action during the Canadian Premier League’s opening weekend, all of them will be busy – in fact, they’ll be so busy that there’s a chance that none will be able to watch the entirety of April 27’s kickoff match between York 9 and Forge FC live.

Gale will be working with his coaching staff, giving clinics and doing community outreach in Winnipeg; in Calgary, Spruce Meadows will be hosting an open house, and Cavalry will face Foothills FC in a friendly fixture; in Edmonton, a grand opening party for the city’s Soccer Dome is planned for Saturday. Paulus will be coaching a media team who will likely be lambs to the slaughter for a bunch of U-13 players …  and after that media game, FCE will have a training session that’s open to the public.

So, while Valour FC is off on opening weekend, it will be be the league’s busiest team through the month of May. Gale’s crew plays on Vancouver Island against Pacific FC on May 1, then has a run of five games in 15 days. By the evening of May 16, Valour will have played five games — that’s half of the spring season schedule.

“It’s a massive conundrum,” Gale told CanPL.ca. “It will be like a qualifying schedule, where we’ll need to use the whole squad. Between games, we won’t have time to work on anything. It will be play, recover, travel.”

Pacific FC hosts HFX Wanderers FC on opening weekend, but Gale said that there’s such little time between that game and Valour’s May 1 visit to Vancouver Island, that it’s hard to really implement anything he might glean from the game film. But, he said it also means Pacific won’t really have time to prepare much for Valour, either.

“Really, until everyone gets to about game 10 in the schedule, it will be guesswork for us all,” Gale said.

Interestingly, in a separate interview, Wheeldon Jr. echoed the 10-games-to-figure-it-out sentiment.

“I think the truth is that we’re not (done building),” said Wheeldon Jr.. “We’ve done everything we can do to be ready, but ask me later in May. No team is a finished product as of yet, and I think it will take 10 games of the spring season before we really get an idea of where we’re at.”

Wheeldon Jr. will though, sit down and watch a recording of the York9 vs. Forge FC game not to celebrate the kickoff of the CPL, but because he has homework to do. Coach Jim Brennan’s men will provide the opposition when Cavalry has its home opener on May 4.

“The first focus is on what we do. Then I will have a look at the opposition and see what we can to do limit them,” Wheeldon Jr. said.

For Paulus, the opening weekend isn’t so much about the homework. FC Edmonton opens the season May 4 in Winnipeg against Valour — and Valour, as previously mentioned, doesn’t play till May 1.

“Every game that’s played is being shared with all the coaches,” Paulus said. “We’ll have an aerial view of every game. We’ll go through game film. But, honestly, the priority for me is Valour, and they don’t play on the opening weekend, either. My priority is Winnipeg when they play midweek, that’s what I am most concerned about.”

And, knowing that Valour will be in the midst of its hectic opening sprint to the season, does that actually make Gale’s team harder to scout? Paulus doesn’t think so.

“I think Galey’s done a good job building his roster, he’s got depth there. The way they’re going to play is the key, not who is on the pitch. It’s about their style of play — how do they want to press?

How are they going to try to build out of the back. Are they going to be more direct, are they going to more of a build-up team? And these characteristics will hold true no matter who they play.”

And, we’ll give Wheeldon Jr. the final word. He said a coach can plan and plan and plan all he wants, but, then a ball is kicked in anger — and everything changes.

“Everybody has a game plan until they’re punched in the face.”

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