2023 CPL Regular Season — Match #53**
** **Pacific FC vs. Cavalry FC
** **July 8, 2023 at 6 p.m. PT/7 p.m. MT
** **Starlight Stadium in Langford, British Columbia
** Watch Live: OneSoccer // Tickets available here
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Pacific FC will welcome their most common opponent to Starlight Stadium once again this weekend, as Cavalry FC head west for a 23rd all-time meeting with the Vancouver Island club. The high-flying Pacific enter this game in outstanding form, sitting atop the CPL table with 25 points — putting them five points clear, with two games in hand on second-place York United. The Tridents will be hoping to stretch their current unbeaten run to 10, which would be a club record. That said, Pacific didn’t necessarily come away from their last game all smiles. They felt they’d dropped points in a 2-2 draw at home against Atlético Ottawa, where Josh Heard missed a late penalty and the Tridents couldn’t find a way to score a winner against a 10-man opponent in the final 10 minutes. Cavalry, meanwhile, have started to build up some form lately as well, winning three of their last four matches. With a 4-6-2 record they’re in fourth place, but a win on Saturday would shoot them up to as high as second temporarily (before York and Forge play each other). The Cavs also have the second-best goal differential in the league at +4, behind only Pacific (well out in front at +12). Last weekend, Cavalry were able to beat Valour FC 2-0 in Winnipeg, thanks to an early goal from current Golden Boot leader Myer Bevan, plus a late insurance marker by Goteh Ntignee. That was Cavalry’s first away win of the season, and head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. will be hopeful his team can find a second this weekend. The squad report for the Calgary club is a mixed bag of good and bad news. The good? Midfielder Shamit Shome has travelled with the squad after missing the last 10 games. So, too, has Maël Henry, who may be in line to make his Cavalry debut after transferring from Vancouver FC. Unfortunately, Charlie Trafford will be serving a suspension for the Cavs, so he’ll be unavailable — as will fullback Roberto Alarcón and centre-back Callum Montgomery (though the latter is getting very close to a return). These sides have met twice already this season, both of them at Starlight Stadium and both of them 1-1 draws over 90 minutes. One of those was a Canadian Championship first-round tie, which Pacific went on to win on penalties. Over the years, Cavalry have a slight edge with 10 wins to Pacific’s eight against them, with four draws between the two as well. Can Cavalry make it two in a row on the road? Or will Pacific wrap up their homestand with another big win?
OneSoccer is also available as a linear channel on Optik TV (Ch. 980), the pay-TV service operated by Telus, one of Canada’s ‘big three’ telecoms companies, as well as on streaming service fuboTV Canada.
3 THINGS TO WATCH
- Fort Langford remains tough venue for visitors: ****Pacific FC have lost just two regular season CPL games at Starlight Stadium in the past calendar year, one of those being a heartbreaking 1-0 defeat to Forge earlier this season (the Tridents’ only loss of 2023). They’ve done an excellent job making life difficult for visiting teams in Langford, making good use of the narrower pitch and pressing aggressively. That’s a good thing for Pacific, who play a lot of their home matches in the first half of the year — nine of their first 14, then five of their last 14 games. Strong home form early in the year has put them in good position for the home stretch. “We haven’t really focused on that too much,” said James Merriman. “We know it’s always important to take as many points as you can when you’re at home, I think everybody knows this, and for the last couple of seasons now we’ve been trying to continue to build that momentum here and make this a really difficult place for people to come. … We’ve been able to establish a certain style of game that we want to play at home, very aggressive without the ball and aggressive with the ball.” * **Bevan in top scoring form: **It’s late enough in the season now that we can begin properly looking at the Golden Boot race as a list of possible candidates to top the chart come the season’s end. The most consistent scorer in the league so far has been New Zealand-born Myer Bevan, who’s top of the CPL with seven goals — plus one against Pacific in the Canadian Championship. His consistency and ability to draw defenders has been key to Cavalry’s attack lately, and with Goteh Ntignee getting on the scoresheet last weekend and Joe Mason now available for selection again, look for Cavalry to find another level of goalscoring ability. “Myer’s probably the most efficient striker in terms of his goals per minute that I’ve ever worked with,” head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. said. “He needs one chance; you give him one chance and he usually takes it. As a defender — and I’ve played as a defender myself — you think you’ve won the battle and then suddenly they get one chance and you’re like, ‘Where the hell does that come from?’ But what he does is runs and works for the team, he stretches the line and allows guys like Goteh Ntignee, like Sergio Camargo, Ali Musse to chip in with goals as well.” * **Tridents’ defence stingy lately: **Pacific have always been known as a dangerous team in attack, but this year they’ve continued to grow into a very good defensive team. They’ve conceded a league-best 11 goals, including just one from open play in the last four games. A large part of the defensive strength is down to powerful centre-back duo Amer Didic and Thomas Meilleur-Giguère, but James Merriman also pointed out that there’s a greater team-wide commitment to defending when they lose the ball this year: “We’ve always wanted to be a possession-based team and we’ve always wanted to be quite dynamic in our attacking as well and at times that created gaps for us when we lost the ball, it allowed teams to transition and create good chances and counter-attacks against us,” said Merriman. “The way we’ve attacked has been more together and the way that we defend is together; it’s very much 11 attack and 11 defending, and that makes us a lot more difficult to break down when we lose the ball. It’s the second season for Thomas and Amer, and their relationship has continued to grow as the two centre-backs together in that pairing and being the anchor for us.”
PROJECTED STARTING XIs
Pacific FC: Baskett; Dada-Luke, Didic, Meilleur-Giguère, Vliet; Young, Toussaint, Aparicio; Heard, Ongaro, Sellouf
**Cavalry FC: **Carducci; Aird, Klomp, Chima, Kamdem; Daley, Kobza; Musse, Camargo, Ntignee; Bevan
ALL-TIME SERIES
Pacific FC wins: 8 || Cavalry FC wins: 10 || Draws: 4
Last meeting:
April 23, 2023 – Pacific FC 1-1 Cavalry FC
KEY QUOTES
“The group’s still working hard. We have a humble enough leadership group in our team that keep everybody’s feet on the ground working hard. It’s not even halfway through the season for us yet so there’s a lot of games in front of us, and we need to keep doing the little things that have allowed us to get out into the place that we want to be, on top of the table right now.” — Pacific FC head coach James Merriman “They’re in a great run of form; they’ve been the one team this year that’s put together a good string of results, and that’s credit to James and his staff. They’ve got a deep, deep squad, but we like our chance against them. We’ve got some things that we know can nullify them and expose them, so that’s what makes it so good. It has become that nice West Coast derby, because we’ve been at each other since day one.” — Cavalry FC head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr.