It is all to play for in Calgary on Tuesday night at ATCO Field as Cavalry and Vancouver FC meet in the second leg of their TELUS Canadian Championship quarter-final.
After a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Langley, and with no away goals rule in this year's competition, everything is tied up heading into Tuesday's match. If the sides tie again following regulation in the second leg, they will head to the penalty spot. Vancouver FC beat rivals Pacific on penalties in the preliminary round.
For Vancouver FC, Tuesday represents a chance to make club history. They have never won a match in regulation in the Canadian Championship, and should they do that, it would also mean a first-ever victory over Cavalry FC, and advancing to the semi-final round of the competition for the first time.
Cavalry FC have reached the semi-final just once, back in their inaugural season in 2019. The quarter-final of that year's competition was also the last time they won a home-and-away series: falling since in the 2022 CPL Playoff semi-final to Forge, last year's Canadian Championship quarter-final against the Vancouver Whitecaps, and twice in the Concacaf Champions Cup to Orlando City SC, and Pumas earlier this year.
Both meetings between Vancouver FC and Cavalry this year, both in the league and cup, played out in similar fashion. Vancouver FC opened the scoring, before Tobias Warschewski rescued a draw for Cavalry late. The German striker has scored five goals in seven all-time games against the Eagles. It was David Norman Jr. who scored for Vancouver FC, against his former club, in the quarter-final first leg.
Cavalry eliminated Vancouver FC from last year's Canadian Championship in the first round on a goal from, you guessed it, Tobias Warschewski. They are also the far more rested of the two sides, having had the week off while Vancouver FC travelled to Hamilton to take on Forge in a 2-1 loss on Saturday.
The Eagles will be without midfielder 17-year-old Emrick Fotsing, who suffered a scary injury during this weekend's match. After being released from the hospital after scans came back negative, Fotsing will rejoin the team next week, where he will begin return-to-play protocols with the VFC medical staff. All-time CPL leading goalscorer Terran Campbell also did not travel with the team for precautionary reasons.
Vancouver and Cavalry will meet again following this match, this time in Langley, in the league, on Sunday. But that won't be on the mind of either team as they step onto the pitch on Tuesday night.
Instead, for Cavalry, the defending CPL champions, reaching the semi-final would be yet another statement that they are among the top teams in this country. For Vancouver, it would be a huge moment for a club that has been struggling to find wins and currently sit at the bottom of the CPL regular season table.
Canadian Championship History
Last meeting: May 21, 2025 -- Vancouver FC 1-1 Cavalry FC (TELUS Canadian Championship Quarter-Final Leg 1)
Cavalry FC:
All-time record: 9W-3D-6L
Best finish: Semi-finals (2019) - Lost to CF Montréal 3-1 on aggregate
Vancouver FC:
All-time record: 1W-1D-2L
Best finish: First Round (2023, 2024) -- lost to York United 1-0/lost to Cavalry FC 1-0
Key Quotes
“Even their game this weekend against Forge, they had a lot of really good moments that had they capitalized on, it's a different scoreline. So we know that they pose some threats. They're very, very aggressive. They do skirt that line, but they also have some good set plays. They scored on us in a set play scramble. So we know that we've got to be able to absorb whatever it is they hit us with, but we've also got to make sure that we play to our maximum capacity going the other way." – Cavalry FC head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr.
“When I talk to our players, when I see in their eyes the level of concentration and fire I get a lot of confidence from them to go to this game with our heads up, and with our hearts open for some really nice history to be made.” – Vancouver FC head coach Afshin Ghotbi