The Canadian Premier League’s battle for playoff positioning continues out on Vancouver Island, as Pacific FC hosts Cavalry FC at Starlight Stadium on Sunday.
Even though all five playoff teams are already determined, there’s still plenty to play for over the last few weeks, for all eight teams.
Certainly, for Pacific, who are one of the three teams that will miss the playoffs, they know they have plenty still to play for as they prepare for their first match since officially being eliminated from playoff contention, having lost their last game 4-0 to Forge.
Having reached the playoffs five seasons in a row before this one, it’s a tough blow for them to miss out on the postseason, but they’ll now look to channel that disappointment as they try to finish the season on a high note.
With two of their last three games coming at home, they’d love to give their fans something to cheer about in those games, while also ensuring they don’t drop to last in the table - they currently sit just three points ahead of rivals Vancouver, who occupy that last spot - giving them plenty to play for.
“I’m looking at how we start the game, how we finish the game, and how we are throughout the match,” Pacific’s head coach, James Merriman, said. “We need to look at all of those things, but most importantly, we need to feel an energy behind the team.”
As for Cavalry, though, they’re looking to stay where they are in the table, currently sitting in third place heading into this matchday. While they’d love to be higher up the table after finishing in the top two in 2023 and 2024, that is no longer mathematically possible for them after their 3-0 defeat to Atlético Ottawa on the road this past weekend.
Because of that, they’ll want to hold onto that third-place spot, knowing that their path towards defending the North Star Cup will at least be a bit easier if they can keep that position instead of dropping into fourth or fifth place.
They control their own destiny in that regard - they lead fourth-place York United by three points, and the fifth-place Halifax Wanderers by four points - but that lead is far from safe if they don’t add more points to their tally.
“We have to have short-term memories from last week,” Cavalry head coach, Tommy Wheeldon Jr., said this week. “It was always an outside possibility for us to get into the top two, but now what we've got to do is attack the game in front of us.”
In terms of player availability, both teams are set to welcome back key defenders for this game, as Pacific’s Aly Ndom and Cavalry’s Callum Montgomery are both set to return from injury.
3 THINGS TO WATCH
- Pacific promises aggressive approach in last few games: It’s always the big question that teams face when they’re in Pacific’s position - how should one tackle the last few games? Naturally, Pacific will want to finish the year as strong as possible, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t alter their approach as they start to build for 2026, with these last few games offering them an opportunity to build some momentum. Interestingly, though, Pacific are also looking to tweak their performances, as they want to be far more aggressive on and off the ball, having struggled to impose themselves in matches this season. Typically, a hallmark of past Pacific teams, there have been reasons why they haven’t been able to do that with regularity this year, such as the injuries and departures they’ve dealt with, but they’ll feel that shouldn’t have stopped them from doing that, at least not to the extent they’ve struggled with that. As a result, they want to use these last few games to show off that side of their game once again.
- Cavalry looking for consistency ahead of the playoffs: It’s been a strange season for Cavalry, who have 11 wins, which is actually just one fewer than their 2024 total, which got them within two points of first place. Yet, one big difference is that Cavalry already have eight defeats to their name, compared to just four last year, as they’ve been a lot more inconsistent from match to match. Last year, they drew a lot more games than they would’ve liked - all they needed was to turn two of their 12 draws into wins, and they’d have won the CPL Shield - but they entered most games knowing that they wouldn’t lose - and that helped them win the North Star Cup. To that point, they’ve also struggled to get hot in 2025 like they’ve tended to do in past years - they went from the end of May to the middle of September without winning back-to-back league games, which is quite unusual for them. Heading into the playoffs, where they’ll need to go on a run to win the North Star Cup as a team outside of the top three, it shows why how they finish the year will be just as important as where they finish, as they’ll want to be in the best form possible ahead of the official start of their North Star Cup defence.
- Can Pacific recapture magic from Cavalry’s last visit? The last time these two teams met was at the beginning of August, where Pacific picked up a big 1-0 win at Starlight Stadium. That win proved to be huge for Pacific, who then beat Vancouver the next week for their only back-to-back wins of 2025. Since then, they’ve struggled, sitting with a record of 0W-3D-4L in their last seven games, which has led to their early elimination from playoff contention, so it can be argued that the Cavalry game might’ve been the pinnacle of Pacific’s season, in fact. Because of that, look for them to build on that, as they’ve had a mixed record against Cavalry in recent years, which made that victory even more special. On the flipside, Cavalry will be hungry to avenge that loss, especially knowing how important this game could be for their third-place aspirations. With Halifax and York playing each other in Halifax this weekend, Cavalry could put themselves in a fantastic position to hold onto that third place with a win, which may be an even bigger motivating factor than that last Starlight visit.
PROJECTED STARTING XIs
Pacific FC: Melvin; Chung, Baldisimo, Ndom, Mukumbilwa; Young, Jumhi; Bustos, Daniels, Heard; Díaz
Cavalry FC: Carducci; Aird, Klomp, Montgomery, Kamdem; Kobza, Shome; Musse, Camargo, Ntignee; Warschewski
ALL-TIME SERIES
Pacific FC wins: 9 || Cavalry FC wins: 18 || Draws: 6
Last meeting:
August 4, 2025 — Pacific FC 1-0 Cavalry FC
KEY QUOTES
“Individually and collectively, we want to see the character, the spirit and the commitment of the players. We understand that we're out of the playoffs, but we have really big games here at home that mean a lot to the club, to the people that are behind the club, to the fans that come out, and to the players for all the work that they put in every single day. They need to fight for each other and push for each other, and finish in a really good way.” – Pacific FC head coach James Merriman
“That's what I said to lads - I'm tired of saying the same thing, that the scoreline didn't reflect the performance. At some stage, we've got to be a little bit more cagey in the backline and a little bit more clinical in the front line away from home, that’s all.” – Cavalry FC head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr