There is a reason Cavalry FC is going to the inaugural two-game, aggregate goal Canadian Premier League final Oct. 26 and Nov. 2. Cavalry showed why Sunday in Calgary with an emphatic 4-1 victory over Pacific FC before 3,968 fans at Spruce Meadows Stadium.
The first goal of the game pretty much typified Pacific FC’s afternoon in Calgary. Goalkeeper Nolan Wirth made a save that ricocheted off his body. PFC defender Ryan McCurdy’s clearance attempt bounced off the forehead of a teammate and back toward the goal. All that ping-ponging led to Cavalry’s scrambly first goal by former Honduran U-20 and U-23 international Jose Escalante at 12 minutes.
Hope came for Pacific FC when the crafty and quick rookie Zach Verhoven was pulled down in the Cavalry crease by goaltender Marco Carducci at 61 minutes. That brought Terran Campbell to the penalty spot to level 1-1. The rookie sent a screeching shot to the bottom right corner that needed to be perfect with Carducci — who was called up by Canada for the recent CONCACAF games against Cuba — guessing correctly.
It pushed Campbell to a league-leading 11 goals on the season in his bid to become the first Golden Boot winner in CPL history. Campbell is one goal ahead of Tristan Borges of Forge FC, who sits on 10. Chilean-import Rodrigo Gattas of York9 FC is third with eight goals.
Then came some inexplicably lax PFC defending, which turned the game, and allowed Brazilian-import Oliver Minatel to score the winner just five minutes after Campbell had levelled.
That was followed by a controversial call at 75 minutes that added to McCurdy’s calamitous outing. The PFC defender charged hard at a breaking striker with the shot glancing off McCurdy’s hand, which was at his side and not extended. It was a bang-bang play and the sliding McCurdy had no chance of getting his hand out of the way. It was inadvertent, but the referee pointed to the penalty spot, where Dominique Malonga made no mistake. McCurdy was already on a yellow card from earlier in the game and that second yellow meant a red card and expulsion.
“[McCurdy] was diving into a tackle and his hand was not above his head,” said PFC head coach Michael Silberbauer, in his post-game interview.
“We were in the game for 60-65 minutes. But with the red card, it was over.”
Silberbauer didn’t let his own young team off the hook.
“It’s about us doing what is necessary,” said the former Danish international.
Escalante closed the scoring with a terrific strike that curled around the PFC defenders and a diving Wirth.
Carducci made one save on two shots faced. Wirth made four saves on eight shots faced.
Cavalry has been the story of the CPL’s inaugural season. After dispatching fellow CPL teams PFC and Forge FC in the first two rounds of the Canadian Championship, Cavalry recorded what could be the defining moment of the fledgling CPL’s first year. The Calgary side stunned the Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer in the third round before giving another MLS club, Montreal Impact, all it could handle in a competitive fourth round.
Cavalry won the CPL spring season with an 8-2 record to guarantee a spot in the league playoff final against the fall season champion. Cavalry hasn’t missed a beat in the fall and is only once beaten at 7-1-4.
PFC is 4-6-3 in the fall season after going 3-5-2 in the spring. Its record against Cavalry this season concludes at 1-4-1, including the two losses in the Canadian Championship competition.
Pacific FC is at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton on Saturday, before returning to Westhills Stadium on Oct. 2 to face the HFX Wanderers of Halifax.
