It’s time to hit the reset button as the fall season begins in the Canadian Premier League. But can you reset emotions? Or the form chart?
Cavalry FC has a CPL playoff berth guaranteed as spring-season champions at 8-2, and a Canadian Championship Voyageurs Cup fixture looming Wednesday against the Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer.
So, will Pacific FC find the Calgary-based club comfortable as playoff-bound, and looking ahead to the Whitecaps? And what about the emotional spillover from last weekend’s ill-tempered 3-1 PFC upset victory over Cavalry in which six yellow and three red cards were flashed? That resulted in Panamanian-import Alexander Gonzalez of PFC and Dean Northover and Mauro Eustaquio of Cavalry being suspended for today’s game as Cavalry and Pacific FC meet again at 3 p.m. at Westhills Stadium to open the fall CPL season.
Tommy Wheeldon Jr., head coach and GM of Cavalry FC, said PFC deserved to enjoy the moment last week but vowed he will make sure no sense of complacency overtakes his team in the fall season. There was, however, the not small matter of Cavalry, having clinched the spring championship the week previous, resting seven starters in that last game.
PFC knows this will be a full-strength Cavalry team, minus injuries and suspensions, they face today and much like the one that beat PFC 2-0 and 2-1 in the two-leg Canadian Championship opening round in May that denied PFC its dream of a B.C. derby Voyageurs Cup matchup against the Whitecaps.
Pacific FC (3-5-2 in the league spring season), however, has won two of its last three games and wants to build on that. The boys in purple are out to prove they weren’t just one-hit wonders last week against the best team in the league.
“We feel we’re on the rise and making much progress,” said PFC midfielder Noah Verhoeven, named to the spring-season CPL all-star XI.
Verhoeven’s recent call-up to the Canada practice side for the Gold Cup means he is under obvious consideration for the U-23 Canada side that will go into Olympic qualifying for Tokyo 2020. PFC is the youngest team in the CPL and Verhoeven is among a group of players who could eventually net PFC’s ownership serious money in transfer fees if they move to a higher level in the MLS or overseas. Also in that group is 17-year-old Saudi Arabia U-20 player Ahmed Alghamdi, who scored a spectacular goal for PFC last Saturday against Cavalry, just two weeks after graduating from high school at St. George’s.
With former European Premiership pros Marcel De Jong and Marcus Haber, who have 83 caps for Canada between them, and German import Hendrik Starostzik injured for much of the season, the mentoring role with PFC has fallen to the likes of former Canada U-23 player Ben Fisk and former Whitecaps-prospect Victor Blasco.
The 26-year-old Fisk said the injuries to De Jong, Haber and Starostzik have forced him to assume a greater leadership role than he thought he would be thrust into at this point.
“It wasn’t so long ago I was the younger guy on teams,” said the twice Canada-capped midfielder, who played in the Europa Cup last season with Derry City of Ireland.
“But I love the role I have. Now, we have a good opportunity to start fresh. I’ve never had a first part of a split season I have been satisfied with.”
The 25-year-old Blasco, meanwhile, has been blasting away with three goals in his last three games.
“You start fresh but it’s still one week at a time,” said the Spanish import, and former Vancouver Island University standout and Pacwest MVP.
“This is a young team but we are getting better each time out and you can see it. I have been able to finish lately, but it’s my teammates who have opened the spaces for me. Football is a funny game. You can take many, many shots and nothing happens. But then you can take one, and it goes in. You have to be humble and work hard. It’s what we’re doing.”
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