The opening round of the Canadian Championship, this nation’s answer to the FA Cup in England, concluded Thursday night at Starlight Stadium with Pacific FC filling out the quarter-finals dance card by beating Cavalry FC from Calgary on penalty kicks after regulation time ended 1-1.
Trident’s goalkeeper Emil Gazdov stopped the fourth Cavalry FC shot and then Georges Mukumbilwa potted the fifth consecutive PFC shot into the net to give the Tridents a 5-4 advantage from the spot.
“Penalties are like a lottery,” said Cavalry FC head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr.
“They [PFC] got that one save and that was the difference on them going through.”
Gazdov said he had a “feeling” on where the shot was headed on the save.
“It was a tight match and about intensity,” said PFC head coach James Merriman.
“We had full confidence in Emil [Gazdov]. He makes those saves all the time in training and we knew he was going make one save.”
Pacific FC advances to meet upstart League1 B.C.-champion TSS Rovers between May 7-9 at Starlight Stadium in the quarter-finals. The Rovers advanced by shocking Winnipeg’s Valour FC of the CPL 3-1 on Wednesday night at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, in one of the biggest upsets in Canadian Championship history, as former PFC striker Matteo Polisi scored twice for TSS as a semi-pro team beat a pro team for the first time in Voyageurs Cup history.
Minnows rising to slay giants is a big feature of soccer Cup competitions and the Rovers added to the lore. So have PFC and Cavalry FC in their time, as both have previously beaten the Whitecaps of MLS in Canadian Championship play.
The 14-team single-loss elimination Canadian Championship tournament for the Voyageurs Cup features Canada’s 11 pro soccer teams — the three in MLS and eight in the CPL — and the defending champions of the semi-pro League1 Ontario, Ligue1 Québec and League1 B.C., the latter which includes the Victoria Highlanders.
The 2023 Voyageurs Cup champion will earn a berth in the 2024 CONCACAF Champions League.
Myer Bevan showed Thursday why he scored 12 goals in five U-23 qualifying games to get New Zealand to the Tokyo Olympics. The dual citizen, who also has six senior caps and two goals in World Cup qualifying, got Cavalry FC on the board first at Starlight Stadium. Bevan’s boot clipped the heel and sent a PFC defender sprawling and there was no whistle. Bevan took advantage of the clearer path to the net to score at 28 minutes. Victoria-product Sean Young, on his 22nd birthday, sent a free kick from the far left flank that found the head of six-foot-six striker Easton Ongaro as PFC leveled 10 minutes later.
The Tridents avenged last year’s first-round loss on penalty kicks to York United of the CPL at Starlight Stadium. Cavalry FC went down on penalties for the second consecutive year, after having lost to the eventual-champion Whitecaps of MLS on penalties in the quarter-final stage.
This was the third meeting in the Canadian Championship between the Tridents and Cavalry FC with the Island club now having won on two occasions.
The first round of the 2023 Voyageurs Cup tournament is now complete. Host CF Montréal of MLS beat League 1 Ontario-champion Vaughan Azzuri 2-0 at Stade Saputo and defending CPL-champion Forge FC blanked Ligue1 Québec-champion FC Laval 3-0 at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ont. York United edged expansion Vancouver FC 1-0 in Toronto in an all-CPL match-up and Atlético Ottawa beat the HFX Wanderers of Halifax 3-1 in another all-CPL tournament opener this week to join Pacific FC and TSS Rovers in the quarter-finals May 9-11. Joining the fray in the quarter-final stage will be last year’s all-MLS Voyageurs Cup finalists, the champion Whitecaps and runner-up Toronto FC, who received first-round byes.
“We will be ready and will not take them [TSS] lightly,” said Merriman.
Cavalry FC, meanwhile is also scheduled to meet PFC in a league fixture Sunday afternoon at Starlight Stadium. The hand of fate in the Canadian Championship draw brought the two clubs together twice in four days.
“We will be ready for Sunday,” vowed Cavalry FC bench-boss Wheeldon Jr.
CORNER KICKS: Thursday was a losing homecoming for new Cavalry FC fullback Callum Montgomery, the 25-year-old Nanaimo product and former Victoria Highlanders star, who went fourth overall in the first round to FC Dallas in the 2019 MLS draft. The St. Michaels University School graduate was tournament MVP in leading the Blue Jags to the 2014 B.C. high school Double-A championship and represented Canada in the CONCACAF qualifying tournament for the Tokyo Olympics.
