Cavalry book playoff berth with goalless draw against Vancouver

Cavalry FC earned their sixth consecutive berth in the Canadian Premier League (CPL) post-season on Saturday, thanks to a goalless draw with Vancouver FC at Spruce Meadows.

For Vancouver, the 0-0 draw ends a four-game losing skid and keeps the sixth-place Eagles in contention for the CPL’s fifth and final playoff spot, with three matches to go.

“Obviously we’ve had some very poor weeks and we came here to try to change our destiny and try to be in competition for the remaining games that are left,” said Vancouver head coach Afshin Ghotbi after the match.

“I’m really proud of the commitment, the grit, and also the discipline we showed in the defensive part. We have to improve in the attacking part… but it was a fair point, and I’m hoping it gives the players confidence moving forward.”

With Vancouver FC mostly opting to sit back and absorb Cavalry’s attacking pressure, the match didn’t produce too many fireworks.

As they often do at ATCO Field, Cavalry dominated possession and outshot Vancouver 15-6. At the other end of the pitch, Cavalry’s defence limited the Vancouverites to just a single touch in Marco Carducci’s 18-yard box.

But as has often been the case this season, Cavalry couldn’t find a formula to generate a goal, producing their third goalless draw of the season (and their second against Vancouver, having tied the Eagles 0-0 in Kelowna back in June)

For fans hoping to see a goal, the most exciting moment of the match was probably a looping overhead kick from Cavalry striker Tobias Warschewski in the second half that pinged off the top of Callum Irving’s crossbar.

But for a Vancouver FC squad that was in the midst of a four-game losing streak and has the CPL’s leakiest defence this year (with 41 goals against), earning a draw on the road against one of the CPL’s perennial contenders was nothing to moan about. Vancouver’s back line managed to fend off eight Cavalry corner kicks, while Irving made four saves to keep the visitors in the contest.

“As a back line, keeping the clean sheet was our first and foremost objective of the game,” said defender David Norman Jr.

“We did that, and I thought we were strong defensively. Now it’s figuring out a way to stay compact defensively to limit chances (against us), but also to create more going forward and start putting some balls into the back of the net.”

The result means Vancouver has still not beaten Cavalry throughout the last two seasons, in eight overall outings – 10, if you include the Canadian Championship.

Granted, Vancouver did show some attacking intention in the second half, when Ghotbi subbed in Ayman Sellouf, T.J. Tahid and Gabriel Bitar in an attempt to turn the tide in the Eagles’ favour. But any chances to advance deep into Cavalry’s half were snuffed out by the hosts, who have boasted the CPL’s toughest defence this season.

Thanks to the efforts of defenders Daan Klomp, Callum Montgomery, Michael Harms and Tom Field, Marco Carducci only had to face two shots to conserve the clean sheet on Saturday – his league-leading eighth of 2024.

The clean sheet was little consolation for Carducci, who said the players were disappointed to only claim a draw at home.

“Honestly, right now we’re obviously a bit disappointed we didn’t win tonight,” Carducci said. “We created enough chances to do that, so that was our first focus – winning.

“On one hand, we’re a bit disappointed with the outcome because I think we could have come away with three points and the team feels that, but we got a job done in terms of getting the playoffs clinched.”

The North Star Cup will likely be the only hardware Cavalry will be able to challenge for this year.

While Cavalry could still technically defend their CPL Shield from 2023, the mathematical likelihood of finishign first is almost nil, considering league-leading Forge FC won 2-0 over York on Saturday. That result created an eight-point lead for the Hamiltonians at the top of the table, with three games left. Cavalry would have to win all three of their remaining games, while Forge would have to lose all three for the Calgarians to hypothetically defend their 2023 regular-season title.

Carducci shrugged off the disappointment that the CPL shield will almost certainly not be staying in Calgary this year, stating the CPL playoffs provide the club an alternative route to qualify for the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

Plus, there’s the added motivation that winning a playoff championship is still elusive for the Calgarians, who lost the playoff final both last year and in 2019.

“We’ll still focus one game at a time,” Carducci said. “Obviously our goal was to defend the shield and we’ll keep focusing on ourselves. We’ve got nine points to play for, so our goal is to come away with nine points. Ultimately, it’s a bit out of our hands but we also know in this system, we look at the playoffs as well and that’s another route for us…to get back into CONCACAF.”

Cavalry has made the post-season every year since the CPL kicked off in 2019. But for Vancouver, qualifying for the playoffs this year would be a new experience, after finishing seventh in their debut season in 2023.

Now just one point back of the fifth-place Pacific FC (who admittedly have a game in hand) the Eagles still have a chance. But they will no doubt be up against it, with two remaining road trips – including next weekend, when they fly across the country to face Halifax.

Norman Jr. said it would be “huge” for Vancouver to make the post-season this year, and called the goalless draw against Cavalry a performance they can build off of as they continue to vie for the playoffs.

“ It was a solid performance throughout many areas,” he said. “It’s just building off this performance today, looking at what we did well and finding areas we can take into Halifax next week.

“(Making the playoffs) is a goal we’ve had since the beginning of the season and we’re right on the cusp of it. Now it’s about hard work, keeping our head down, a bit of luck and putting it all together these last three games.”