Cavalry hits stride at Island Games
Calgary side hits its stride at the right time at Canadian Premier League’s Island Games
Tommy Wheeldon Jr. has been waiting for the best version of his Cavalry FC to arrive at the Island Games.
His troops looked the part — or close to it — in the latest Canadian Premier League battle on Prince Edward Island.
“We’re certainly sharpening our axe, aren’t we? We’re getting closer,” said the general manager/head coach of Calgary’s professional soccer club in the moments after Wednesday’s 3-1 victory over Pacific FC.
“It’s a war of attrition — I say that all the time. It’s about being the best version of ourselves in the current circumstances we’re in.”
Indeed, bubble soccer doesn’t exactly lend itself to the type of training to which footy talents are accustomed.
They’re limited in how much they can do together and for how long, with one pitch — that being Charlottetown’s UPEI Artificial Turf Field — acting as the only stage on which games are played. Two other fields are used for practice sessions for all eight teams at the busy tournament.
And ahead of this shortened second CPL season, Cavalry was able only to train as a team for two full weeks due to physical-distancing protocols in Calgary.
But here the Cavs are eight games into the tournament just one win away from the championship finale.
They play HFX Wanderers FC on Saturday in their second game of the group stage in P.E.I. (1 p.m., Cbc/onesoccer.ca).
And they’re seemingly improving as the stakes get higher and the long bubble days crawl by.
“Credit the guys — they are just resilient when it comes to performing under pressure, and they’ve done that,” said Wheeldon Jr., who was his usual smiling self after Wednesday’s triumph. “I think they kind of enjoy it — it’s getting better and better.
“But we haven’t won anything yet, so we won’t get carried away. We’ll enjoy the win and get back to preparing for Halifax.”
Yes, Nova Scotia’s Wanderers stand in the way of a coveted berth in the finale, where Cavalry hopes to return and redeem itself for a heartbreaking series loss in the league’s inaugural championship last fall.
It’s new territory for the squad from Halifax after the first year didn’t go as planned. The Wanderers pieced together just six wins in 28 games in 2019, missing the playoffs by a long shot.
But they managed to find their footing during the abbreviated second season to finish as one of the top 4 teams advancing to the group stage. Then in what amounted to their first playoff game Wednesday, the Wanderers tussled with defending champion Forge FC in a 1-1 draw.
“The Halifax Wanderers gave Forge an excellent game,” Wheeldon Jr. told Onesoccer.ca. “So we won’t be taking them lightly. We’ll give what we’ve got for Saturday.”
In the first stage, the Cavs enjoyed one of their better early games against the crew from Halifax, earning a 2-1 victory on the boots of goal-scorers Nathan Mavila and Jordan Brown.
Not really much of a problem for them.
But the Wanderers shook it off to find their way into the final 4, meaning they’ve got things headed in the right direction.
It’s such a different vibe in Halifax that Cavs’ off-season addition Elliot Simmons can’t even help pick apart what his former team might bring to the Wanderers’ most important match in its young history.
“Actually, it’s a completely different squad there, so I wouldn’t know too much about what’s going on there,” Simmons said. “So I just think we focus on our own game and keep to our play and own habits.”
The hope then is that leads to becoming the best version of themselves — or as close as they can come to it once again.
“We take every game as it comes — take the three points and look onto the next game,” added Simmons, knowing full well that an upset at the hands of the Wanderers would make for a high-pressure finish of the group stage with only one game remaining after Wednesday’s affair for each of the four teams left in the tourney.
“You can only take it game per game. The main thing is to keep on winning and take the three points.”