Wanderers lose 2-1 to Cavalry
The snake-bitten HFX Wanderers continue to struggle offensively in Winnipeg.
The Wanderers dropped a 2-1 decision to Cavalry FC in Canadian Premier League play Saturday evening. The Halifax-based club has managed to score just three goals they have played in the six matches they have played in the bio-secure bubble at IG Field.
The Wanderers have had their chances. They managed 14 shots on goal during Saturday's match, including 11 in the second half.
Wanderers coach Mesut Mert – who has taken over the reins from Stephen Hart while he recovers in Halifax from a minor medical procedure – said the lack of offensive production should not affect their overall play.
“I tell the boys, if you're not successful in one side of the game, you have to be able to find another part of your game that's successful, that's affecting the game,” Mert said in an interview with cpl. ca.
Akeem Garcia, the league's Golden Boot winner last season, has yet to find the back of the net this season.
“For (Garcia), the goals are not coming for you right now, and they will,” Mert continued. “But let's affect the game in a different way, whether it's your game with your back to goal comes alive; you come in, take a touch, bump it off, get your wingers involved, that's the game that he has to improve. And if that's not going, maybe it's you pressing — guiding the ball to one side.
“For the players, it's not just focusing on one part of their game, but if that doesn't work, it's not happening for some of our players right now with scoring, they have to be effective in other areas.”
Cavalry (3-2-2) entered the game struggling offensively as well. The Calgary-based club had failed to score during a four-game winless skid heading into Saturday.
But Anthony Novak scored in first-half stoppage time and Ali Musse added another in the 52nd minute to lift Calvary to a 2-0 advantage.
Samuel Salter scored a late consolation goal in the 87th minute but that's all the seventh-place Wanderers (13-2) could manage.
The Wanderers were without the injured Peter Schaale, Cory Bent, Marcello Polisi and Jeremy Gagnon-lapare and Jems Geffrard is on international duty with Haiti at the Gold Cup
Keeper Christian Oxner said a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine was recently administered to the Wanderers players and the affects were noticeable Saturday evening.
“We knew it was going to be tough last night,” Oxner said in a phone interview on Sunday. “We took the vaccine two days ago so we knew guys were going to have some problems dealing with that, which they did. Friday was a write off for many of us. We couldn't really do much.
“We had guys yesterday that were struggling a bit fitness-wise. We knew it was going to be a challenge but we also don't want to use it as an excuse. All things considered, we handled it as well as we could.”
The Wanderers have two matches remaining this week in the Winnipeg bubble – Wednesday versus FC Edmonton and Saturday against Valour FC – before they return home to Halifax.
Their first home match at the Wanderers Grounds is Aug. 2 when they host Atletico Ottawa.