Winless Wanderers switch focus to CS St-laurent
After a struggling start to their Canadian Premier League season, the Halifax Wanderers could use a reprieve.
But head coach Patrice Gheisar warns that Thursday night’s Telus Canadian Championship preliminaryround matchup against Ligue1 Quebec side CS Stlaurent at the Wanderers Grounds won’t be one of those games.
“I know that generally when you play a League One team, and I was on that other side, this is a massive game for them,” Gheisar said in a recent interview. “Regardless of who they are, the fact is they are champions of a very, very good province. This is their one shot to play a pro team and it’s everything to them.
“They’re going to come out and give it everything they got. If we come out and treat them like a League One team, I think we’re going to be very disappointed.”
The Canadian Championship, a national cup competition, features 14 sides including all eight CPL clubs, three first-time entrants from semi-professional leagues
– the aforementioned CS Stlaurent, League1 Ontario’s Simcoe County Rovers and the Victoria Highlanders of League1 British Columbia – and Major League Soccer’s CF Montreal, Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC.
For the fourth time in Canadian Championship history, the Wanderers face a semi-pro side in the opening round of the competition. The Wanderers defeated Vaughan Azzurri on aggregate during the 2019 Canadian Championship (Gheisar was coach of Vaughan at the time), bested A.S. Blainville in 2021, and Guelph United in 2022.
Either the Wanderers or CS St-laurent will face the winner of the matchup between Toronto FC or Simcoe County. (Halifax and TFC met in a Canadian Championship preliminary in 2022 at the Wanderers Grounds.)
After the single-leg preliminary round, both the quarters and semifinals will feature a home-and-away format, culminating in a single-match final in late September. The Whitecaps and Montreal have byes to the quarterfinals.
The Wanderers are without a point through their first three CPL games, including their latest setback in their home opener on Saturday, a 3-1 loss to Atletico Ottawa at the Wanderers Grounds. Halifax was shut out in its first two games in B.C., losses to Pacific FC and Vancouver.
“It doesn’t matter on Thursday if we play Forge, Calgary or a League One team,” Gheisar said. “It’s a game that we got to rebound, be ready to go in there with no excuses.
“I said to the guys, ‘no one’s perfect but we are making some mistakes.’ We need to get back to work, fix it and be ready to go. With (Saturday’s) game I’m really not disappointed. I’m disappointed with the result, but I don’t think anyone was walking on the field. I don’t think any fan can say the lads lacked effort. But on Thursday, our opponent will come out flying, so we need to make sure we have (Saturday’s) effort.”
Halifax standout midfielder Lorenzo Callegari was handed a red card after catching Ottawa’s Manny Aparicio with a high tackle 20 minutes into Saturday’s match, which put the Wanderers down to 10 players for over 70 minutes. The red card carries with it an automatic two-match suspension, pending an appeal.