Cavalry FC falls to Vancouver FC in penalties in Canadian Championship quarters
Another chase for the Canadian Championship is over for Cavalry FC.
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A loss in a penalty shootout to visiting Vancouver FC on Tuesday night at ATCO Field left the Calgary club heartbroken and ended this year's run for the Voyageurs Cup, despite what looked like perhaps the team's best opportunity to track down the coveted — and elusive — honour.
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'I think obviously we're disappointed,' said Cavalry midfield star Shamit Shome after the 1-1 result, decided by penalty kicks that favoured the Vancouver squad 5-4 at Spruce Meadows. 'We wanted to push together to get to the semifinals for the first time in a while.
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'It's just that's the reality of PKs. Anything can happen.'
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A win, indeed, would've pushed Cavalry onto the penultimate round of 'The Battle of the North' — a place the club reached once before back in the inaugural season.
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Six years later and with both a league and playoff championship under their belts, the Cavs seem primed to make it back to at least the semi round.
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Instead after Tuesday's decision, it's Vancouver FC off to play either Canadian Premier League rival Valour FC or Major League Soccer's Vancouver Whitecaps FC. That tie is at 2-2 with Leg 2 in the total-goal series set for Wednesday night at Vancouver's BC Place.
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'We've dealt with three penalty losses in Can Champs,' said Cavalry gaffer Tommy Wheeldon Jr., reflecting on his club's misadventures over the years. 'We've just got to move on and focus on what the next match is. The next match happens to be Vancouver (in CPL action Sunday night), so it's a great response for the players now, because I'm sure they're smarting.'
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Another oh-so-close result in a shootout certainly should hurt.
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This decider saw usually reliable Tobias Warschewski miss for Cavalry before teammates Caniggia Elva, Mihail Gherasimencov, Fraser Aird and Ali Musse all scored.
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For Vancouver, it was Nicolás Mazquida, David Norman Jr., Aidan O'Connor, Terran Campbell and Juan Batista converting penalty kicks on Cavalry goalkeeper Marco Carducci. Teammate Thomas Powell missed his chance.
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But the difference came on the last kick, when it was Maël Henry saved by the Vancouver goalie Callum Irving, who stretched out to get his fingers on the shot to the deep left of the net.
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'It's about the 180 minutes (over two games to beat Vancouver),' said Wheeldon, whose charges drew even 1-1 with host Vancouver back in July during the first leg of the two-game, total-goal quarterfinal series. 'Vancouver played us tough in those 180 minutes and took it to a lottery, and we lost that. So we have to look at what we could have done better in those 180 — not just (Tuesday) night — and see how we can get better.'
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