Season on the line as Cavalry look to overturn one-goal deficit against Supra

CALGARY — Cavalry FC's season comes down to one afternoon at ATCO Field.




The Canadian Premier League Shield winners trail FC Supra du Québec 2-1 after the first leg of their semifinal in Laval, and there is no room left to manoeuvre. Win Saturday by two goals and Cavalry are through to the final in 90 minutes. Win by one goal and the aggregate score is level at 3-3, which sends the tie to extra time. Anything else, and the best regular season in club history ends at home.




Head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. framed the week the same way at Friday's pre-match availability. "We win two games in a row. We win another trophy," he said, pointing to the single-match final on November 21 or 22 that follows Saturday's second leg. Beat Supra and win that, and the North Star Cup joins the Shield — a league and playoff double.




Sunday in Laval, the tie nearly ran away from Cavalry in nine minutes. Zachary Brault-Guillard opened the scoring in the fourth minute, and Eryk Kobza deflected a shot into his own net in the ninth, leaving the Shield winners down 2-0 before the match had settled.




Tobias Warschewski dragged them back into it in first-half stoppage time, scoring on the rebound after Joakim Milli saved his penalty — a penalty Cavalry won when a video review found a handball in the Supra area.




The second half finished scoreless, even though Cavalry’s expected-goals figure on the club’s stat sheet read 2.09 to Supra’s 1.05. Wheeldon said after the match that the night “could have gone into chaos the way Supra started,” and called the 2-1 result “a good result to chase.”




The start is the first thing that has to change. Wheeldon admitted Friday that Cavalry did not stick to their game plan in the opening minutes in Laval, against a Supra side he called the hottest team in the league at the end of the regular season, riding a new-manager bounce. He also noted Supra barely threatened after the half-hour, and pointed to an “inconsistency in the way they defend” as the opening Cavalry have to exploit.




“We knew it was a 180-minute game,” Wheeldon said at Friday’s availability. “But now we get to return the favour.” Later he put it more bluntly: “We’ve got to put 90 minutes of hell to them.”




The biggest boost is who is available to deliver it. Captain Sergio Camargo, back from injury, declared himself fit at the availability. “If you saw me jog across the field to get here, you’d understand I’m available,” he said. “I’ve put in a lot of work these last couple weeks to give Tommy the option to play me.”




Defender Adam Pearlman trained Friday, with Wheeldon to decide on him after the session. "He's been brilliant for us, fully deserving of the under-21 nomination," Wheeldon said. Beyond Pearlman, the coach called the squad's health "probably the best situation we've been in," with only one player unavailable.




Cavalry also have the building on their side. They did not lose to Supra in four regular-season meetings, winning three, and beat them 6-0 at ATCO Field on September 25. Sunday's defeat was their first against Supra this season — and Supra, the fourth-place club playing the first playoff tie in club history, now have to protect a lead where Wheeldon says "when they come to our house, it's a different game."




Camargo echoed it. "It's a fortress here," he said at the availability. "They give us all the confidence in the world. We love to entertain them."




Supra head coach Kyt Selaidopoulos knows what is waiting. "It will be cold, there will be snow," he said after the first leg. "We have to be ready for everything that will happen there."




Kickoff is 3 p.m. ABT on Saturday at ATCO Field. The winner advances to the CPL final on November 21 or 22.




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