Cavalry FC and Valour FC could not be separated on Sunday afternoon at ATCO Field, where the two sides played to a 1-1 draw after a pair of first-half goals.
Just a few days removed from a hard-fought match against the Vancouver Whitecaps, Cavalry nonetheless made just one change to their starting XI as Tobias Warschewski came in on the right wing. Valour, meanwhile, made three changes to the team that beat Halifax last Monday, as former Cavalry fullback Roberto Alarcón returned to the starting lineup, as did Shaan Hundal and goalkeeper Jonathan Viscosi.
After a first half-hour or so of cagey play, with neither side causing much trouble for the other, eventually it was Valour who brought the game to life. Midfielder Juan Pablo Sánchez drove with the ball through midfield and was allowed to continue strolling into space as Cavalry’s defence backed up.
A little outside the top of the box, Sánchez eventually decided to try his luck with a shot, and he sent a perfect strike over the backline and out of Marco Carducci’s reach, scoring with a screamer in the top left corner.
Cavalry wouldn’t trail for long, though. Less than 10 minutes later, Bradley Kamdem whipped a long throw-in into the box where it wasn’t quite headed away, instead landing in the path of Fraser Aird. The reigning CPL Player of the Week hit it hard in stride as it took a huge deflection en route to the net and looped in over Viscosi to make it 1-1.
Unhappy with his side’s first-half performance, Cavalry manager Tommy Wheeldon Jr. made a major change to his midfield, replacing his double pivot of Charlie Trafford and Jesse Daley with former Valour star Diego Gutiérrez and Shamit Shome.
The Cavs did take much more control in the second half, taking five shots and giving up none in the first 20 minutes after halftime. They lacked efficiency though, and continued searching for a way to really test Viscosi.
With 15 minutes to play Valour produced a heartwarming moment, as Raphael Ohin checked into the game; the Ghana native had only played one game in the last two years due to a pair of serious long-term injuries, so his return to the pitch was a fantastic sight for the Winnipeg club.
Cavalry had a handful of other good chances in the final few moments, with Tobias Warschewski in particular getting his head on a cross he wasn’t able to direct goalward, but the winning goal eluded them.
So, Valour managed to hold on for a point in the last stop of their seven-game season opening road trip while the Cavs were held to their fifth draw of the year so far.
BOX SCORE
Lineups
Cavalry FC: Carducci; Aird, Klomp, Montgomery, Kamdem (Field 83′); Daley (Shome 46′), Trafford (Gutiérrez 46′); Brooks (Dias 67′), Camargo (Kobza 90′), Warschewski; Shaw
Valour FC: Viscosi; Alarcón (Facchineri 76′), Mourdoukoutas, Chantzopoulos, Antonoglou; Sánchez (Ohin 76′), Campbell; Binate (Verhoeven 65′), Ressurreição (Faria 65′), Hundal (Sukunda 86′)a; Swibel
Goals
31′ — Juan Pablo Sánchez (Valour FC)
39′ — Fraser Aird (Cavalry FC)
Discipline
11′ — Yellow: Charlie Trafford (Cavalry FC)
34′ — Yellow: Abdul Binate (Valour FC)
79′ — Yellow: Raphael Ohin (Valour FC)
88′ — Yellow: Jordan Faria (Valour FC)
