HIGHLIGHTS: Valour FC vs. Cavalry FC (July 1, 2023)

Cavalry FC won a back-and-forth match on a hot Canada Day afternoon at IG Field on Saturday, beating Valour FC 2-0.

The visitors wasted no time, opening the scoring just six minutes into the match. After running onto a long pass down the right flank from Daan Klomp, Fraser Aird played a low cross into the box, where the ball met Myer Bevan. The Canadian Premier League’s Golden Boot leader redirected the ball past Valour goalkeeper Rayane Yesli with a gentle touch, scoring his seventh goal of the season, before celebrating in front of the home fans at IG Field.

Valour responded well to the early goal, and dominated possession for about twenty minutes after the goal. Juan Pablo Sánchez had a pair of shots blocked in quick succession in the 11th minute as Valour looked for a quick equalizer, but Cavalry’s defence stood tall. Pacifique Niyongabire put the ball on target a minute later, with an athletic volley that forced a save from Marco Carducci to push the ball over the bar. From the ensuing corner kick Guillaume Pianelli had a free header in the box, but couldn’t keep his effort down.

Sergio Camargo had a glorious chance to double the lead for Cavalry with five minutes left in the half, but failed to hit the target from inside the box. Goteh Ntignee made a brilliant run down the left flank with a sudden burst of pace that took two Valour defenders out of the play. After getting behind the Valour defenders, he centred the ball for Camargo, who perhaps rushed his shot a little bit and sent it wide of the mark.

Valour had one more chance late in the half to find the back of the net, but once again they were missing the last clinical moment of quality. Andy Baquero floated a cross into the box for Jaime Siaj, but the Jordan international couldn’t get good enough contact on his header to put the ball on target.

After Sanchez and second-half substitute Joe Mason both hit the target with shots after the hour mark, Valour kept pushing for opportunities to tie the game up at 1-1, and a huge one would come in the 79th minute. Moments earlier Eskander Mzoughi thought he won a penalty for the hosts after seemingly being pushed over by Bradley Kamdem, but the referee pointed to the corner flag instead as the ball bounced out of the bounds.

After the ball was swung into the area, it fell to Jared Ulloa at the far post. The young attacker wasn’t expecting the ball to reach him, and it struck his leg from inside the six yard box and toward the net, but Marco Carducci was able to reach out and snatch it off the line. Had Ulloa been more ready for it, and struck it pretty much anywhere else on target with a hint of power, it would have been the equalizing goal.

With time running out in the match, and the ball spending a lot of time in Cavalry’s half of the pitch, the visitors quickly counter-attacked and found a second goal late. Abdou Samaké tried to head a long pass over the top to Ben Fisk, but couldn’t clear it away from danger. Fisk ran onto it and crossed it to the back post for Goteh Ntignee, whose hard shot couldn’t be stopped by Rayane Yesli for his second goal in as many matches.

With the win, Cavalry FC are up to third place in the CPL standings, and have won back-to-back matches. They are just one point back of second-place Forge FC, with two matches in hand as they propel up the table.

BOX SCORE

Goals

6′ — Myer Bevan (Cavalry FC)
90′ — Goteh Ntignee (Cavalry FC)

Discipline

21′ — Yellow: Charlie Trafford (Cavalry FC)
46′ — Yellow: Juan Pablo Sánchez (Valour FC)