Cavalry have picked up their 3rd win of the Canadian Premier League season, as they defeated Valour FC 1-0 at Princess Auto Stadium on Sunday.
With that, they climbed within one point of a playoff spot, showing how important this win was for them.
As for Valour, they now sit seven points behind Cavalry in seventh, having dropped four of their last five, continuing a mini-slump for them.
To start this game, Valour’s Jordi Swibel nearly opened the scoring in the 12th minute, as he found himself on a breakaway after a perfect pass from Diogo Ressurreição, but despite having plenty of time to figure out how to get past Marco Carducci in the Cavalry goal, Carducci would win the battle of wits in the 1v1 duel, making a big save on Swibel’s eventual shot attempt.
At the other end of the pitch, Cavalry had their first look at goal in the 27th minute, as Niko Myroniuk found Tom Field with a nice pass, but Field’s outside of the foot shot attempt curled well over the goal from just inside of the box. Then, right after, they came even closer to scoring, as Fraser Aird found Malcolm Shaw with a perfect cross towards the penalty spot, but Shaw’s header sailed just over the goal.
The next time Cavalry would get close to goal, however, they would not be denied.
Similarly to the chance minutes earlier, Aird received the ball out wide before pushing into the box. Known for his ability to cross, he looked likely to shape up and find a teammate from there, but then he pulled a surprise out of his locker, firing a powerful shot towards the near post, beating Valour’s Jonathan Viscosi cleanly with his attempt to give his team a 1-0 lead.
Eager to pull back a goal before half time, Valour almost got one back in the 37th minute, as the ball fell to Swibel at the edge of the box, and he curled a dangerous shot just wide of the post.
On the other side of half time, Valour would continue to push in the chase of an equalizer, but their efforts would prove fruitless in the first 20 minutes, as they came closest on a Jordan Faria shot from a tight angle in the 55th minute.
Then, they’d suffer a big blow in their push to make a comeback in the 81st minute, however, as Roberto Alarcón was sent off after catching Jesse Daley up high during a scrum near the halfway line.
Despite that, Valour continued to push late, and nearly found that equalizer early into stoppage time. After a dangerous run from Abdul Binate was snuffed out by Carducci, the ball fell to Loïc Kwemi, but the Valour debutant would be unable to mark his first CPL game with a goal as his low shot would be kept out by Carducci.
At the other end, Cavalry looked to put the game to rest, and nearly did so in the 93rd minute, as Tobias Warschewski fired a dangerous free kick from distance, forcing a solid stop out of Viscosi in the Valour goal. Then, Chanan Chanda had a good look in the 96th minute, but his low shot dribbled just wide of the post, keeping the game at 1-0.
From there, Cavalry would do what they needed to do in order to hang on, giving them three huge road points to help them in their quest to push back into a playoff spot.
BOX SCORE
Lineups
Valour FC: Viscosi; Alarcón, Mourdoukoutas, Facchineri, Antonoglou; Ohin (Sukunda 54′), Campbell; Verhoeven (Binate 64′), Ressurreição, Faria (Kwemi 64′); Swibel (Hundal 87′)
Cavalry FC: Carducci; Aird, Kobza, Klomp, Field; Gutiérrez (Daley 72′), Shome (Trafford 72′); Camargo (Henry 65′), Myroniuk (Chanda 82′); Shaw (Brooks 72′), Warschewski
Goals
34′ — Fraser Aird (Cavalry FC)
Discipline
36′ — Yellow: Dante Campbell (Valour FC)
41′ — Yellow: Diego Gutiérrez (Cavalry FC)
77′ — Yellow: Fraser Aird (Cavalry FC)
81′ — Red: Roberto Alarcón (Valour FC)
81′ — Yellow: Jesse Daley (Cavalry FC)
