Eighty Six Forever, Post Match, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, Voyageurs Cup

Whitecaps take first leg over Cavalry at Spruce Meadows

Tuesday night in Calgary, the Vancouver Whitecaps secured a 2-1 victory over Cavalry FC in the first leg of a Canadian Championship quarter-final matchup.

From the outset, it’s worth saying that this was not a pretty match for either side. Honestly though, I think that’s to be expected in these early-round cup ties. The first half had all the classic features of a tense, but ultimately very low-event football match. There were challenges and physical exchanges galore, there were protests to the officials (mostly by Cavalry), there were balls that took hilarious bounces as they trundled along the knobby turf at ATCO Field, and of course, there was a back-pass that almost ended up in a hilarious own goal (courtesy of Ralph Priso).

As Vanni Sartini said after the match, the first half should have ended 1-1. Apparently, no one gave Levonte Johnson the memo. Deep into first half stoppage time, the young Canadian seized his opportunity as a clearance from the Cavalry defence bounced at an enticing height in front of him. There was no hesitation from Johnson, who stuck it beautifully with his weak foot from distance. His shot rainbowed over the outstretched hands of Marco Carducci and off the post before eventually settling in the back of the net.

From there, options opened up for the Whitecaps as to how they wanted to manage the match, both in terms of personnel and tactics. Vancouver is at its best when the other team is pressing for a goal, so Cavalry had to be pragmatic about how much they pushed for an equalizer without exposing themselves. To the home side’s credit, they did a nice job of this in the second half, holding more of the ball in the final third and testing Isaac Boehmer on the odd occasion. Overall though, through the first 75+ minutes of the contest, Cavalry were unable to find a critical breakthrough, or really push the Whitecaps out of their defensive structure.

Perhaps as a result of their struggles to find an equalizer, a second opening presented itself for Levonte Johnson in the 79th minute. After a rather innocent looking ball from Bjorn Inge Utvik found Johnson inside the Cavalry half, the seas opened up for the Brampton native through some spotty defending. As a result, he was able to stroll in on goal uncontested, calmly disposing of his shot for the second goal of the evening, placing the Whitecaps ahead 2-0 and with a stranglehold on the matchup.

From there, it looked as though the Whitecaps would cruise to a dominant result. However, after some defensive tweaks in the late stages, including the first appearance for recent acquisition Giuseppe Bovalina, the Cavalry were finally able to find a breakthrough as the match was moments from drawing to a close.

Laborda and the aforementioned Bovalina did not look like they were on the same page as Lucas Dias was able to place a nice ball on the feet of Malcolm Shaw inside the Whitecaps area. Shaw still had a lot of work to do from a tight angle, and it was only through a bit of good fortune, scuffing his boot along the turf before contacting the ball, that Shaw was able to deceive the Whitecaps keeper Boehmer and create the angle necessary to slip the shot past him.

It was a frustrating goal for the Whitecaps to concede, but probably not an unfair result for the home side, who battled valiantly with the Whitecaps and deserved a result that at very least kept them alive for the second leg.

Overall, Vancouver did just enough to take away the result they needed, and it’s worth noting, this is the first time Vancouver has won a match outright at Spruce Meadows, so that’s progress of sorts!

In terms of individual standouts for the Whitecaps, Ali Ahmed was brilliant throughout. If it wasn’t for managing his minutes, I’m sure that Vanni Sartini would have preferred to keep Ali on for the full 90. I also thought Raposo was pretty good down the right hand side, though that combination in the front three did not provide him many options in the first half.

On the flip side, it was a tough night for Ralph Priso and Seb Berhalter. I think what’s clear is that both can play a complementary role in the midfield, but asking them to play a double pivot on their own would have been a recipe for disaster against better opposition. Levonte Johnson, though he did score twice, was not particularly good the rest of the match, though that is the beauty of being a striker, if you manage to find the back of the net, it doesn’t really matter.

Vancouver now looks ahead to a weekend matchup against LAFC on Saturday night. The second leg of this quarter-final is slated for May 21st at BC Place.

(Image Credit: Canadian Premier League)

2 thoughts on “Whitecaps take first leg over Cavalry at Spruce Meadows”

  1. The weather conditions improved slightly for the game. The rain let up but the wind and cold were still huge factors. Glad nobody pulled a muscle in those conditions.

    Ali rocks. Does anyone else think he might move on to bigger and better things?

    Reply

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