Cavalry FC enters the Canadian Championship with a clear goal: to achieve something the club has never done before. Saturday marks the beginning of the four-round domestic competition, with the Calgary side facing host Pacific FC in Langford, B.C.
A history of near misses
The bucket-list for Cavalry FC features more checkmarks than Xs over the years. However, one box remains unchecked: winning the coveted Canadian Championship, the elusive title awarded to the soccer squad that survives the gauntlet of the annual multi-round competition. Six such challenges have resulted in zero Voyageurs Cups, a statistic the Calgary men's professional team dearly wants to change.
“We want to do something we’ve not done before,” said Cavalry head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. “We’ve not made it to a final in this competition. So it is something that’s on our bucket list. And every season, we have a good crack at it.”
Cavalry superstar defender Daan Klomp echoed the sentiment: “Yeah … I think we had a couple sniffs where we got close. It’s always still been on the checklist when we make our goals at the start of the year. We want to proceed further than what we’ve done in my time here, going to the semifinals and final and — hopefully — winning the thing.”
Strong start to the season
This year, there are many reasons for optimism. Cavalry has looked impressive to open the campaign, remaining unbeaten with a 3W-0L-2D record in Canadian Premier League play. The form of their game has been particularly encouraging.
“Yeah … if you look at the years prior, I think the way we started the season now we are ending up on the right side of the coin — like we’ve been winning the games,” Klomp said. “We’ve been pulling the 1-nils — like if you look at last week’s 1-0 win (over host Supra du Québec) — and I think that’s something that we need for the Canadian Championship. Right now, we’re looking pretty sharp, and you want it to carry over to (Saturday’s) game and proceed on to the next round.”
Pacific FC: A tricky opponent
While Cavalry has enjoyed early season success, the opposite is true for Saturday’s host side, which sits at 0-4-1 in CPL play. However, Wheeldon cautioned against underestimating Pacific FC.
“That said, we can’t discount Pacific,” Wheeldon said. “Because last year, we had an opportunity against the bottom club in Vancouver FC, who ended up going to the final. So Cup competitions do play different, and you’re seeing it right now. You can’t look at league form. You’ve just got to look at the game in front here and put your best foot forward.”
Looking ahead
If Cavalry advances, they would face Vancouver Whitecaps FC in the quarterfinals in July. The MLS side, winners of the last four Canadian Championship titles, earned a bye after defeating Vancouver FC in last year’s final.
“If you remember years before (in 2024), we won at Whitecaps, but we tied and we didn’t proceed to the next round,” Klomp said. “It’d be nice to have another crack at that.”
