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Photo Credit: Trevor MacMillan
CPL Matchweek 11 Recap – Raining Goals
By The World Cup is in full swing with Canada making history in its advancement to the Round of 16, with the Canadian Premier League returning to action in the background. The league had four games in an odd split of days, though not all of them were played – after all, if Cavalry didn’t have bad luck with weather, they’d have no luck at all.
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The three games that were played produced an astounding 16 goals, and Wanderers Grounds saw eleven of them over a two-game split. Without further ado, let’s dive into the Canadian Premier League’s eleventh matchweek:
Halifax Wanderers 5 – 2 Pacific FC
Matchweek eleven opened with Friday’s seven-goal thriller, with Pacific interim coach Yiannis Tsalatsidis unable to stem the bleed as Halifax held a righteous kitchen party headlined by a 5-2 win.
While the opening stanza was an even dance between the two coastal sides, it was host Halifax that broke through in the 26th minute. A corner kick saw Pacific goalkeeper Himaras fail to claim the ball, which bounced off several players in quick succession before ultimately going in from Pacific’s own defender Eric Lajeunesse:
Spanish Wanderers midfielder Miguel Arilla, who had supplied the corner for Halifax, would directly double his side’s lead just a few minutes later. Floating into the box unmarked, he had time and space to turn on the ball and blast a well-placed shot beyond the reach of Eleias Himaras to make it two-nil:
Before things could get too carried away, Pacific carved one back after a darting run from Yann Toualy saw him place a brilliant diagonal ball into the box that was smartly dummied to give Marco Bustos a free shot from close, trimming the deficit down to one with plenty of game still left to go:
The Tridents would snatch an equalizer in the second half through a shot from Alejandro Diaz, with the ball deflecting off Australian midfielder Taras Gomulka to get beyond Carducci and tie things up. The Twitter admin was out touching some grass, however, so the Twitter embeds for this game’s goals stop here. That’s a shame, because there are a few more to come.
Pacific fans are probably happy the next highlight doesn’t exist, with Francesco Troisi sending in a low cross that was accidentally directed through the legs of Himaras by his own defender, Kadin Chung. That came just moments after the Tridents had celebrated their equalizer, too.
Halifax would thenadd a fourth through the in-form Isaiah Johnston, who was teed up well by Arilla’s ball in from the left.
The Wanderers would add a fifth in added time, with substitute Tavio Ciccarelli being fouled in the box, stepping up to take his own spot kick. Cementing a tough day in net for Himaras, Ciccarelli buried the penalty to deliver Halifax a hearty 5-2 win in the coast-to-coast clash.
Cavalry vs FC Supra – Match Postponed Due To Rain
In a moment that was not well-communicated league-wide, Cavalry FC was forced to abandon its scheduled match against FC Supra du Quebec after the grounds crew was unable to flush enough water from the pitch following an all-day drenching from Mother Nature herself.
Could the club have reasonably called off the match earlier in the day? Yes. Is this a league that played a CPL Final in a blizzard last year? Also yes. But when the ball would rather float than roll, there isn’t much one can do but call it off.
Forge 3 – 2 Vancouver FC
Hamilton Stadium saw quite a comeback from hosts Forge FC, who went two-nil down to visiting Vancouver before storming back with three goals, ultimately earning an important three points as they remain top of the table.
The opener for Vancouver came after a cross-field pass from Nana Ampomah inadvertently teed up a Vancouver counter, with Thierno Bah sending in a good ball for former Forge man Terran Campbell. The striker still had plenty to do a little left of centre, but pinged in a nice low ball to beat Bertaud:
The Eagles looked off to a flyer in the first half, shouldering a few Forge attacks before once again gifting the ball to the opposition. In fact, an awkward bounce set Bah on a breakaway from the halfway line. Thundering in, the fast-footed Bah was able to send in a low shot that would beat Bertaud to double Vancouver’s lead at the stroke of half-time:
The second half would see Forge claw one back at the hour mark, with a cross into the VFC box seeing Wright smartly redirect the ball into the unmarked path of Tristan Borges. The ever-reliable midfielder blasted it beyond Callum Irving to put the league leaders within touching distance of a comeback:
Amazingly, it would take just three minutes for substitute Daniel Krutzen to complete it. Having acres of space in midfield after moving up the pitch, he received the ball and wound up for a shot, unleashing a 35-yard screamer that Irving thought might be going wide until it whipped into the back of the net. It was truly a goal out of nowhere, and just like that, it was all even.
Forge’s momentum carried them into chance after chance, with the hammers scoring off a corner kick that eventually led to centre-back Antoine Batisse turning and loosing a shot that deflected to get beyond Irving and hand the hammers their first lead of the game. That’s the defender’s fourth of the season, and third in league play:
With just 15 minutes left to go, Martin Nash’s side were unable to recoup from a rough second half, with Forge rising to an incredible 3-2 comeback after having finished the first half two goals down.
Halifax Wanderers 1 – 3 Atletico Ottawa
That’s right, the Wanderers played twice in the same round while Inter Toronto had a bye (and, for that matter, won’t play their next home match again until well over a month since their last). Perhaps Halifax had more tired legs after Friday’s match, as they put out a lackluster Canada Day performance that saw Ottleti’s Ballou Tabla steal the show.
The visitors only took a few minutes to break through: the visitors did well to quickly turn around a failed buildup from the hosts, with Aparicio and Myklebust combining to quickly get the ball to Ballou. The forward played it out left at the edge of the box, delivering the match opener with gusto:
The visitors would double their advantage through another quick counter just over twenty minutes later, with Gabriel Antinoro bursting down the right side of the pitch and absolutely lacing the ball sent to him from Tabla, beating Carducci near-post with an absolute heater:
Things got even worst for the hosts after interim head coach Drew Beckie successfully challenged a decision to earn his side a penalty opportunity in the first half, with Ballou Tabla stepping up. True to form, he buried his fifth of the season to tie Halifax’s Isaiah Johnston for the golden boot. While Johnston didn’t score this match, they did both score in the same matchweek – that’s CPL, baby.
Halifax made some changes at the half, with substitute striker Ryan Telfer looking threatening. They would pull one back after Johnston forced Kalongo into a stop, with Tavio Ciccarelli getting a boot to the clearance and forcing the rebound right back into the Ottleti net.
The Wanderers wouldn’t muster much of a comeback, however, with an Atletico Ottawa side led by Ballou Tabla storming to a controlled victory out east. That also marks the second straight victory for interim head coach Drew Beckie, with his previous being an eight-goal thriller over FC Supra du Quebec.
The Canadian Premier League’s return to action leaves the table somewhat imbalanced, with two of the eight clubs three matches behind twelve-game Halifax. Still, the form charts tell a compelling story: Forge and Cavalry are a cut above, Ottawa is closing the gap, and the rest will be a slog for the remaining playoff spot – except for Pacific, with Terry Dunfield set to inherit just as much of a tough time there as he did with Toronto FC.
The league’s next matchweek will see two double-headers over the upcoming weekend. Saturday’s matches have been shifted to allow Canada’s World Cup match to play out first, with Atletico Ottawa hosting Cavalry at 4:00PM, and Vancouver FC hosting Inter Toronto at 7:00PM. Sunday will see FC Supra du Quebec host Forge at 1:00PM, with Pacific and the Halifax Wanderers playing a fast reverse fixture of the coast-to-coast clash at 6:00PM.
The postponed Cavalry match with FC Supra du Quebec will now play out on Tuesday, July 18, with their match against Inter Toronto being pushed from July 31 to August 1.
Header Image Photo Credit: Trevor MacMillan
