A road-weary Vancouver FC fell to Calgary Cavalry 3-1 at ATCO Field on Friday, May 3.
Heading into the game, Vancouver’s head coach, Afshin Ghotbi, noted that his team had some tired legs in their ranks as they got set to tackle their second straight road game in league action, and third straight road game in all competitions.
Unfortunately for Vancouver, those tired legs seemed to be on full display early on, as Cavalry came out flying, putting the eagles down three goals within 60 minutes, and it seemed like they could have a blowout on their hands, with Cavalry looking to push for a fourth.
But Vancouver continued to push for their first goal of the game, and found it in the 81st minute.
After another perfect Vasco Fry delivery from yet another free kick, Moses Dyer bundled the ball into the net from close range to cut the deficit to 3-1.
Vancouver nearly made this game interesting in the 83rd minute, as Mikaël Cantave sent a dangerous header towards goal after yet another set-piece, forcing a strong save from Cavalry’s Marco Carducci to keep his team’s two-goal lead intact.
From there, however, other than a couple of half-chances from both teams, that would be all that Vancouver could muster up in their late push, which allowed Cavalry to leave with this game with a 3-1 win.
“Cavalry is a good team,” Vancouver’s Dyer said afterwards. “They know how to play at home, and I think we were a bit naive, we pressed when we shouldn’t have pressed, and we were off the pace a little bit. I don’t think it was so much our legs, it was more timing, but we’ve got to regroup, we’ve got bit of time off now to rest and get back on the training field and work on what we need to work on.”
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After back-to-back losses and the late play of his substitutes, Ghotbi is looking to get Vancouver back on track.
“100 per cent,” Ghotbi said when asked if he might shake things up.
A relatively inexperienced batch of substitutes, 16-year-old Grady McDonnell, 19-year-old Elage Bah and 22-year-old Thomas Powell all came in for their Vancouver debuts, providing fresh legs that brought provided a jolt of energy late in the game.
“I think what I was very impressed about is the courage that the young players showed,” Ghotbi remarked.
“They also showed quality, they created a lot of chances, entered their penalty box several times in the late stages the second half, and we were unlucky that we didn’t score a second, as I think if we did that before the extra time, maybe we could’ve taken some points out of this game.”
Vancouver will look to regroup after picking up their second straight road defeat (third, if the Tuesday, April 23 Canadian Championship tournament loss by VFC to Cavalry in Calgary is included), taking on Atlético Ottawa at home in Willoughby Community Park in Langley on Sunday, May 12 at 4 p.m.
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