Match Thread: April 30, 2023 - Cavalry v Valour

[narduch]

Game is at 3pm MT (4pm CT / 5 pm ET) on One Soccer and Fubo. 

Cavalry have 9 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses all time v Valour 

[jonovision]

4 hours ago, narduch said:

Game is at 3pm MT (4pm CT / 5 pm ET) on One Soccer and Fubo. 

Cavalry have 9 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses all time v Valour 

Yikes!

[EnigMattic1]

1 hour ago, jonovision said:

Yikes!

To be fair, although Cavalry don't always challenge for top spot, they are consistent. It will be an interesting match, especially given our injury problems.

[jonovision]

Certainly our toughest match of the season to date, on paper.

In the 2019 season it often seemed like Cavalry were playing a different sport than the rest of the league, a sport where points were awarded for attempting the most reckless slide tackles and flying elbows, not putting the ball in the net. Their spring 2019 match report has 6 instance of "delay due to injury" of a Valour player, including a significant injury to Petrasso and a season-ender to Valour's MVP to that point, Josip Golubar, who never played another professional minute after having his ACL torn.

Since then, though, and with the notable exception of Escalante's theatrics and Wheeldon's fashion sense that is total self-parody at this point, Cavalry is the one team I almost find myself rooting for whenever they play a non-Valour opponent. The stadium seems like a good time, they got rid of their illegal throw-in specialist from the early years, and they play an honest hard-working brand of football. Their record of consistent success to me is more impressive than Forge, considering the latter's easy access to the GTA talent pool. For Xs and Os, I think Wheeldon is a better manager than Smyrniotis. And they got jobbed by a bad call in the 2019 finals.

All this is a long way of saying I'll be hating Cavalry for 90 minutes only, and Valour look likely to pick up their first loss this afternoon.

[jonovision]

As for today's match, kind of easy to pick the lineup with everyone injured.

Yesli

Baquero - Samake - Pianelli - de Brienne

Sanchez - Campbell - Gutierrez

Niyongabire - Novak - Williams

Bench: Tisseur, Cela, Rendon, Ulloa, Ponce

[gator]

5 minutes ago, jonovision said:

 

 Their record of consistent success to me is more impressive than Forge, considering the latter's easy access to the GTA talent pool. For Xs and Os, I think Wheeldon is a better manager than Smyrniotis. And they got jobbed by a bad call in the 2019 finals.

 

You really seem to dislike Forge and choose every opportunity to take shots at them, that's ok because I know we are an easy target but I wouldn't ever want to trade Bobby for Wheeldon!

[jonovision]

Just now, gator said:

You really seem to dislike Forge and choose every opportunity to take shots at them, that's ok because I know we are an easy target but I wouldn't ever want to trade Bobby for Wheeldon!

On the contrary, I think Forge consistently assembles the most talented rosters in the league. That is a credit to Bobby's recruitment and connections. For that reason I'm happy to credit anyone who consistently can play at Forge's level. Cavalry is the one team that qualifies (in fact, they have a better all-time regular season PPG than Forge).

It is fun, of course, when Forge loses, because the surprising result is always the more entertaining one. 

[jonovision]

53 minutes ago, EnigMattic1 said:

To be fair, although Cavalry don't always challenge for top spot, they are consistent. It will be an interesting match, especially given our injury problems.

Playoffs are a different beast, but Cavalry have challenged for the top spot each year.

2019 they won both the spring and fall seasons. 2020 was Island Games where they topped the "regular season" portion. 2021 they finished tied on points with Forge. 2022 they finished two points behind Ottawa.

I would be surprised to see them finish further than 3 or 4 points out of top spot in 2023.

[longlugan]

11 minutes ago, jonovision said:

Playoffs are a different beast, but Cavalry have challenged for the top spot each year.

2019 they won both the spring and fall seasons. 2020 was Island Games where they topped the "regular season" portion. 2021 they finished tied on points with Forge. 2022 they finished two points behind Ottawa.

I would be surprised to see them finish further than 3 or 4 points out of top spot in 2023.

And yet they haven't won shit. Yup...Tommy's a much better coach than Bobby 🤣. It's ok to dislike teams but to then delude yourself into believing this kind of crap is beyond laughable. I will say though that they are our biggest rival...nothing else comes close in the league...yet. As expansion continues we should have some good local derbies where both fantasies care equally.

[jonovision]

1 minute ago, longlugan said:

And yet they haven't won shit. Yup...Tommy's a much better coach than Bobby 🤣. It's ok to dislike teams but to then delude yourself into believing this kind of crap is beyond laughable. I will say though that they are our biggest rival...nothing else comes close in the league...yet. As expansion continues we should have some good local derbies where both fantasies care equally.

Nobody said this. Acquiring talent is a big part (arguably the bigger part) of a manager's job and in that area Smyrniotis blows Wheeldon and every other CPL manager out of the water. I just expressed an opinion that I thought Wheeldon was better (and not "much better") tactically. In my view, he achieves similar result with lesser players. 

[Cheeta]

Cavalry paying 2.14.  LOL, sounds about right.   (Actually, might be flattering Valour a bit).

Warm afternoon, no rain on the horizon and a bit of wind but nowhere near enough to ruin a match.  See if Valour can play on Spruce Meadows' grass better than they did on Swangard's.  They're going to have to .   

Edited April 30, 2023 by Cheeta

[jonovision]

51 minutes ago, Cheeta said:

Cavalry paying 2.14.  LOL, sounds about right.   (Actually, might be flattering Valour a bit).

That's a pretty good return for what seems a near sure thing. They still have to play the game, though.

[K Edgar]

[jonovision]

No Samake then.

Could be very bad news. Cela straight into the fire. Is any other team dealing with an injury situation as comical as Valour's so far?

Mzoughi may be another "dressed but not available" player today. The actual bench is the backup keeper and the 3 mostly useless South Americans.

Edited April 30, 2023 by jonovision

[K Edgar]

3 hours ago, jonovision said:

As for today's match, kind of easy to pick the lineup with everyone injured.

Yesli

Baquero - Samake - Pianelli - de Brienne

Sanchez - Campbell - Gutierrez

Niyongabire - Novak - Williams

Bench: Tisseur, Cela, Rendon, Ulloa, Ponce

Starting 11 is correct except Samake is not in the lineup.

Edited April 30, 2023 by K Edgar

[EnigMattic1]

6 minutes ago, jonovision said:

No Samake then.

Could be very bad news. Cela straight into the fire. Is any other team dealing with an injury situation as comical as Valour's so far?

Nah, York will wait until later on in the season and then lose all their goalkeepers.

Edited April 30, 2023 by EnigMattic1

[jonovision]

Lots of talent up front for Cavalry. Gutierrez and Co. may be able to win the midfield battle. They'll have to for Valour to have a chance.

[Wippersuna]

Pianelli going down would be some great luck for our defensive depth. 
 

Edit: oh good Ulloa coming in. I’m guessing Campbell goes back, Gutierrez to the middle and Ulloa out wide?

Edited April 30, 2023 by Wippersuna

[Big_M]

oh boy...looks like cavalry put six foreigners in the starting line then pulled alarcon for aird right before kickoff to respect the rule...how are such mistakes still made at this level and after 4-5 years experience??

 

[jonovision]

Valour is so fucked this year.

[K Edgar]

21 minutes ago, Wippersuna said:

Pianelli going down would be some great luck for our defensive depth. 
 

Edit: oh good Ulloa coming in. I’m guessing Campbell goes back, Gutierrez to the middle and Ulloa out wide?

Missed the 1st few minutes of the game... what happened to Pianelli?

[jonovision]

There's our L1O centre back showing his quality.

[jonovision]

There has probably never been an injury crisis this dire in the history of the CPL.

[Wippersuna]

3 minutes ago, K Edgar said:

Missed the 1st few minutes of the game... what happened to Pianelli?

Went down holding his calf.

Valour look outclassed here today. Not going to get better with no CBs either. 

Edited April 30, 2023 by Wippersuna

[Soccerpro2]

de Brienne boosters from last week, where are you? That was the kind of defending I was worried about.