Match Thread: Voyageurs Cup - Preliminary Round - Cavalry v Vancouver FC - April 23, 2024

[nolando]

If I'm Ghotbi, I'm not blaming balls but apologizing for not getting the tactics right after the red card. 

[shermanator]

Maybe Ghotbi is trying to deflect from his squad's poor performance but whining about the balls is a pretty lame excuse IMO.

Cavalry played far from their best on Tuesday and Vancouver couldn't capitalize. They went down to 10 (rightfully so) and then took it to Vancouver. 

[Big_M]

paris gee smashing them out 15 yards off target is not about the ball...

[RS]

16 hours ago, narduch said:

I tried looking at the highlights of both the 1st 2 Canadian Championship games and the ball does look similar 

The TFC-Simcoe game used the current MLS Adidas ball, while the Nike swoosh is very visible on the ball in Cavalry-VFC.

Now I'm wondering if Cavalry bought a bunch of Nike balls specifically to pull these shenanigans, because they would regularly use Derbystars for training and games. Or the less nefarious possibility is that they could have had a bunch of the Nike balls left over from the Concacaf Champions Cup, but I'm not sure how strict Concacaf is about taking back the equipment once games are done.

[nolando]

Surely the Fraser Valley supporters will have a balls chant ready for when Cavalry next come to Langley.

[Unnamed Trialist]

On 4/26/2024 at 5:12 PM, RS said:

The TFC-Simcoe game used the current MLS Adidas ball, while the Nike swoosh is very visible on the ball in Cavalry-VFC.

Now I'm wondering if Cavalry bought a bunch of Nike balls specifically to pull these shenanigans, because they would regularly use Derbystars for training and games. Or the less nefarious possibility is that they could have had a bunch of the Nike balls left over from the Concacaf Champions Cup, but I'm not sure how strict Concacaf is about taking back the equipment once games are done.

Cavalry even has DerbyStar advertising pitchside.

It's not Deflatgate but it is a bit of gamesmanship. The other thing Ghotbi mentioned, the pitch, well it is obvious you can't have that in great condition at this time of year. 

Mostly excuses because being a man up should compensate for a different ball.