Cavalry can’t find way to win against 10-man Vancouver FC

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Winning has never come as a hardship for Cavalry FC …

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Until now.

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Five games into the 2023 footie campaign and the Calgary club is still searching for a three-point takeaway from a match.

Another chance — perhaps the toughest to swallow — slipped past Cavalry on Sunday against short-manned Vancouver FC in a 1-1 draw with the Canadian Premier League’s expansion side.

“We’re disappointed — we came here to win,” said Cavalry attacker Mikael Cantave. “Unfortunately, we weren’t able to keep a clean-sheet, which is something we’ve been struggling with recently.”

Indeed, in every game so far this season — consisting of the four league affairs and a Canadian Championship match — the Cavs have put up the first goal only to allow the opposition to find a way to tie it up.

That’s amounted to draws in every outing for Cavalry (0-4-0), including the late matinee Sunday versus Vancouver (1-2-1) in Langley, B.C.

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“I think in terms of game, we did what we worked on (in training) and what we needed to do,” Cantave said. “It was just execution — putting it in the back of the net. We had enough chances that were created. We just couldn’t put the second one in.”

That despite quite the advantage for most of the afternoon.

In the 28th minute, Vancouver centre-back Rocco Romeo was sent off for getting his shoulder onto the head of Cavs attacker Myer Bevan. The red-card foul left the home side went down to 10 men for the rest of contest.

But even though Cantave scored in the 46th minute — when he snuck a ball through to the far side of the net to convert a sharp Jose Escalante feed into the penalty area — the Cavs were unable to come away with the win over their undermanned foes.

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An answer by Vancouver’s Shaan Hundal in the 52nd minute — when he got behind the Cavs defence and chipped Gael Sandoval’s tap pass past goalkeeper Marco Carducci — squared the affair and boosted the home side to a surprising draw.

“After scored that first goal, I think we relaxed ourselves a little bit,” Cantave said. “I think it’s mental more than anything else, which is something we need to work on.”

The decision was much celebrated at Willoughby Community Park, given the tenacity of the Vancouver squad and the fact it was the home-opener for the expansion crew.

“I’m really proud of my team, because I felt that things didn’t go our way,” said Vancouver head coach Afshin Ghotbi of his gritty squad. “It was a bad goal against us early in the (second) half. But the way we reacted was fantastic.

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“I’m proud of their spirit. I’m proud of the way they fought until the last kick.”

Indeed, the hosts did their part, defending well throughout — especially down a man — but they can thank veteran goalkeeper Callum Irving for the respectable draw. He took away two Cavs goals in the dying minutes — first knocking away a sure marker off the head of Charlie Trafford to cap a perfectly struck corner kick by Fraser Aird, and then stopping Ethan Beckford’s blast from 15 yards out.

Earlier in the match, Irving got help from his goal-post — on a Cantave ball that just dribbled off it — and his crossbar — when Bevan knocked a tough-angle shot off it.

“We controlled the game and the emotion of a home opener in front of a great crowd,” added Cavalry GM/head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. “Our general performance was very good, and we created enough attacking opportunities to make it more uncomfortable for them. However, we lacked that final action to kill the game off.

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“And credit to Vancouver — they defended very well and waited for their one chance. The positive is that we’re still unbeaten and only had one home game.”

Cavalry returns home looking for its first win of the campaign next Saturday against HFX Wanderers FC (0-4-0) at Spruce Meadows’ ATCO Field (5 p.m., OneSoccer/OneSoccer.ca).

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Former Calgary Foothills FC star defender Bradley Kamdem made his debut for Cavalry on Sunday after signing a multi-year deal last week … The Cavs’ Starting XI was: goalie Carducci; defenders Kamdem, Daan Klomp, Roberto Alarcón and Jose Escalante; midfielders Trafford, Jesse Daly and Sergio Camargo; and forwards Bevan, Cantave and Ali Musse … The substitutes were: goalies Sterling Kerr and Joseph Holliday; defender Udoka Chima; midfielders Aird and Eryk Kobza; and forwards Beckford and Goteh Ntignee … The Cavs were without: defenders Michael Harms, Callum Montgomery (plantar fasciitis) and William Omoreniye; midfielders Ben Fisk, Shamit Shome (LCL strain) and Nikolas Myroniuk; and forwards Joe Mason (back) and Gareth Smith-Doyle.

tsaelhof@postmedia.com

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