Pacific FC fans can be excused if they don’t know whether to boo or cheer with conflicted emotions when the Canadian Premier League team’s traditional nemesis, Cavalry FC of Calgary, plays its opening game in the 2024 CONCACAF Champions League against Orlando City of Major League Soccer on Feb. 6 at Starlight Stadium in Langford.
The first leg of the two-leg set will be played on Vancouver Island due to expected wintery conditions in Alberta at that time.
Pacific FC managing-director Paul Beirne said Cavalry FC is representing the CPL against clubs from MLS and Liga MX “so I can see divided loyalties [among the PFC fan base].”
CPL regular-season champion Cavalry FC and CPL playoff-champion Forge FC of Hamilton, Ont., will represent the league this year’s CONCACAF Champions League, this region’s equivalent of the UEFA Champions League.
“We are delighted to be representing the Canadian Premier League in the 2024 CONCACAF Champions Cup. It seemed such a pipedream when we first kicked off in 2019,” Cavalry FC president Ian Allison said in a statement Friday.
The drawback is the competition starts early in the year.
“As the northernmost club in CONCACAF, we are acutely aware of the possible risks that playing in February on natural grass may pose. We are, after all, more than 51 degrees north of the southern most of the 41 member [nations] of CONCACAF,” noted Allison.
“Despite the unseasonably mild start we have had to western Canadian winter, the frost is already quite deep in the subsurface of our pitch. As such, we are looking at ways to mitigate any risks by playin g our first-round match at an alternative CONCACAF approved venue. That venue is Starlight Stadium, home of CPL club Pacific FC. We are pleased to be able to have this option and to be able to play at a venue that has hosted both CONCACAF and national team events.”
Allison said ticketing information will be announced early next year.
The second leg of the first round between Cavalry FC and Orlando City will be played Feb. 29 in Florida. Forge FC has been drawn in the first round against Guadalajara, nicknamed Chivas, of Liga MX.
PFC played in CONCACAF in 2022, making it to the second round, after winning the 2021 CPL championship. But the format was different then with a CONCACAF League leading to the CONCACAF Champions League. Now the CPL regular-season and playoff champions advance directly to the CONCACAF Champion League.
