Pacific FC will have to suffer through the ignominy of watching Cavalry FC hoist the Canadian Premier League Shield today in Calgary. The ceremony for the regular-season championship, and 2024 CONCACAF Champions League berth that goes with it, will take place before the regular-season concluding match for both clubs.
It was a moment, that through the early and mid part of the CPL soccer season, appeared as if it would belong to PFC. But the Tridents, winners only twice over their last nine games, swooned while Cavalry steadily rose to the top of the table.
But like Matt Damon, playing South Africa rugby captain Francois Pienaar in the Clint Eastwood film Invictus, the PFC head coach James Merriman wants his club to take a swig of the moment for future reference. In Invictus, Damon demands each of the players take a drink of beer after a bad loss so they can remember that bitter taste of defeat.
“You set a goal of trying to go after the league [title] all season and it’s been difficult to watch Cavalry take that away over the last few weeks and few months,” said Merriman.
“[But] we need to take in the moment. They are going to lift the Shield and be crowned as league champions. We have to respect that because that was a goal of ours. We will take that in, for now, and for the future.”
No one needs to be reminded, that with the spiritual support of Nelson Mandela, the Springboks rebounded to win the 1995 rugby World Cup in a stirring act of reconciliation in the newly post-apartheid South Africa. The stakes aren’t of that magnitude today in Calgary. But everything is relative. PFC is going in after two losses while an ascendant Cavalry FC is on a four-game winning run.
“It’s not about forgetting the last two weeks but about reflecting on them,” said Merriman.
“We need to show a response to finish as high as we can with maximum points. We have to put it behind us and go into Calgary with everything and go into the playoffs with everything.”
PFC has qualified for the post-season, but in what position it will finish, will be decided through the regular season-ending results this weekend with anywhere from second to fourth place possible.
“We have to control what we can control,” said Merriman.
Toward that end, a win today would guarantee PFC second or third place.
The playoff champion will earn the CPL’s second berth into the 2024 CONCACAF Champions League. If Cavalry FC also wins the playoff title, the second CONCACAF spot will go to the runner-up team.
Cavalry FC has clinched the season series with the Tridents with two wins and a draw. Cavalry leads the all-time trans-Rockies series against PFC 12-8-4 in wins-losses draws.
“We’ve got our one foot in CONCACAF, but we will just play the team in front of us, which happens to be Pacific,” Cavalry FC head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr., told CPL.com, in his pre-game media conference.
“We know that they are going to give us their best effort. If you want to be the best you’ve got to play against the best. We are looking forward to what James [Merriman] is going to put out in front of us [today].”
Merriman said PFC midfield engine Manny Aparicio, held out last weekend as a precaution in the 2-1 upset loss to seventh-place Vancouver FC in the sa国际传媒 derby at Starlight Stadium, is match fit and ready for selection today and that is a crucial development for the Tridents.
