Playoff battle between Cavalry and Forge will heat up on Saturday

Cavalry FC ready for playoff tussle with Forge Cavalry FC won the regular season title. They want the post-season title too. Glenn Campbell reports.

Calgary's Cavalry FC finished the regular season with 17 wins, seven draws and five losses – good enough to finish in first place in the Canadian Premier League standings.

The team got to celebrate their standing by hoisting the Canadian Shield on Saturday after beating Pacific 3-0 last Saturday.

Goalkeeper Marco Carducci is an original member of the team and he says it was a special moment.

"It was incredible," he said.

"For me, who is someone who has been with this club since 2019 – since the beginning – it was an honour to be a part of that and to be the guy who got to lift that first.

"It was an incredible achievement, but I think the biggest thing was to do it here (at ATCO Field) to do it with our fans."

TOUGH BATTLE AHEAD

It was a great celebration, but now it's time to concentrate on the playoffs.

On Saturday, the first-place Cavalry will battle it out with the second-place Forge from Hamilton.

These two teams don't like each other, and midfielder Sergio Camargo, also an original member of the Cavalry, says he doesn't expect anything different on Saturday at ATCO Field.

"It's always fun against Forge, anything can happen," he said.

"It's always an entertaining one. Every game that we've played against them has been a one-goal game.

"We know we're up for a battle against these guys. We know they're going to be ready and we know they're going to be hungry. They obviously would love to host the final, so it's us against them, and whoever is hungrier will win this game."

FORGE HAS HAD CAVALRY'S NUMBER IN THE PLAYOFFS

The Forge has been the Cavalry's nemesis in the playoffs.

The Cavalry has never beaten Forge in the post season.

Cavalry Head Coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. believes this will be his team's year.

"That's the good thing about history, you can make new history," he said.

"That's where we're at, and a lot of these boys have never played in those moments, so there's a lot of freshness. I'm still the same coach and Marco (Carducci) and Sergio (Carmago) are still the originals, but we have new players that have never had those experiences, so they're looking to be the first team to win the double."

WINNING THE DOUBLE

Winning 'the double' means winning both the regular season title and the playoffs.

Carducci says his team has what it takes to have another celebration.

"We secured the league with two weeks to spare, which I think from that point we were obviously very happy and we celebrated.

"We enjoyed that moment, but it was about what's next – why can't we keep going further and do the double and win the playoffs as well?"

There is a new playoff format in the Canadian Premier League; the winner of the 1-2 game between Cavalry and Forge will advance right through to the league final.

The loser gets a second chance.

They will play the winner of the 3-4 game with the winner going through to the final.