July 13, 2024...Preview: Boasting Some Impeccable Home Form, Mora Looks to Improve Road Results as Cavalry Come Into Focus (from York United FC website)

July 13, 2024...Preview: Boasting Some Impeccable Home Form, Mora Looks to Improve Road Results as Cavalry Come Into Focus
(from York United FC website)

PREVIEW: BOASTING SOME IMPECCABLE HOME FORM, MORA LOOKS TO IMPROVE ROAD RESULTS AS CAVALRY COME INTO FOCUS

York United FC's Head Coach faces his first trip to Spruce Meadows on Saturday.

THE DETAILS

The Nine Stripes are delivering on home soil this term. Not only are the club boasting the best home record in the Canadian Premier League right now but they're also the best home team in Toronto.

Still, they've got work to do when it comes to road games.

From their six away fixtures so far, they've only managed a single win, and it was a sticky trip to Winnipeg that interrupted Benjamin Mora's unbeaten run as York United Head Coach: that narrow defeat meaning Mora now sits at 3-1-1 since taking charge.

One of those that got away was May 18th, when York United delivered an impressive performance in Calgary - a notoriously difficult place to go - as they wrestled the lead back from the home side through goals from Austin Ricci and Brian Wright only to concede an equaliser with 20 minutes remaining.

So, when the sides meet again at the same location on Saturday afternoon, Mora's men will hope to learn from last time.

After a number of games toying with a 3-5-2 variation, the victory over Halifax last weekend saw a return to a flat back-four, with Elijah Adekugbe stepping into his more familiar midfield role, Frank Sturing partnering Noah Abatneh at the heart of the defence, Kadin Martin-Pereux deputizing for the suspended Orlando Botello at left-back and Brian Wright leading the line by himself, with support in wide areas from Marki Voytsekhovskyy and Mo Babouli.

With Ricci serving the third of a three-game ban, Voytsekhovskyy will be keen to make his third successive start, particularly after finding the net against the Wanderers. And Mora has had some better news from the treatment room this week as both Oswaldo Leon and Dennis Salanovic are back in contention. With Botello also returning after his one-game ban, there are some good selection headaches for Mora to deal with.

"I've won ten of 15 points available with the boys and that’s a very good stat from my side," he said on Friday, discussing the impact he's seen since arriving early last month.

"Then there's the GPS that we have on the boys during training. It shows almost a 25% increase regarding the distances they're running, the high intensities run, the accelerations, decelerations, change of directions, speed. We have not conceded a lot of goals. But it's also true that we need to score more. We're looking into being more effective in attack."

For the Cavs, it's been a strange campaign so far. They sit in sixth place in the table, having won only three of their 13 games so far. They've drawn an astonishing eight times, however, victory on Saturday would push them level on points with York who are currently in second.

Since 2022, York are certainly improved in the head-to-head record. Still, from the past nine battles, the Cavs have the edge with five wins. And it remains a particularly imposing trip, with York managing one road win against Tommy Wheeldon Jr's side in 11 visits to ATCO Field.

Mora expects the hosts to come out guns blazing especially in their own backyard, where they are unbeaten in six matches, with two wins and four draws.

"Cavalry is a good team and the results are not reflective of the way they do things: the way they elaborate, how they build up and try to connect, how they have possession of the ball and also how they press, " Mora detailed.

"They take advantage of the pitch. It’s a grass pitch that favours those who really like to play in natural grass. I think it's going to be a great game because we need to win away to maintain the position. And, of course, we didn't fly here to just to see what happens. We're going to provoke things; we're going to go out and look for the result. We're going to press and we're going to do our things. So, I think it's going to be a nice clash. We're going to take advantage of all that we have been doing in the last couple of games."

Ridwan Ibrahim Asante

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