May 01, 2025...Preview: York United vs. Cavalry FC | CPL Match #16 (from canpl.ca)
PREVIEW: York United vs. Cavalry FC | CPL Match #16
01/05/2025
Written by:Mitchell Tierney
2025 CPL Regular Season — Match #16
York United vs. Cavalry FC
May 2 at 8 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. MT
York Lions Stadium in Toronto, Ontario
Watch Live: OneSoccer //
After drawing 2-2 with the Canadian Premier League's regular season winners this past weekend, York United host
CPL playoff champions Cavalry at York Lions Stadium on Friday night.
Both sides enter the match winless in their past three in the league, with Cavalry searching for their first win
of the 2025 campaign, while York have not won since the opening weekend.
The Nine Stripes are still searching for their first home victory of the season, after winning seven at York Lions
Stadium last season -- the second most in the league in 2024.
For Cavalry, they say April showers bring May flowers, and that has undoubtedly been the case for the club over
the years. Winless now in 12 CPL matches contested in April (0-7-5), they have lost just once in their CPL history
in the month of May (11-6-1).
The Cavs did conclude April on a strong note, however, with a decisive 6-0 victory over Edmonton Scottish
in the Canadian Championship preliminary round. After scoring just twice through their first three CPL matches
of the season, it was certainly a welcome wake-up for their attack.
As coincidence would have it, however, their only ever loss in the month of May came against York United
at York Lions Stadium, a 1-0 result back on May 28, 2023. That result was an outlier among recent meetings, however,
as Cavalry have been victorious in four of their past five trips to York.
Cavalry were the league's best road team last season, with just three losses away from ATCO Field last season (7-4-3).
They have not lost back-to-back games in the league since July 27, 2022.
The match is also the first time that Mauro Eustaquio will face his former head coach, Cavalry's Tommy Wheeldon Jr.
Eustáquio played 15 matches for Cavalry in 2019, and credits Wheeldon Jr. with helping him get his start in coaching.
It won't be an entirely new experience for Wheeldon Jr. to see a familiar face on the opposing bench at York Lions
Stadium, however. Eustáquio, of course, has been an assistant with York since 2022, and spent a large portion
of that time under former Cavalry FC assistant Martin Nash.
The striker matchup will also be an intriguing one on Friday, as defending Golden Boot winner Tobias Warschewski
faces off against York's Julian Altobelli, who, with four goals in his first four games, has made himself an early
contender for this year's honour.
From an availability standpoint, Cavalry are without left-back Bradley Kamdem for the next three matches following
his sending off against Atlético Ottawa this past weekend.
There is good news on that front for York, however, as both Massimo Ferrin and Frank Sturing are expected
to be available again on Friday. Captain Elijah Adekugbe is recovering, but will likely be unavailable.
3 THINGS TO WATCH
Which team can put together a full 90 minutes?: A primary goal for both sides on Friday will be to put in a complete
performance. For Cavalry, they have struggled to start games on the front foot, with no goals in the first half.
In fact, their earliest goal this season came in the 87th minute. They were better out of the gate this past
weekend against Atlético Ottawa, but failed to capitalize on several opportunities in a 3-1 loss. For York,
meanwhile, they have already dropped eight points from winning positions to start 2025. Can one of these two sides
put things together for the full 90 minutes on Friday?
Will Shola Jimoh get another chance to shine against Cavalry?: Cavalry will always be a special opponent
for 17-year-old attacker Shola Jimoh, because in July of last year, they were the side against which he scored
his first-ever professional goal. Jimoh has yet to find the scoresheet this season, but has certainly made an impact.
In York's first match of the season, he played a key role in Julian Altobelli's match winner, before hitting the post
in stoppage time against Atlético Ottawa a few weeks later. In his first start of the season on Sunday against
Forge FC, he created seven chances. Can Jimoh follow that up on Friday with another big performance against the Cavs?
How do Cavalry lineup without Kamdem?: Cavalry has already had to make some changes to its backline in early 2025,
and for the next three weeks, they will have to make another as left-back Bradley Kamdem serves a suspension.
There are two likely solutions for the Cavalry side. One would be to shift Tom Field, who has been playing
as a central defender back, to his natural position and give new signing Levi Laing his first CPL start. The other
would be to slot in young left-back Mihail Gherasimencov, who has impressed since joining the club on loan from
the Vancouver Whitecaps 2.
PROJECTED STARTING XIs
York United: Urtiaga; Singh, Sturing, León; Ferrari, Yeates, Kibato, Ferrazzo; Bitar, Jimoh, Altobelli
Cavalry FC: Carducci; Aird, Laing, Montgomery, Gherasimencov; Shome, Myroniuk; Musse, Camargo, Elva; Warschewski
ALL-TIME SERIES
York United wins: 4 || Cavalry FC wins: 14 || Draws: 3
Last meeting:
Sept. 20, 2024 — York United 0-2 Cavalry FC
KEY QUOTES
"It's going to be a tough test, Cavalry on a positive moment are a tough customer, and then obviously on a negative moment,
they're even tougher. It's a group that's shown resilience of what Tommy's been building now for a couple of years, and we're
going to be ready for it.” — York United head coach Mauro Eustáquio
"I'm excited because this past game we got a draw. It didn't feel enough, because we have a lot of quality in the team,
and we're training hard. We know what we have to do, and we are playing to win.” — York United forward Bryan Rosa
"For us, we are very stubborn when it comes to our principles and the way we want the game to be played. Probably why we start
slow is because we want to get things right all the way from our back line to our front line. And it takes time, so we'll carry
on with that.” — Cavalry FC head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr.
"It's a team that's very physical. You look at that match against Ottawa, where it was the most fouls in a game in CPL history.
So you have to be ready for that fight to start with, and then tactically sound team. We'll do the work analyzing stuff, and look
at where we can expose them, but we definitely have to be ready for a tough match.” — Cavalry FC defender Callum Montgomery
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