Practice paid off in the form of an extra-time equalizer for the Cavalry.
Centre back Daan Klomp scored in the fourth minute of extra time as the Cavs secured a 2-2 draw with the host HFX Wanderers in Halifax on May 15 to improve to 2-2-2 in the Canadian Premier League standings.
“It was very nerve-racking,” Klomp said. “Being down in the 86th minute, we need to get a goal so everybody wants to play a bit optimistic and goes forward a lot and it paid off in the end, luckily.
“We conceded two set plays as well and that’s something that can’t happen to us.”
Set plays are a focal point of training for the Cavalry, gaffer Tommy Wheeldon Jr. said, adding assistant coach Leon Hapgood draws up a lot of the team’s game plan on dead balls.
“We work on it every week,” he said. “The opposition changes and sometimes you do have to read and react.
“But we do spend time on it, because in this league, a league of parity it does come down to it. We won the game against Edmonton on two set plays and now we’ve come away with a road point and it’s massive.”
Cavalry striker Myer Bevan opened the scoring in the 20th minute off a scrambled corner play.
The hosts answered before the end of the half when Akeem Garcia cleaned up a rebound inside the box on a corner.
The Wanderers found their way in the lead following the restart when Samuel Salter salted away a cool finish from a tight angle once again off a corner.
Turnabout was fair play in the late stages with Klomp’s equalizing header coming off a curling free kick from midfielder Ali Musse in the fourth minute of extra time.
“Halifax are a big side,” Wheeldon Jr. said. “They’re a handful, you know they’re going to be a threat and also know they’re going to be solid defensively so you’ve got to move them.
“Sometimes you use their size against them and that’s what we did on the first one and on the second one we loaded the box and made sure we created the chaos.
“Credit to our lads because we kept going until the 90-odd minute.”
Klomp said the game wasn’t the team’s best performance, noting several other mitigating factors were at play.
“We know coming here is a hard game and we’ve got to respect and understand the conditions here, it’s a six-hour flight and three-hour time difference and the pitch isn’t optimal so we don’t really play the game how we want to play it,” he said.
“It was a bit of a scrappy game, but in the end we come away with one point.”
With the single point, the Cavalry moved into a five-way tie for second place in the CPL with the Wanderers, Valour, York United and Atlético Ottawa all sitting at eight points.
Earlier in the week, the Cavs edged FC Edmonton 2-1 on May 10 in the Canadian Championship to move through to the quarterfinal round.
Bevan had a first-half brace for the home team, the second of which was on a penalty kick.
The Cavalry look ahead to a busy stretch of fixtures in both league and cup play.
In CPL action, the Cavs are home to Winnipeg’s Valour FC on May 21 and host the first leg of the Canadian Championship quarterfinal versus the MLS’ Vancouver Whitecaps on May 25 at Spruce Meadows’ ATCO Field.
For more information go to cavalryfc.canpl.ca.
