Cavalry FC’s historic CONCACAF’s Champions Cup run comes to heartbreaking end
By Marvellous Chukwukelu, March 23 2025—
On Feb. 13, 2025, Cavalry FC’s historic run in the CONCACAF Champions Cup came to a heartbreaking end after a defeat to Mexico’s Pumas UNAM.
The two-legged faceoff began on Feb. 6 with Cavalry FC hosting Pumas UNAM at Starlight Stadium in Langford, BC. From the first minute, the intensity was clear. Pumas defender, José Galindo picked up a yellow card for his challenge on Cavalry’s Tobias Warschewski. Even though the Cavs stuck to their usual strategy of prioritizing a solid defence, both sides proved to be equally matched as the game progressed. By the 23rd minute, the Cavs finally got their first chance with a long-range shot from Jay Herdman, which was handled by Pumas’ goalkeeper with ease.
Disaster struck just before the half-time break. While an incredible dive from the Cavs team captain and goalkeeper, Marco Carducci, was able to stop a long range shot from their opponents, the ball was deflected right into the path of Santiago Lόpez who fired it home to give the Pumas the 1-0 lead at the break.
Cavalry FC would show their resiliency in the second half, responding 12 minutes into the half with a perfectly delivered ball from Ali Musse, which was met with a brilliant run and shot from Charlie Trafford to level the score. 20 minutes later, Tobias Warschewski converted a tenuous headed pass from Herdman into a goal and elevated Cavalry into the lead.
Although Pumas fought hard to level the score, the first round ended 2–1 in their favour making Cavalry FC the first—and only—team representing the Canadian Premier League (CPL) to win a match in the CONCACAF Champions Cup as well as the first CPL team to defeat a Liga MX team. The win is a triumph highlighting the resilience of Canadian soccer even in the face of an incredible disparity in spending between CPL teams and their counterparts in Major League Soccer (MLS) and Liga MX.
Unfortunately, the second match followed a drastically different path. Having swapped out a significant number of their players, Pumas UNAM abandoned the laid-back 5–4–1 formation they had favoured in the first match for a more aggressive 3–4–2–1 formation, which, in turn, transformed their attack prowess from significant to overwhelming. This meant that, for the first time in a while, aggressive defending was a necessity for the Cavs as opposed to a choice.
By the 15th minute, the tolls of constant defense against a seemingly never-ending attack were starting to show. Following a ball challenge, Cavalry’s Charlie Trafford picked up a straight red card which was rightfully downgraded to a yellow after a review by the Video Assisted Referee (VAR) officials. Unfortunately, the next VAR check which came in the 45th would not go their way, as it awarded the Pumas a penalty and saw Cavalry’s Herdman being sent off.
A brilliant save from Marco Carducci saw the Cavs head into the break level at 0–0 in the current match but still 2–1 in the lead on aggregate, Pumas showed the decisiveness that had been responsible for them going far into the Champions Cup on numerous occasions. One of their most significant decisions was swapping out 19 year old striker, Santiago Lόpez for 29 year old Mexican National Team striker Guillermo Martínez. Martínez’s presence on the pitch proved to be the death blow for an already weakened Cavalry side as his decisive brace—when a player scores two goals in the same game— delivered a 2–0 win to Pumas UNAM and helped them knock the Cavs out of the Champions Cup 3–2 on aggregate.
While this may not be the result they hoped for, the Cavs still have every reason to be proud. Compared to last year, where they were both legs of the tourney to Orlando City SC with an aggregate score of 6–1, the difficult position they placed Pumas UNAM in is a testament to the advances they have made over the past year.
The result should also be a call out to the other teams in the CPL. Cavalry FC was far from invincible last season so the fact that they could beat a Liga MX side means that the shroud of invincibility that surrounds teams in the Champions Cup —especially those from MLS and Liga MX— has been lifted. CPL now has precedent for being competitive on the continental level. So to whoever gets the honour of representing Canada next year, carry that momentum forward and show the continent what Canadian clubs are truly capable of.