CPL Classics: Relive The Massacre of Manitoba
CPL Classics documents the very best matches seen so far in the Canadian Premier League.
2nd September 2019 would turn out to be a date that no Canadian Premier League fan would ever forget.
In the middle of the fall season Valour FC, who had seen a lot of inconsistencies throughout the year, hosted the high-flying Cavalry in Winnipeg. They went in favoured by many to win, but few could have predicted their historical showing at IG Field.
Cavalry got off the mark early after Nikolas Ledgerwood hammered home a penalty kick thirteen minutes in. Things were rather quiet after that, but there were two significant events to come just before half time. First Nico Pasquotti found a gap through the Valour defence to fire in the second Cavalry goal, then with the ball directed into a crowded box, Valour's Raphael Ohin accidentally deflected the ball into his own goal. After forty-five minutes Cavalry led 3-0.
When the teams returned to the field after half-time, it would take just seven minutes for Cavalry to get back to their old ways. With the ball in the air in the Valour's end of the pitch, after a lot of aerial jostling it finally came down to earth and found Julian Buscher unmarked and open to score the fourth goal for Cavalry.
The next highlight moment was a Jose Escalante free-kick that found Oliver Minatel, who made it 5-0 for Cavalry an hour into the match. At this point it seemed all but impossible for Valour to come out of it with anything but a loss and would have been looking for damage limitation, but the two most recent scorers for Cavalry weren't done yet.
Buscher stepped up to the spot after Cavalry were awarded a penalty, he missed the spot kick but caught the deflected ball and directed it back into the goal. With five minutes left he then took a free kick for Cavalry, directing it goal wards and finding Minatel, who was able to get a toe to the ball in mid-air and converted it for the seventh goal of the game.
Valour's humiliation was complete two minutes later: controlling the ball in a crowded box, Jordan Brown made a sloppy attempt at goal, but was able to bumble it home to finish off the historic 8-0 victory for Cavalry. They do not call this match the Massacre of Manitoba for nothing.
Bolstered by this historic performance, Cavalry went on to go their next six matches undefeated and finish the fall season as champions and highest-scoring team (obviously). Unfortunately they weren't able to earn the top prize, as they were defeated by Forge in the CPL Finals. The final result of that many won't remember, but their win in Winnipeg will be a part of the history books and remain in the memories of everyone who was witness.
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