PACIFIC FC 1 CAVALRY FC 1
Pacific FC midfielder Steffen Yeates is headed to a call-up to Trinidad and Tobago for CONCACAF 2026 World Cup qualifying games against Grenada on Wednesday and Bahamas next Saturday. But he had enough time before he left to record a diving, glancing header for a goal at five minutes Saturday at Starlight Stadium in a 1-1 Canadian Premier League draw against Cavalry FC of Calgary.
Yeates was man of the match in the second consecutive game for the Tridents, following up from his standout effort in the 2-1 PFC victory over Atletico Ottawa in the Canadian Championship quarter-final Wednesday night at Starlight Stadium, that propelled the Tridents into a semifinal match-up against the Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer.
“It’s a good feeling to get the call-up for World Cup qualifying but I am focused on the future and not past performances,” said the 24-year-old, who will join five CPL players with Trinidad and Tobago this week for World Cup qualifying, including PFC teammate Reon Moore.
“I am hungry for more.” For both himself and the Tridents.
“We had chances to double our lead today,” Yeates said.
Instead, it was import and former Germany Under-19 player and Dortmund prospect Tobias Warschewski who gave Cavalry FC the draw with a goal at 62 minutes before 3,264 fans.
“We needed a second goal [at 1-0] to kill the game,” PFC head coach James Merriman lamented.
“We had the chances to get that goal but didn’t take them. We should have taken all three points. This was two points lost.”
Injury-riddled PFC (3-2-3 in league and 5-2-4 overall in wins-losses-draws) was playing its third game in eight days and second game in four days and for portions of the second half looked like a boxer holding dearly in a clinch in the 15th round.
“There were a lot of tired legs and rotating players,” said Yeates, who was one of the rare constants.
But after a strong first half, and portions of a lagging second half, PFC came on in rope-a-dope fashion and finished the game with two excellent scoring chances that just missed.
Cavalry FC, which counts Malcolm Shaw as a Trinidad and Tobago call-up for World Cup qualifying, went to 1-1-6 in league and 3-2-6 overall in wins-losses-draws.
“This seems like Groundhog Day,” Cavalry FC head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. said about his club’s number of draws on the season.
Even when Cavalry wins this season it can’t win. The Calgary CPL club beat the Whitecaps 1-0 at B.C. Place. But the impressive victory against the MLS side wasn’t enough to get Cavalry into the Canadian Championship semifinals for the Voyageurs Cup because the Whitecaps had beaten Cavalry 2-1 in the first game of their quarter-final set in Calgary, so the ‘Caps advanced on the away-goals tiebreaker, to play PFC in the semis this summer.
“It’s really frustrating,” said Dutch import Dan Kloomp, who has played in the Netherlands top-division Eredivisie, and who played his 100th career game for Cavalry FC on Saturday.
“The MLS has to stop underestimating us. But right now, we need to win in the CPL.”
The match concluded a home-dominated stretch to start the season for PFC. The Tridents now have three road games over three weeks and won’t be back at Starlight Stadium until June 27 and the cross-strait derby against Vancouver FC.
