| Pacific FC vs. Cavalry FC Sunday, April 5 at 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT Starlight Stadium in Langford, British Columbia Watch Live: OneSoccer |
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The Canadian Premier League's 2026 opening weekend ends on Vancouver Island, where Pacific FC host Cavalry FC at Starlight Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The Tridents enter this year ready to turn the page on what was a challenging 2025 campaign. They finished seventh in the table for the first time in club history, and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2019.
A large part of that group has returned, motivated to change the trajectory of the club. But there has also been an added freshness with a strong class of recruits at every position, and key returns from major injuries to Ronan Kratt and Juan Quintana.
Their focus all pre-season, however, has been firmly on the future, and that begins with adding to the club's excellent record in season openers. Pacific have never lost the opening game of a CPL season, with a 6-1-0 all-time record.
Pacific's record in this particular fixture, however, is far less flattering, having won just once in their past 13 matches against Cavalry. The Tridents last win at Starlight Stadium, on August 4, 2025, however, did come against the Alberta club in a 1-0 result.
SEASON PREVIEWS: Pacific FC || Cavalry FC
For Cavalry, they look to end an odd winless streak of their own. Despite a tremendous overall regular season record, they are still winless in CPL action in the month of April, with a 0-7-5 record all-time.
It's an odd stat, but it's emblematic of a wider goal for the 2025 CPL finalists: they'd love to get off to a better start than they have in recent years. Since lifting the CPL Shield in 2023, they haven't topped the table at any point in the past two years.
For a club that prides itself on consistency, and their regular season performances, this has brought about an off-season of change in Calgary. The hope is that incoming CPL veterans like Nate Ingham and Amer Didić add new leadership and voices to an already talented group. They headline an exciting class of recruits that could make their Cavalry debuts on Sunday.
A big key to improving that consistency for Cavalry will be a better road record, as they won just three of 13 away matches last season -- the fewest in club history. They did not win in either of their two league visits to Starlight Stadium last season.
As fate would have it, this is the third straight year that Cavalry FC kicks off on the Island after playing their Concacaf Champions Cup opener at Starlight Stadium the past two seasons.
Can Cavalry FC end their April curse? Or will Pacific FC get off to a hot start once again?
NEWS & NOTES
- Sergio Camargo has been named Cavalry FC's captain following the departure of Marco Carducci.
- Pacific captain Josh Heard is suspended for this match after being sent off in the final game of the club's 2025 season.
- Cavalry will be without Maël Henry and James McGlinchey due to injuries.
- Pacific FC are searching for their first win since August 10, as they finished last season winless in ten straight.
- The Tridents have a clean bill of health heading into Sunday's match, according to James Merriman.
PROJECTED STARTING XIs
Pacific FC: Himaras; Chung, Belluz, Konincks, Lajeunesse; Keshavarz, Gomulka, Browning-Lagerfeldt; Bustos, Díaz, Kratt
Cavalry FC: Ingham; Pearlman, Didić, Klomp, Ofori; Paton, Baldisimo; Musse, Camargo, Ntignee; Warschewski
KEY QUOTES
"We've built a good rivalry [with Cavalry], but we need to be more competitive in that this season than we were last season. So that's something as well that our group of players have been speaking about and talking about. We want to start right. We want to start on the front foot and be aggressive, especially with the season opener being at home." — Pacific FC head coach James Merriman
"There's just a freshness and hunger that's been brought into the club. And it's important that we learn about last year, but it's also a fresh slate with new players, and now we have the ability to reinvent who we want to be again." — Pacific FC captain Josh Heard
“The chemistry, the camaraderie, has been exceptional, but the effort and the energy, I think that matters in preseason to build your identity and your fitness, and we've had all of those. So looking forward to seeing how that translates to a competitive game." — Cavalry FC head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr.
"We didn't get the success that we were used to last year. Whether it's the new guys coming in, bringing that energy, I feel like we've won the pre-season in terms of everything that we could have done to prepare for game one. Sadly, that doesn't really mean much in terms of what our results are going to look like in the season, but it's a great starting point." — Cavalry FC captain Sergio Camargo
