For just the second time in league history, the CPL Playoffs are in Halifax, as the Wanderers host York United in the knockout match on Wednesday. One team advances to take on Cavalry in Calgary this week. For the other, their season is done. It all kicks off at 7:30 p.m. AT / 6:30 p.m. ET / 3:30 p.m. PT on OneSoccer and TSN5.
Ahead of the match, both the Halifax Wanderers and York United met with the media. Here are the highlights of what they had to say:
Patrice Gheisar — Head Coach, Halifax Wanderers
On the club’s mentality heading into just the second home playoff match in their history
This is our second-ever home playoff game, and this group has been able to do that twice. The legacy that they’re starting to leave behind, that’s what the ambition of the club is, and frankly, the city and the organization deserves. Now we know what happened two years ago, we want to take it further. Obviously, to be able to share this moment with our fans is really special, but the key is that I feel like last time, when we were in this position, maybe we had a lot of nerves and we didn’t enjoy the moment. So for me, it has to be about enjoying it, because you play 28 games to get this game. So let’s make sure we enjoy it, because if we don’t enjoy it, then neither will anyone, and neither will our fans.
On what to expect from York United in light of the matches they’ve played this year
Listen, I think they’ve an excellent team. They’ve changed their style a little bit a few times. We know what they can do. We know the players they have. They’re very, very dangerous in the attack, but we have to really just focus on ourselves, and the focus will be, one, we need to have a positive start. We need to show that we’re the home team, and we have to control the game with and without the ball. And I think that’s what we’ve talked about. That has to be done if we’re playing Ottawa, Forge, York or Calgary, I think that’s really important. And obviously being a little bit focused on their special players that are able to turn a game on its head at a moment’s notice, and trying to make sure that we’re really committed to our defending and we take care of the ball, hence, going back to what I said earlier, which is controlling the game.
On starting the game on the front foot at home
It’s imperative, you look at our two games [against York], the fact that the first game where we had a lot of success, it’s that early goal. It’s not [just] the first goal, it’s an early goal, especially in the playoff game, where you’re nervy, and it’s going to be wet that night. It’s the middle of October. Everyone’s looking for a moment of magic. And if you could perform that earlier in the game, then the confidence will just go, and then the nerves just settle. So I think it’s really important … if you score first, we’re a different team, because we really get the confidence. And we did show earlier in the season, in our second game, when we went down to their place, and when we go down, we’re able to come back as well. But I think that’ll be really important.
How this team has changed since 2023 and their last playoff match
I think our 2023 team was full of energy, youthful, and maybe we were a little bit naive. And what I mean with naive, and that also includes me, is [thinking] that the better team always wins. And the lesson I’ve learned here in three years is that the better team doesn’t always win. Sometimes it worked out for us, and it we were the better team, and we ended up winning. So I think right now, we’ve learned to defend better. We’ve learned to stay in the game and allow the game to stay in front of us and just wait for the moments to come where we could take over. I think the word for that is probably patience; we’ve developed a little bit more patience. We still have the same energy, and we do have a lot of young players to have that youthfulness, but I would say I’m hoping we will see signs that our nature of maybe being naive has disappeared, but it’s a work in progress, and we have to continue to grow.
