The Eagles walked away with a 1-1 draw from the TELUS Canadian Championship quarterfinal showdown on home pitch Wednesday.
After making history in the preliminary round of the 2025 championships, by defeating their provincial rivals 鈥� Vancouver Island's Pacific FC 鈥� in a thrilling 4-2 penalty shootout and advancing to the Canadian quarterfinals, Vancouver FC Eagles hosted its first-ever Canadian championship match at home, and head coach Afshin Ghotbi wasn't disappointed by the outcome.
"I'm very proud of the performance, the grit and the effort of our players," Ghotbi said. "I feel that we were the better team from the beginning to the end, but unfortunately, these are the games you have to find a second goal."
Overall, he said, there were great fans, a great atmosphere, and a very strong team, that continues to grow, but the players just couldn't bring it home Wednesday, noting they missed at least two or three goals that really should have happened.
That said, he remained the consummate cheerleader: "I think this is one of the best teams in Canadian football."
David Norman Jr. 鈥� who was selected player of the game 鈥� opened the scoring in the first half for the Eagles. With that, it seemed like Vancouver was on track to pick up a multi-goal victory. But, they weren't able to capitalize on some chances to go up 2-0, which then allowed Cavalry's Tobias Warschewski to spoil those plans with a late equalizer.
Despite several other near-miss goals throughout the rest of the game by both Cavalry and the Eagles, neither team was able to pull out ahead.
That said, in a post-game media scrum, Norman described it as a "bit of a scrape game," noting Eagles were obviously strongest during the first half 鈥� showing the young team's growth and development overall. The team demonstrated its strong work ethic and determination.
"They have a lot of fight in them," he said, calling his fellow players "good footballers," who will bring their A game to the next national match in Calgary in six weeks.
Confident in his team's play during away games, Ghotbi shared Norman's expectations for the next match against Cavalry.
The Canadian Championship brings together clubs from every level of Canadian pro soccer 鈥� from the Canadian Premier League to MLS 鈥� all competing for a shot at lifting the Voyageurs Cup and qualifying for the CONCACAF Champions Cup.
Both teams 鈥� Calgary and Vancouver 鈥� will meet in the second leg of this Canadian Championship quarterfinal tie on Tuesday, July 8 at Cavalry's ATCO Field.
In the meantime, in Canadian Premier League play, Vancouver will be away to York United at York Lions Stadium on Sunday, May 25 in Toronto.
