Cavalry climbed to the top of the Canadian Premier League table on Saturday, July 22, as they defeated Vancouver 5-1 at Langley’s Willoughby Community Park, allowing them to leapfrog Pacific in the standings in the process.

Cavalry got on the board within 10 minutes, as Myer Bevan won a penalty and forced a red card from Vancouver’s Eugene Martínez, then booted home his spot kick to make it 1-0.

Vancouver would respond nearly immediately, as less than five minutes later, new arrival Alejandro Díaz slotted home a great Min-Jae Kwak assist to make it 1-1 with his second goal in two games since his return to the CPL.

From there, however, it’d be all Cavalry the rest of the way, as they’d make it 3-1 by half time through goals from Daan Klomp and Sergio Camargo, before Ben Fisk and Ali Musse put the game to rest in the second half.

Alejandro Díaz scored his second goal in two games since his return to the CPL, as Vancouver FC hosted Cavalry at Langley’s Willoughby Community Park on Saturday, July 22. (Vancouver FC/Beau Chevalier/Special to Langley Advance Times)

“We did well as a team, we didn’t stop running,” Díaz said afterwards.

“I want to really congratulate our players,” Vancouver’s head coach, Afshin Ghotbi, added. “They reacted as well as they could’ve, they responded beautifully with an equalizer, they then even created a very good chance to go up a goal after, and even after taking the second goal and third goal, they kept fighting today.”

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A notable feature of the last two games has been the quick integration of new signing, Alejandro Díaz.

In just two games, he’s already got two goals, which has already put him in a tie for second on the team.

“I’ve seen his quality in training, and I also see the man that he is in the way that he approaches his job,” Ghotbi said of Díaz. “Even with a few chances, he scores goals, and we talked about that in training and in meetings, saying that if he just gets the right delivery from the side channels, he will he will score goals, and today he did that with a beautiful goal on a great combination from the cross to the finish.”

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“I’m super motivated to come back for this new opportunity with this project,” Díaz said. “It’s helped as I knew some players here, and everyone’s been so nice and easygoing with me, so it’s been really easy to fit into the team, so hopefully I can keep getting better.”

Next, Vancouver will head to Ontario next week, as a date with Forge awaits them at Tim Hortons Field on Friday, July 28th (4 p.m. local time).