After Cascadia’s incredible six goal win over Tamil Eelam, an interesting story began to emerge of a conversation that took place in the team’s locker room at half time.
Defensive midfielder Jordan Wilson was among the first into the locker room and was justifiably very pleased with the half time scoreline which was 2-0 to Cascadia. He had encouraging words for the team, as he recalls.
What he was less aware of than James Riley was the overall situation in the group. Riley’s position at right back had allowed him to keep a channel of conversation open with the Cascadia bench and stay aware of the scoreline at Haringey in North London where Barawa were playing Ellan Vannin.
Just before half time, Barawa had scored and that changed the calculations.
A one goal win for Barawa was Cascadia’s worst nightmare as covered on this site yesterday morning. It meant Cascadia needed a six goal win.
Therefore, from a draw being enough for Cascadia to finish second on four points, the situation had suddenly shifted to Cascadia, Barawa and Ellan Vannin being involved in a three way tie with goal difference being the decider.
That did not favour Cascadia, having lost 4-1 to Ellan Vannin and beaten Barawa by just 2-1. One man who was well aware of that though was Captain Cascadia James Riley as he told Prost later:
In the second half, Riley was playing on the opposite side of Coach James Nichols and the bench. However packed into the small stand were Cascadia’s most informed fans who were keeping a eye on both games. Riley and Wilson both found time during drinks breaks and at every other opportunity to come over and bring themselves up to date on the score in the other game.
When Cascadia went 5-0 ahead, that would have been enough to qualify only if Ellan Vannin did not pull a goal back late on. 6-0 however was always going to be enough regardless of the score in Haringey.
When the final whistle went in North London at 2-0, the Cascadia fans became aware that a 5-0 win was now sufficient to qualify. However the ball was still in play and Calum Ferguson was having none of it.
His goal, Cascadia’s sixth, put the matter beyond doubt and allowed the side a proud boast that they had, in the end, not relied on anybody else and taken matters entirely into their own hands.
Wilson, who along with brother Patrick, was a stand out against the Tamils laughed about the whole thing later. With that laughter though came an even greater appreciation for what James Riley has brought to the squad.
