Throwback Thursday: Cavalry FC 0-3 Orlando City | OneFootball

Is it just me, or is anyone else getting a little bit jealous watching on as hundreds of opposition fans embark on adventures to Trinidad and Tobago, Honduras, and Costa Rica to support their clubs in CONCACAF Champions Cup?

Two years ago, that was us. Sort of, anyway.

For a draw that seemed, well, pretty underwhelming at first, our trip to Victoria, British Columbia to face an equally travel-weary Cavalry FC in the competition's opening round unexpectedly turned into one of the best away days in Orlando City's recent, if not all-time, history. Until we thumped Tampa Bay Rowdies in their own backyard last year, of course.

I genuinely have no idea where all the time has gone since then. Writing this is, for me, a way of reliving what was one of the best weeks of my life all over again, and I hope that I'll help you do the same if you were there, too.

If you weren't, then I'm sure I'll whet your appetite for if and when we qualify for just the third time in our history come the end of the season.

A false start

"There's no way to sugarcoat it, this was a very disappointing draw," said Duff, one of hundreds of supporters who'd travelled to Mexico the year before to watch us take on Tigres in our debut foray into this competition, vowing to never miss a beat of another.

I followed that game, too, but from the comfort of my own bed thousands of miles away in England. Deep down, though, I was gutted I wasn't there, so to make up for it I promised to myself that I'd travel to attend our very next away day in the competition, wherever it may be.

For me, a trip to Calgary, Alberta wasn't the end of the world, as at that point in my life I'd never ventured into Canada on any of my earlier travels to the United States. But, for the majority of supporters, it probably felt like just another of those long road trips you went on as a kid.

The trip's potential was somewhat boosted when, rather unnecessarily, as it turned out, tournament organisers deemed that Cavalry's stadium, Spruce Meadows, was unfit for purpose in freezing temperatures and that our away leg would be held at the closest suitable venue.

As an Englishman, who's used to teams temporarily relocating an inconvenient twenty miles away amid renovations or rent disputes, I was pretty amused to learn that this venue, Starlight Stadium, was almost seven hundred miles away on Vancouver Island, an entirely different landmass. It was certainly more than a slight inconvenience for Cavalry's supporters, though, whose much-anticipated first home match on this stage was now rather ruined.

Good morning, Victoria

Well over a grand spent on flights and accommodation later, it was time to hit the road. My journey involved three separate train rides, an eight-hour flight to, you guessed it, Calgary, and then another two-hour-or-so hop across to Victoria before catching a local bus from the airport to my hotel.

I woke up the next morning, the day of the game, really not knowing what to expect. I didn't have a clue how many, if any, fellow Orlando supporters had braved the equally formidable journey to get there, so I thought my best bet was just to head into town and see what happened. Funnily enough, I did bump into a group of others there for the game, but it was instead a trio of Cavalry fans who were pretty bemused, first, that any Orlando supporters would've made such a journey, but also that someone had come from the other side of the world. I can't blame them, really.

I was in my first year at university at the time, so skipping an entire week's worth of classes to watch a football game thousands of miles away wasn't as consequential as it was, say, when I did the exact same on three occasions last year, but it was still a pretty special feeling knowing that I should be elsewhere and that a trip to a new part of the world would be more rewarding than any amount of time spent in formal education.

I hadn't, though, succeeded in meeting any other Orlando supporters during my morning wander around Victoria, so I decided my next best chance was to head straight to the ground, actually a few miles away in Langford, British Columbia, a full five hours before kick-off.

Where are my sneakers?

Starlight Stadium, actually the home of Cavalry's league rivals, Pacific FC, may have been one of the smallest grounds we've played in during our Major League Soccer era. It may also have been an absolute pain in the arse to get to, since it was in the middle of nowhere. But my word was it beautiful.

I mean, it was comprised of one-and-a-half stands, a few rows of bleachers behind one of the goals, and a television gantry fashioned out of a bit of scaffold. What more could you want? It also boasted a bowling alley and a sports bar right next door, where I first met Duff, Derek, Nate, and Hayden, actually a Seattle Sounders fan who couldn't resist joining Major League Soccer's loudest fanbase on a one-game loan. Or, just maybe, watching Nicolás Lodeiro in action one last time.

A few hours of darts, drinking, and failing to finish a thirty-dollar pizza later, it was time to make the short walk over to the ground in time for kick-off and join what must've been sixty or seventy Orlando supporters in the away end. But we weren't the only ones dressed in purple that night.

"It seemed Orlando had brought as many, if not more travelling fans than Cavalry had," continued Duff. "That was only added to as we were joined by Pacific fans who united with us against their league rivals. The atmosphere in the away section was electric, although it was much more playful in tone than typical with us poking fun at individual fans in our end, asking what a kilometre is, and singing 'Pony' by Ginuwine."

It really was a special atmosphere, even if there was so few of us compared to home games and some of our closer away trips. The performance helped, too, with Duncan McGuire opening the scoring after twenty minutes and Facundo Torres adding a brace to effectively seal our place in the next round.

Until next time...

After that, it was all over. Sure, we headed straight for Victoria's finest drinking holes after full-time to enjoy what was left of the night, and some of us even had another whole day to kill before heading home for good. But the ninety minutes that we'd all waited months for, spent hundreds to see, and travelled hours to make were over just like that, and that was pretty hard for me to take.

Still, I can confidently say it was worth every penny. I'd visited a new country, made some new friends, enjoyed my first away win, and added some pretty cool pictures to my photo album. Unfortunately, though, I was sporting a pretty embarrassing moustache at the time, so most of them are ruined.

"It was a really interesting trip," said Derek, another of those who's maintained a perfect record in this competition, home and away. "It took me three different modes of transportation to get there all to see a game with two thousand people next to a bowling centre. We went with long-time friends, met new ones, ate way too much Tim Hortons, but most importantly we got a win."

"For what originally felt like a draw that would be a complete dud, this away day ended up as one of my favourites to this point," added Duff. "This experience has left me much more open-minded about any further match-ups in this competition... If we ever return, that is."

A pretty unfortunate reunion with Tigres in the next round meant that we are still waiting for our first visit to those dream destinations in Central America or the Caribbean. Still, if this apparently underwhelming draw unexpectedly turned into one of our all-time great away trips, just imagine how good it can get.