Soccer is different than most North American sports in that a season has many tentacles, with teams often playing for several championships.
Pacific FC and York United played to a scoreless draw Friday night in a Canadian Premier League game at Starlight Stadium. The clubs meet again tonight at 7 p.m. in the same venue in a Canadian Championship quarter-final fixture for the Voyageurs Cup, which is this nation’s version of the FA Cup in England and Copa del Rey in Spain.
It’s pure happenstance for PFC and York United that the Canadian Championship draw, and its attendant brackets, collided in this way with their league schedule.
Tonight will have a different feel than Friday night. The latter was a league match with plenty more to come. Tonight is one and done, with the loser out of the hunt for the 2022 Voyageurs Cup, and winner advancing to the semifinals against the winner of a quarter-final Wednesday night between Cavalry FC of the CPL and Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer.
The Tridents were 4-1 last season in elimination games, beating the Whitecaps at home and Cavalry FC in Calgary in the Canadian Championship before losing 2-1 to Toronto FC of MLS in their semifinal game at BMO Field.
In the CPL playoffs, Pacific beat host Cavalry FC in semifinals and two-time defending champion Forge FC in the league final at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton. So, the Tridents proved last year they were money when it mattered. Now the process repeats with tonight representing the first elimination game of 2022 for the Tridents.
“We want to build off what we did last season in those big matches,” said PFC head coach James Merriman.
“There’s a little more in it, a little bit extra, because it’s one match and only one team can advance and move forward when it’s a Cup match. We want the right mindset and right intensity to start the game. That’s what we expect and what we need to have [tonight]. We know these games can give you big momentum and confidence moving forward.”
PFC, which earned an opening-round bye in the 2022 Canadian Championship, is 5-1-2 in wins-losses-draws atop the CPL table. York United is 3-2-3 overall, including a 2-1 victory over Atletico Ottawa of the CPL on penalty kicks in the opening round of the Canadian Championship.
As it showed Friday night in the rugged scoreless draw against the Tridents, the big and strong York United squad will not be easily dismissed. It is a physically imposing side that certainly won’t be pushed around. Under Victoria-raised head coach Martin Nash — a former Whitecaps player capped 38 times for Canada including with the 2000 CONCACAF Gold Cup-champion side – the Nine Stripes’ defence is hard to unlock with a stout back line that has allowed the fewest goals this season in the CPL. The Tridents will need to use their superior quickness and attacking guile.
Friday’s PFC-York league game was the most punishing seen this season. The game was “played on the edge … both teams were physical and battled” said Nash. He got no argument from Merriman, who added it was “a high-intensity, competitive game with a physicality to the first half. I expect the same [tonight].”
Among the casualties of that banging and contact Friday night was tricky PFC attacking midfielder Manny Aparicio, who had to be wheeled off the pitch.
“It’s not as bad as we initially thought in the moment,” said Merriman.
“It was a hard knee-on-knee resulting in a slight MCL injury.”
Merriman listed Aparicio as being out week-to-week. That leaves a hole in the PFC central attacking midfield for at least the next few games.
“It’s the next-man-up mentality. That’s part of our club and part of our identity,” said Merriman.
“We’ve often spoken about that. It’s an opportunity for other players to step up.”
Among those stepping up were CF Montreal MLS Academy product Luca Ricci, PFC’s 2022 first-round draft pick from the U Sports champion Université de Montréal Carabines, who drew praise for his surprisingly strong performance Friday in replacing Aparicio mid-game in central midfield.
The Tridents’ depth will certainly be further tested as PFC is in three competitions this season – CPL, Canadian Championship and CONCACAF League, the latter against the elite clubs of Central America and the Caribbean beginning in July in a berth earned by winning the 2021 CPL championship.
CORNER KICKS: York United goalkeeper Niko Giantsopoulos, who has three clean sheets on the season including against PFC on Friday, is expected back in the Nine Stripes crease tonight. Giantsopoulos signed a two-day “extreme hardship” loan contract with the Whitecaps after all three of the Caps goalkeepers, including last season’s PFC back-up ‘keeper Isaac Boehmer, were out for Sunday’s MLS game in Charlotte, North Carolina. Giantsopoulos backed-up 17-year-old Whitecaps-2 call-up Max Anchor in the 2-1 Whitecaps loss.
