It’s fitting that entering a hybrid season, Pacific FC has something of a hybrid team, with some flashy bits added to a solid young existing core.
The 2021 Canadian Premier League soccer season opens today in a bubble at IG Stadium in Winnipeg with PFC playing HFX Wanderers of Halifax at 2 p.m. PT in a coast-to-coast duel in the middle of the country. Each team will play eight games in the Winnipeg bubble with no fans before the planned breakout to close the 28-game season in their home stadiums with fans in attendance.
“Nobody expected another bubble but it is what it is,” said Pacific FC head coach Pa-Modou Kah.
“The difference is last year’s bubble was a tournament and this year’s is the start of a regular season.”
Back-to-back double bubbles or not, the players are just happy to return.
“It’s been seven months and the players have missed the game,” said Kah.
PFC was credible in the 2020 tournament bubble in Charlottetown, P.E.I., reaching the playoff stage and placing fourth. The club wants to build on that foundation.
“We’ve added depth this year that we didn’t possess last year,” said Kah.
“We’ve added players to the [core] group. The new signings have integrated well [because] we see the person and not just the player.”
Most intriguing among the newcomers are Manny Aparicio and Ollie Bassett, the former a known commodity and the latter an emerging potential asset.
“Both are players who will well help us,” said Kah.
The mercurial Aparicio is former captain of the CPL’s York9 (now York United), who represented Canada in the 2015 Toronto Pan Am Games and had 10 appearances for Canada in Under-18 internationals, 18 appearances for the Under-20 national team and 10 appearances in Under-23. Aparicio has five goals in 38 games for Canada at the youth levels. He earned his lone senior national team cap in 2014 against Colombia. The 25-year-old native of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was raised in Ontario, and signed by Toronto FC of MLS in 2013 as a 17-year-old and scored two goals in 21 appearances for TFC II up to 2015. Aparicio then played pro in Spain for SD Ordenes, CD Izarra and CD San Roque de Lepe. He had four goals in 31 appearances for York9 in 2019 and 2020.
The one fact that stands out for Kah relates to his leadership abilities: “[Aparicio] was captain of York for two years.”
The attacking-midielder Bassett has an international appearance with Northern Ireland U-19 and showed some recent offensive spark with four goals in 18 games for Waitakere United in 2018 and six goals in 10 games in 2019 for Team Wellington, both in New Zealand’s top-tier Handa Premiership. He also played in Australia’s second-tier NPL in 2020 with two goals in five games for the St Albans Saints and a goal in four games with England’s Nuneaton Borough.
“Ollie’s style of play suits us well,” said Kah.
Notable PFC returnees include Marco Bustos, one of three 2020 CPL MVP finalists who earned a Canadian national team camp invite, and defender Thomas Meilleur-Giguere, back to health after being injured with Canada U-23 at the CONCACAF qualifying tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico for the Tokyo Olympics.
For a returning darkhorse, Kah pointed to hometown-Victoria product Sean Young, who showed well in his rookie pro season at 19.
“Nothing was expected of him last year but he turned out to be one of our best players,” said Kah.
Three-time Canada-capped Jamar Dixon will replace the retired 56-time capped former Bundesliga defender Marcel de Jong as PFC captain.
“Marcel was one of the best left backs Canada has ever had and is a huge loss, but other players are stepping up and learning how to be leaders,” said Kah.
“Jamar [Dixon] is a great mentor for the boys. They go to him with questions and he helps them a lot.”
Today’s opening opponent, HFX, went from last place in 2019 to making the CPL final last year in the bubble.
“There are no surprises. [HFX head coach] Stephen Hart does not change much and he has been very successful with it,” said Kah.
PFC and HFX also met in last year’s opening game, in the Charlottetown bubble, as PFC rallied from an early 1-0 deficit to take a 2-1 lead before allowing a late HFX goal in a 2-2 draw.
“We came out of the gate slow in that game,” said Kah.
He is hoping for a faster start today in the reprise opening-day meeting.
