Bring on the Whitecaps.
Pacific FC gutted out a 2-0 Canadian Championship quarter-final victory over the upstart TSS Rovers of Burnaby, from the semi-pro League1 B.C., to advance to a semifinal date between May 23-25 at Starlight Stadium against the ’Caps of Major League Soccer.
The Rovers had already upset a professional CPL team, Winnipeg’s Valour FC 3-1 in the first round, but their excellent adventure ended Wednesday night at Starlight Stadium. Yet they were in the game all night and gave PFC all it could handle before the Tridents pulled it out with two second-half goals.
The Tridents pressed and the pressure paid off when striker Josh Heard was tripped in the box, and then converted from the penalty spot, to give the Tridents the lead at 67 minutes. A scissor-kick goal by Adonijah Reid, off a pin-point pass by David Brazao at 87 minutes, sealed it.
“We got to the half comfortably and were not suffering,” said Rovers head coach Will Cromack, following the game.
“But it comes down to these little, tiny moments. Our players showed up and showed they are capable.”
That they were.
“At half-time, we knew we could do more and ask more questions,” said PFC head coach James Merriman.
“But credit to them [TSS] and their energy and effort.”
The win gave the Tridents another kick at the Whitecaps, who they beat in the quarter-finals of the 2021 Cup competition, before going down 2-1 to Toronto FC of MLS in the semifinals.
The Whitecaps scored a deluge of late goals to beat York United of the CPL 4-1 in another quarter-final game Wednesday evening. CF Montreal of MLS will play Forge FC of the CPL in the other semifnal game of the Voyageurs Cup, this nation’s equivalent of the FA Cup in England.
The Canadian Championship for the Voyageurs Cup features Canada’s 11 pro soccer teams — three in MLS and eight in the CPL — and the defending champions of League1 B.C., League1 Ontario and League1 Quebec.
This year’s Voyageurs Cup champion will earn a berth in the 2024 CONCACAF Champions League.
The Cup competitions in soccer are infamous for their giant-killing moments, where little-known teams from lower leagues have been known to lurk up from the depths to knock off teams from higher divisions or leagues. The Rovers kept it close in their bid to score a second-consecutive upset of a CPL opponent.
“We want James [PFC coach Merriman] to look at our guys and think why is that player not on my team?” said TSS coach Cromack, heading into the game.
The defending League1 B.C. champion Rovers stated their case well into the second half. It will be an all-B.C. semifinal but not the one TSS was dreaming about.
“We’ve seen it [upsets] from Champions League to the FA Cup,” said Merriman, before the game.
“The Voyageurs Cup is one match [elimination] and you don’t look any further than that.”
Now the Tridents can look ahead to the Whitecaps.
PFC outlasted Cavalry FC of Calgary on penalties in its all-CPL opening-round game.
