Final Score: Vancouver FC 3-2 Pacific FC
Goalscorers: Cantave 11′, Bitar 76′, 87′; Meilleur-Giguère 65′, Daniels 73′
Game of the 2023 season: 79
CPL match: 446
Match in a minute or less
For the first time, BC is now Black and Red, as Vancouver FC claimed their first-ever Salish Sea Derby with a big come-from-behind victory over rivals Pacific FC on Saturday, winning 3-2 with a 87th minute winner from Gabriel Bitar at Langley’s Willoughby Community Park.
An entertaining matchup, the proceedings got underway early, too, as Mikaël Cantave found the net for Vancouver inside just 11 minutes to give his team their first-ever lead over Pacific.
Despite that, however, Pacific would do well to respond after that, nabbing second-half goals from Thomas Meilleur-Giguère in the 65th minute and Djenairo Daniels in the 73rd minute to completely turn around the score, putting them in the driver’s seat with 15 minutes to go.
There, however, is where Vancouver’s Bitar would step up huge. Despite only coming on in the 75th minute, he’d first tie up the game in the 76th minute, before completing his brace with a winner in the 87th, giving his team a moment that they’ll never forget, as they marked their first-ever derby win in style.
Three Observations
Vancouver claims third installment of Salish Sea Derby with resilient performance:
If you needed a reminder of how special a derby can be for a team and its fans, use Vancouver’s third goal in this match as an example.
As soon as Bitar’s late strike found the net, Vancouver’s players, staff and fans instantly burst into celebration. Those on the field hopped onto Bitar, while those on the bench emptied itself, and pro-Vancouver fans in the stands let out a large roar to celebrate.
Knowing how important that moment was for the club, it was as if a weight was lifted off their shoulders, as they instantly recognized the gravity of the situation. You add in that it was in the 87th minute, and that it would be their first-ever derby win, and that added to the emotion of the moment.
Having lost the last home derby in such devastating fashion, as Pacific had soundly beaten them 6-3 in Langley in the last meeting, it was one that Vancouver almost owed to themselves, in a sense. Certainly they played like they did, especially for their fans, something that they admitted after the match.
“Derbies, they mean more than anything else,” Bitar explained. “So to win this one, (especially) seeing that we hadn’t won in a while, this one was always going to feel extra special.”
“I’m really proud for our fans,” head coach Afshin Ghotbi added. “Because through a lot of difficult times, they’ve stuck with this team, they’ve supported this team, so to see them so happy after this match just means a lot to me.”
“This derby is special, derbies are special for so many different reasons, and I think this victory will just add more history and texture to this derby, which will create more interesting stories for the upcoming derbies, and Canadian football needs these sorts of derbies and stories.”
Our vacation got cancelled but we got to watch a @vanfootballclub get a massive W over #1 Pacific WE ARE HERE FOR IT!!!! pic.twitter.com/T3T91hlFgX
— asikaa (@Asikaa604) August 19, 2023
Yet, that’s why these matches are so special. They can sometimes mean nothing in terms of the league table, but no matter the occasion, there’s nothing quite like a derby win, especially from a fan perspective.
Vancouver certainly felt that in this game, and that was reflected in their performance, one where they fought for their badge across 90 minutes. Eager to finally get one over their BC neighbours after dropping the previous two meetings, they came out with a vengeance, as they looked to prove that they could hang with a team of Pacific’s calibre.
Despite the distance that separated the two teams in the table, Vancouver felt that they could hang with Pacific, and they showed that in this game.
Now, this could prove to be pivotal for their season, too. Making the playoffs could prove to be a tall task, as they’ve got a gap of 11 points to make up over the last eight games, but a win like this could give them the motivation to at least make things interesting.
Then, if not this season, this win could have an impact on next year, where Vancouver will certainly look to prove that they can be better than what they’ve shown so far, taking the lessons they’ve learnt in their debut campaign to heart.
As they showed for 90 minutes in this one, they can hang with some of the best in the CPL on their day, which for a new team, can be as sweet of a victory as any.
With that, they gave another moment for their fans to remember, something that they’ll now look to take into the rest of the season now.
“We just want to win every single game possible to give ourselves a chance,” Bitar said. “I mean everybody wants to win, obviously, but when you’re at the bottom, you can’t hope for other results, you just have to win games to get out of there, and that’s what we want to do now.”
Midfield tweak from Vancouver frustrates Pacific on both sides of the ball:
Against a team of Pacific’s calibre, the midfield battle is everything. Vancouver certainly knows that first-hand, as they made sure to emphasize that area of the field in their past two matchups, to mixed results.
In their first meeting, Vancouver did well in that area of the field, frustrating Pacific across 90 minutes, doing well to match up 1v1 against Pacific’s 4-3-3 with a similar set-up. Then, in the second meeting, they struggled a bit, as they got too stretched at times in a tweaked 4-2-3-1, allowing Pacific to hammer them in transition several times.
This time, however, Vancouver returned to the 4-3-3, finding great success in doing so, especially defensively. By choosing to go with a midfield trio of Elliot Simmons, Vasco Fry and Renan Garcia, they elected to really limit space for Pacific, putting in three players who love to defend and put in a tackle.
With Garcia sitting as a #6 between Simmons and Fry as #8s, they did excellently to play as a cohesive unit, managing to stay cohesive in their overall defensive organization.
Rarely did one of them drift out of position, as they did well to move as a unit whenever possible. Because of that, it left Pacific to spend most of the game on the periphery.
To be fair, that’s a matchup that Pacific didn’t mind getting into – they scored both of their goals from wide-areas, and created several chances to win through that area, but they lacked ryhtm in their play, and a big reason for that was that they never got to settle on the ball.
“That was probably one of the best first halves that we played all season,” Bitar said. “And then honestly, we had a great game, I think we really only made two bad mistakes, and Pacific is a great team, so they’re gonna capitalize whenever you make some mistakes and they did that. But from from a team effort, I thought we were perfect, we were really well organized and we stopped almost everything they sent at us, so we did well today.”
Pacific managed to keep the ball, to their credit – they won the possession battle 60-40, but they had a passing completion rate of 72.9% in the final third compared to 86.5% in their own half, showing how much they struggled on the ball offensively versus when they were in their own half.
Then, they can also lament that all three of Vancouver’s goals came from the middle of the field, as their opener came from an extended spell of possession that saw each midfielder get several touches on the ball, while the second and third goals came from transition moments that were generated by midfield turnovers.
Yet, the credit has to be given to Vancouver in that regard. Certainly, given that they controlled much of the initiative and were the favourites to win, Pacific will have every right to be frustrated with themselves, and certainly voiced that displeasure after the game, but Vancouver also did well to make it frustrating for them.
That just shows how far this Vancouver side has come, as they’ve really shown that they can control swaths of the game against anyone as of late, and that they did so against a team of Pacific’s calibre in this game just showed that.
“I felt that we had to defensively play with three lines in a 4-3-3, and play compactly,” Ghotbi explained. “We tried to force things wide, and force their outside defenders to have to make the game wide, and then we were hoping that in those side channels, we could tie it down and try to win the ball in those moments with numbers around the ball.”
“At times were successful at times, and others we were late.”
Now, the next step is to execute in key moments with more efficient, something that has hurt them as of late, but they found a way to clean that up in this game, which allowed them to get the win.
“I believe that this victory will give enormous amount of confidence and belief, which is necessary for us to come back from such a bad position in a table,” Ghotbi finished.
Little details hurt Pacific in second half en route to defeat:
As mentioned earlier, despite the loss, there was a lot to be positive about for Pacific’s perspective, as it was certainly wasn’t a bad performance from them.
The numbers certainly showed that – from winning the possession battle, to the shots, which were 16-10 in favour of Pacific, and the Expected Goals (xG), which were 2.10 to 1.00 for Pacific, they did a lot of things right in the end.
You add in that they had a 2-1 lead at the 75th minute, and had a glorious 0.32 xG shot from a wide-open Sean Young in the 81st minute that probably should’ve found the net if not for a spectacular save from Callum Irving, they also had moments to win, too.
Instead, however, Pacific ended up squandering those key opportunities, and in the end, they’ll only have themselves to blame for their demise.
From the missed Young opportunity, to the two goals, which came off sloppy Pacific turnovers, there was a lot to be frustrated about from a Pacific perspective.
For a team that’s first place in the table, that’s frustrating, as those are just the sort of details that you need to take care of at this level.
At the same time, this has been something that Pacific has struggled with as of late. Sititng with just two wins in their last nine games, they’ve let a lot of games slip away in ways that they’ll be frustrated about at the end of the year.
Especially with how tight the table has been, those have proven to be costly, too, which has to add to their frustration.
It’s one thing to lose games, or to have runs of bad luck – that happens over the course of a season. It’s another to be giving away goals, or not showing enough ruthlessness in front of goal, and this game is a an example of that.
Just ask head coach James Merriman, who didn’t hold back in his post-match comments when assessing this one, doing a good job of summing up his frustrations with those sorts of errors.
“I don’t understand our lack of desire to to take over games, to take points and to finish when we’re attacking,” Merriman said afterwards. “We spoke a lot about what we wanted to do beforehand, and I didn’t see it and I didn’t feel it, especially going towards goal.”
“We need to we need to want to score goals more, and then on the other side, we conceded three, so it’s a very disappointing day, we’ll need to see it back, but I don’t understand our lack of motivation and to score goals.”
“It doesn’t sit right.”
He later continued: “Is the group motivated? Absolutely. There’s a great spirit in the group, and they trained well, they prepared well for this match. There were no signs of taking this game lightly. It’s more execution, ruthlessness, quality in the final third, desire, all of those things, that was what was lacking today.”
Now, that leaves Pacific with some soul-searching to do with eight games to go. As they’ve shown on their day, they can be unstoppable at times, and are very much a team that can see themselves hoisting a regular season trophy and winning another North Star Shield at the end of the season.
For that to happen, however, they’re going to need to clean up their performances, or else it could be a tight finish to the season. As seen with the recent form of teams like Atlético Ottawa, Cavalry and the Halifax Wanderers, there are teams around them that are picking up steam and putting together some great runs of form to push for the regular season title.
Becuase of that, they’ll all probably be pleased to see Pacific push themselves right into the mix of teams pushing for that honour, especially seeing that their form has been trending the wrong way for almost two months now.
Without a doubt, Pacific’s back is now against the wall, and it’s up to them to respond, because if not, they may come to rue a game like this, in which they’ve had a few of them across this recent stretch.
“(Our confidence) has to come back fast, because we have eight games left in the season,” Meilleur-Giguère noted. “We need wins, we need goals, that’s what we’re about, counter-pressing and quick transitions, we need all of that, and that (comes down) to our mentality.”
For what it’s worth, however, that doesn’t bother Merriman. Despite the frustration that he showed, he also noted that he feels that his team has what it takes to respond to this latest bout of adversity, something that they’ve done well of doing over the last few years.
There’s a reason why they’ve made the playoffs in the last three seasons, and have a North Star Shield to their name, and their ability to step up in big moments is a key reason why. Now, they face one of those sorts of stretches once again, so it’s up to them to respond accordingly, something that Merriman is confident they can do.
“Over the last few seasons that I’ve been here at Pacific, for whatever reason, we like to find ourselves with our backs against the wall in these moments near the end of the season, we like to make it difficult for ourselves,” Merriman noted. “But I know we’re going to show up.”
“It’s just frustrating and disappointing to see that we’re going to make it go down to the wire, as we’ve had many opportunities to to get out in front, but maybe this is what we need, so I’m fine with it, you can’t bet against us, no chance.”
CanPL.ca Player of the Match
Gabriel Bitar, Vancouver FC
It was the dream substitute appearance for Bitar in this game, as he had a 16 minute spell to remember off the bench. Despite entering the game with the score 2-1 in favour of Pacific in the 74th minute, he completely broke the match open, scoring a brace to turn around the match of his team.
He didn’t have to do much in his time on the field, finishing with just 10 touches, but he made the most of them, earning a huge victory for his team in the process.
What’s next?
Vancouver FC heads out on the road for their next match, as they get set to take on York United at York Lions Stadium on Friday, August 25th (4:30 p.m. PT/7:30 p.m. ET). Meanwhile, Pacific will also head out to Calgary, as they get set to take on Cavalry FC on Sunday, August 27th at ATCO Field (2:00 p.m. PT/3:00 p.m. ET).
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