As the final whistle sounded in Halifax, Emil Gazdov turned to face the opposing fans behind his net. The young goalkeeper stretched his arms out wide, a cheeky smirk spreading across his face. He gave one last glance over his shoulder, just to ensure he had heard the referee’s signal of full-time correctly, and then returned his attention to ‘the kitchen’, the boisterous supporters section at the Wanderers Grounds.

Over the past 101 minutes, Gazdov and his Pacific FC teammates had spoiled the party that was the Wanderers’ first-ever home playoff match, profiting from a first-half own goal and then holding on for a 1-0 victory despite opening the playoffs against York United some 4,484 kilometres away on Vancouver Island just 72 hours earlier.

Gazdov gave the fans a couple of farewell salutes and then walked to go celebrate with his teammates, who had just booked themselves an unlikely spot in the CPL semifinals. It was a moment of bravado from a 20-year-old who has had to deal with a lot of outside noise as he navigated his first season as a starting goalkeeper.

“Just waiting the whole game for the final whistle pretty much, ever since we scored the one goal, just kind of see it out, and yeah just a little fun with the fans,” Gazdov told CanPL.ca with a smile. “The whole time they were saying stuff behind me, giving me a hard time, it was just a bit of banter. Nothing too serious.”

What has been serious is the quality of Gazdov’s performances in the 2023 CPL playoffs. Against Halifax, he made three saves as the road-weary Tridents held on to win at the Wanderers Grounds. Just a few days earlier, he opened the playoffs with another clean sheet, and another three saves, in a 1-0 win over York United.

“It has been a dream start that’s all I can really say,” said Gazdov. “Back-to-back clean sheets just really shows how much we have been focused and the hard work we’ve put in knowing that this is our chance to really show [ourselves] when it comes down to it. The boys are on a roll, we’ve never felt better chemistry-wise. So I think it shows on the field.” 

Now Gazdov has backstopped Pacific to the verge of another dream, returning for the CPL final.

Despite his young age, and recent step into the spotlight, Gazdov has been at Pacific FC for a long time. Having initially signed his first professional contract as a 17-year-old on June 30, 2020, only Thomas Meilleur-Giguère, by a matter of months, has been with the club longer.

Gazdov had first met current Pacific head coach James Merriman when the pair spent time with the Whitecaps academy. After the North Vancouver native decided to leave the MLS side, Gazdov was invited by Merriman to come explore what Pacific FC was all about, and quickly saw an excellent opportunity for himself on the island.

“I just saw it was a great place for me to develop, and the league is for developing young Canadians, they saw the prospect with me so I thought it was a great place to get better, and a place I wanted to be at,” said Gazdov. 

With experienced goalkeepers Callum Irving and Nolan Wirth ahead of him, however, playing time was always going to be hard to come by in his early days with Pacific. So in October of 2020 he was sent out on loan to join the U-19 side of FC Nürnberg in Germany for two years, where he was able to live out a dream of playing football in Europe.

“I was very lucky to get that chance,” said Gazdov. “Especially in Germany where in my opinion they produce probably the best goalkeepers of any country. So to be able to go there and see why that is, the way they train, the mentality, how the level contrasts in football was a big learning moment for me, and a big learning experience I think I can have over people my age that haven’t had those learning experiences.” 

Gazdov made his return to the island ahead of the 2022 season. That gave him a different type of opportunity to learn as he deputized under the veteran Irving, who he called the best goalkeeper in the league to learn from. Getting the opportunity to witness the fellow British Columbian goalkeeper’s leadership and work ethic up close was another big step in Gazdov’s development.

“Every day it was just about watching him in training, I think the biggest takeaway was the consistency,” he said. “When it came to training there was never really any times he would have an off day, never in games would he really have an off day. So it was just about trying to match that consistency which made me better in the end. So really good to learn from him.” 

With the club undergoing a busy travel schedule with Concacaf League fixtures that took them to Jamaica and then Costa Rica during that year, Gazdov was even given the opportunity to start two matches over the summer months, making his professional debut in a 2-1 victory over Valour on July 30, 2022.

This past offseason, when Irving left to join rival expansion side Vancouver FC for their inaugural season, Pacific made a bold decision. Not only did they name Gazdov, who was 19 at the time, as the team’s starter, but they also extended his contract for two more years, with a club option that takes it through the 2026 campaign.

“The league is for playing young Canadians, but I think Pacific in general really focuses on that,” he said. “The majority of our team is under 25, and so for them to give me a chance at 20 to be the starting keeper, knowing that there would be learning moments, there would be lots of time to develop, just a big opportunity and I’m very grateful for all the coaching staff, the members of the club to put the trust in me to be the number one.”

Gazdov had a solid start to the 2023 campaign, as Pacific lost just once, 1-0 to Forge FC, through his first five matches of the season. However, it was clear in his performances that he still had a lot to learn about the position. In late May, Kieran Baskett, himself just 22, took over the starting role. Gazdov did not appear again until mid-July, spending 10 of 11 league matches on the bench.

“A lot of things that as much as being in the team last year, even having played a couple games, its a totally different world being the number one playing every game in and out,” said Gazdov. “A lot of things that you can’t learn apart from being there and playing. I mean I think you ask the coach as well but the main thing they’d say is the development personally I’ve had from the beginning of the season until the end has been huge. It comes with making mistakes, learning from them, seeing the good things to do and being better with those.”

Gazdov won the net back in late July, but Pacific were presented with another crossroads in mid-August during a 3-2 loss to Irving and Vancouver FC. Gazdov struggled in that match, allowing some soft goals and with it came calls for Pacific to make a change in net. Instead, Merriman stuck with the 20-year-old, and has been rewarded for that decision ever since, as just a few weeks later Gazdov would make the league’s Team of the Week for the first time after saving a penalty in Ottawa, and followed that up with a strong performance on the road against York later that same week.

“I think it’s that vote of confidence has really helped me, and reassured me and helped me play my best football at the time when it matters [most],” said Gazdov. 

In the end, only one player aged 21 or younger, Atlético Ottawa’s Jean-Aniel Assi, played more minutes than Gazdov’s 1,620 in the regular season this year. Achieving that many minutes for a young player is already rare, but especially so for a goalkeeper where experience is often preferred over potential.

Asked what makes goalkeeping such a challenging position for a young player, he said that a big one is learning how to communicate with everyone on the field. Goalkeeper is usually a senior position on the field, but as a young player it is important to speak up even when those around you are older and more experienced.

“That’s one of the toughest things as a young goalkeeper, where that experience kind of comes in,” he said. “I’d see Callum would always be commanding, yelling at people, this and that, because he knows who should be where. As a young keeper maybe I lack that experience of knowing exactly how to direct my teammates, how to tell them where they are supposed to be when at the same time I’m trying to focus on making sure I’m in the right position. I’m doing everything I can in the best way. So probably that I’d say.” 

He has also learned throughout the season just how important building those relationships with teammates is to success. That is another aspect of the position that he says really needs to be dialled in during games and that practice is no substitute.

“I’d say one of the things I came to learn is the dynamic in your relationship with your teammates, especially your backline,” said Gazdov. “When you are playing games the confidence you have to have with each other, knowing how they play and how you play. Because they don’t have confidence in you it hinders how they can play, it hinders how the midfielders can play, the whole team.”

That trust in Gazdov has undoubtedly grown as the season has gone on, and the way Pacific were able to hold out late against Halifax despite the Wanderers putting everything they had towards scoring an equalizer this past Saturday is a clear example of that.

“At the beginning of the season you say [he] was maybe a little bit nervy at times because of his age and his experience,” said James Merriman after the club’s win over Halifax. “But now we don’t feel that, you don’t see that, so they have confidence in him as well which helps.”

“[For] Our 20-year-old goalkeeper, to deal with the crowd the way he did, and keep his composure, amazing, amazing progression from him,” he added during an interview with OneSoccer.

The latest evidence of that progression has come at the perfect time of year for Pacific. But despite the mounting pressure and intensity of playoff football, Gazdov is just looking to play his game.

“For me, I don’t really look at a game different from any other one, even though these are playoff games, I don’t look at them different than how I would approach a league game, the Canadian Championships are the same, just another game,” said Gazdov. “The more relaxed you can be, the better you play that’s how I find. The less thinking, the more just letting your natural instinct take over, it does better.”

Gazdov bounced up and down on his line, hands raised over his head, as he stared down Daan Klomp at the penalty spot. As the Cavalry defender approached the ball he leaned to his right and then dove. He had anticipated correctly. Gazdov got both hands to Klomp’s penalty and sent it safely away from his net.

Quickly springing to his feet, Gazdov raised his arms to hype up the fans behind the net at Starlight Stadium. Moments later, they were celebrating again, this time with Gazdov in the centre of a moshpit of Pacific players after Georges Mukumbilwa smashed home the decisive penalty.

It was April 20, and Pacific had just beat Cavalry in a penalty shootout in the preliminary round of the 2023 Canadian Championship. It is the kind of scene that Gazdov and his teammates will be hoping plays out again on Saturday, this time at ATCO Field in the CPL semifinal.  Despite finishing 15 points below regular season winners Cavalry, Gazdov says the side has never been closer, more motivated and united in their belief that they can continue this impressive run.

“We’ve had a lot of travel, a lot of days together in hotels, but I think that has only come to help us,” said Gazdov. “Because everyone is just getting along, hanging out this kind of stuff, it comes to kind of bonding moments and you face all of this adversity in the travel and days away from family and you think to yourself you don’t want to do all of this and not win, you want to make it worth it. So it is that little extra drive and motivation.” 

If they can keep that momentum going in Calgary this weekend, they would be off to Hamilton for the final, where they won the CPL title back in 2021. Pacific would perhaps be an unlikely finalist after the way they finished the regular season, and the coast-to-coast trip they have had to take through the 2023 postseason as a result. But like their young goalkeeper, they are playing their best football, and defying expectations, when it matters most.