Final Score: Pacific FC 1-1 Halifax Wanderers
Goalscorers: Sellouf 57′ (pen.); Wilson 45+1′
Game of the 2023 season: 91
CPL match: 458

Match in a minute or less

Halifax Wanderers took a point on the road on Friday night in a close-fought battle with Pacific FC on Vancouver Island, as the two sides traded blows and Pacific threw all they could at the goal, but ultimately had to settle for the 1-1 draw.

Although the Tridents commanded possession in the early going (and throughout the game), it was the Wanderers who struck first on the very edge of halftime, as Aidan Daniels curled a free kick toward the back post where Armaan Wilson was available to knock it in and score his first professional goal.

After that, though, Pacific continued to press urgently, and they did find the equalizer they needed 12 minutes into the second half. Lifumpa Mwandwe brought down Ayman Sellouf in the penalty area, prompting the referee to award Pacific a penalty — which Sellouf himself smashed to his right to make it 1-1.

Neither side was able to find the net again after that, though Pacific did have a handful of achingly close chances, and as such they both left with a point. At the end of the night, Pacific moved into sole possession of second place in the table while the Wanderers climbed into fourth, with two games left to be played in the weekend.

Three Observations

Wanderers grit out draw with heavily-rotated young lineup

The Halifax Wanderers side that stepped out at Starlight Stadium on Friday was a wildly different-looking team to most of their recent lineups, though most of the playing principles instilled by Patrice Gheisar did not change.

Nine of their starters in this game were either on the bench or not in the 18 on Monday, with goalkeeper Yann Fillion and defender Doneil Henry (himself making just his second ever start for the Wanderers) the only two consistent from the last game. Halifax managed to get three of their U-21 players — Tiago Coimbra, Tomas Giraldo and Armaan Wilson — into the starting lineup as well, which is a major boost to the club who entered the weekend last in the U-21 minutes table.

With all the changes, the Wanderers naturally had to adjust their shape, playing in a 3-4-3 in possession to try and get Lifumpa Mwandwe involved as a right wingback, and likewise for Riley Ferrazzo on the opposite side. They put a lot of bodies in central spaces — Wilson and Aidan Daniels patrolling in front of the back three with Giraldo, Théo Collomb and Coimbra stepping in as well to plug up the passing lanes through the middle and leave Pacific’s attackers isolated.

A lot of the players in this Halifax lineup — Mwandwe, Jake Ruby, Wilson, Coimbra — had played very few minutes recently, so it was always going to be a tough ask for them to come in and start on the road after the cross-country travel. Indeed, a defeat on Vancouver Island might have been a swallowable pill for the Wanderers, who have a lot of home games left on the schedule — starting on Tuesday — and knew this would be a tough journey.

However, they certainly did not capitulate. For a team that has just one win away from home all year, the Wanderers did not look at all afraid of playing on the road. Perhaps the better story now is that Halifax have only lost three of their 12 away matches, proving they’re able to grind out draws in these situations.

“This is not an easy trip. It’s got its challenges, and just on the trip — the schedule didn’t favour us, we played Monday and our opposition played Saturday, so given no travel and two extra days [for Pacific], this was an extremely impressive performance,” Gheisar said postmatch. “It makes me very proud of the guys, so hopefully this is something where we can move on and go back home, we’ve got two games and we’ll just keep this momentum going. But they were relentless, and I’m proud of many, many standout performances.”

Also deserving of an individual shoutout is the 21-year-old Wilson, who made his first professional start on Friday and scored his first goal. It was an impressive all-around performance from the Kleinburg, Ontario native, but he was particularly thrilled to get on the scoresheet.

“Oh my God, absolutely,” Wilson said when asked if it was a particularly good feeling to score in this game. “It’s something I’ve been waiting for and dreaming of since I even signed for Halifax, scoring the first goal is always the dream and I’m so happy that I had the opportunity to start my first game and also get a first goal. What an incredible feeling.”

Pacific good for a point, but open play finishing woes continue

The Tridents had roughly the same amount of possession (65 per cent) in this game as they did last week against Valour, though they had to work harder to get the ball into dangerous areas. Still, they came out of the match with 16 shots — including seven in the first half, when the game hadn’t quite opened up much — and got into the final third 61 times.

This was a point they definitely needed for their title campaign, but they’ll leave the match feeling like they should have taken all three. They’ve won just one of their last five games now, with the first place they previously occupied slipping away.

James Merriman was forced to sing a similar tune to several recent postmatch press conferences on Friday, because once again his Pacific side was unable to put the ball in the net from open play, despite a myriad of chances. Steffen Yeates had a wide-open look in the first half, and several players had opportunities late in the second half to win the game for the home side.

“We challenged ourselves to change a couple of things but it’s not as if the first half wasn’t good,” Merriman said. “We needed to have a bit more urgency in our buildup and get into the attacking half a little bit quicker and sharper, and ultimately we needed to take our chances well. We created great chances in the first half that we didn’t take, so it was frustrating to concede so late. But we can’t rely on a penalty to tie us this game. We’re creating by far enough chances to win this game and to take all three points; we need to be better in front of goal. Like I keep saying, there’s no time left. We need to do it now.”

Pacific continue to show that they can move the ball well out of the back — look no further than Thomas Meilleur-Giguère’s 110 accurate passes (90.9 per cent accuracy), funnelling the ball to fellow centre-backs Paul Amedume and Amer Didic. In fact, Meilleur-Giguère and Didic’s passes to each other accounted for 87 of the 460 accurate passes Pacific made in this game. From there, though, the Tridents couldn’t quite create enough separation with their forwards to get in behind the Wanderers or create good chances.

Likewise, the midfielders — Manny Aparicio in particular — couldn’t get on the ball as much as they wanted, with Halifax’s central players clogging up passing lanes and making the area congested, forcing Pacific to stay wide or go long.

So, Merriman was left with the same frustrated feeling postmatch, knowing that there are now only five regular season matches left for Pacific to figure out their goalscoring issues.

“We’ve been consistent with this but we’re at a point in the season now where there’s no time left,” he said. “We need to be more aggressive in front of goal, we need to take our chances, we need to be more clinical. That’s the story of us so far, but we need to change it. We need to change it now. We can’t leave these games in balance.”

Halifax stay compact to fend off waves of Pacific attack, secure draw

Until last Monday, Doneil Henry hadn’t played a full 90 minutes of football in about 18 months. Now, he’s done it twice in five days.

Henry was the lone outfield player to start both of the last two Wanderers games, and he was given the tough task of centering a back three alongside two young players in Cale Loughrey and Jake Ruby. Thankfully, playing the experienced veteran role alongside youngsters is exactly what Henry was brought to Halifax to do.

It was evident by the way players from both sides fell to the ground at the full-time whistle just how exhausting it had been, especially in the last 10 minutes or so when the game was really stretched and Pacific were constantly sending balls into the box, trying to beat Halifax in the moments where they’d just gone on a counter-attack and hadn’t yet reformed their defensive shape.

The whole game, though, Halifax were outstanding at maintaining that defensive structure. Although the lineup looked like a 3-4-3 in possession, defensively it was often functioning more like a 4-3-3, with Ferrazzo dropping back — until the second half, when Mwandwe also began playing deeper and it was primarily a back five defensively.

No matter what exactly it looked like, though, Halifax were committed to staying organized and compact on the small Starlight Stadium pitch. Patrice Gheisar admitted postmatch that he knew his side would have to suffer a little bit without the ball; they’ve typically looked to play very possession-oriented football this season, but on this occasion the savvy coaching strategy was to let Pacific have the ball and frustrate them.

The Wanderers did particularly well to try and contain Ayman Sellouf, Pacific’s most dynamic attacker; he’d often receive the ball on the left wing and immediately have two or three blue shirts bearing down on him. He still did end up with three successful dribbles and the goal from the penalty spot, but his passing options were usually limited.

The last-ditch defending was key for Halifax too, with 28 clearances — including six from forward Théo Collomb, which proves just how much work all 10 outfield players had to do defensively. Henry, as well, made five clearances and was not afraid to put his body in the way of the ball, drawing on his wealth of experience to make some crucial sliding tackles and blocks as well.

“This is what everybody talked about day one,” Gheisar said. “We have 23 guys. Fumpa [Mwandwe] hasn’t had a start for so long. Jake [Ruby] was brilliant. Armaan [Wilson] in his first professional start, he plays 90 minutes and scores a goal. Tommy Giraldo hasn’t had a start, plays 90 minutes. Tiago [Coimbra] was good. A lot of guys did a lot of good work. For me, that has to get a lot of attention.

“Sometimes we realize that pretty football has gotten us where it has, but sometimes we need to look at it in a different way in these kinds of games and be able to go to places we generally haven’t. We showed a lot of character and resilience.”

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Armaan Wilson, Halifax Wanderers

The young midfielder made his first professional start and scored his first professional goal in a very memorable trip to Vancouver Island for the 21-year-old. Wilson was also a key part of Halifax’s work in midfield, winning all seven of his duels (including four in the air), with a team-high eight passes into the final third as well as two interceptions.

What’s next?

Each of these two teams will be on a plane pretty soon, with the Wanderers returning to Halifax to host Cavalry FC on Tuesday (7 p.m. AT/6 p.m. ET), before Pacific head to the capital to play Atlético Ottawa on Wednesday afternoon (5 p.m. ET).

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