Final Score: Halifax Wanderers FC 0-1 Pacific FC
Goalscorers: Fernandez 37’ (o.g.)
2023 CPL Playoffs
Quarter-Final
Match in a minute or less
Pacific FC are advancing to the CPL semifinal, after they spoiled the Kitchen Party in Nova Scotia by defeating Halifax Wanderers 1-0 at the Wanderers Grounds in Saturday’s quarter-final clash.
After a tense first few phases, the Tridents got on the board for the first (and only) time on the afternoon shortly before halftime, as Kekuta Manneh burst down the left wing in transition before sliding it across goal, where it deflected off Wanderers fullback Zachary Fernandez and into the hosts’ goal.
Although Halifax threw absolutely everything they could at the Pacific end in the second half, hitting the woodwork several times and forcing at least a pair of goal-line clearances, the Tridents held on for a second playoff win in the span of four days. Now, they find themselves one win away from playing in the CPL Final.
Three Observations
Plucky Tridents stand tall for resilient away win
This was never going to be an easy task for Pacific FC, travelling almost 6,000 kilometres from Victoria to Halifax to play on Saturday after their last-gasp win in Wednesday’s playoff opener against York United.
In spite of it all, though — and in spite of how their regular season ended, with three defeats in a row — Pacific now find themselves one win away from the CPL Final. They’ve collected two playoff clean sheets in less than a week, and at this point have returned with gusto to the discussion around who might lift the North Star Cup later this month.
There’s no denying Pacific were under the cosh for long periods of this game, with less than 30 per cent possession as they had to weather 14 shots (10 of them in the second half).
Considering the unforgiving circumstances, though, Pacific did impressively well to dig deep and keep the ball out of their net. Knowing their legs would tire in the last 20 minutes, they set up to conserve some energy and try to strike on the counter (more on the specific setup later).
In that sense, things went fully to plan for James Merriman’s side. They scored relatively early and they did enough in the second half to keep the ball out.
“I think for a lot of reasons it feels amazing because of the way our season ended,” Merriman said postmatch. “We were in a difficult moment, we tried to fight it a little bit and it challenged us a little bit. Then in matches like this under this adversity, you find out who you are, who you are as a team, who you are as a club. We stood up, so I can’t speak enough about the boys, and I’m proud of them for the way they took it on, and the entire group the way they dealt with the travel, the quick turnaround to come into a hostile environment and get the job done exactly how we drew up the match plan is impressive all around.”
Now, the Tridents get a very well earned week to prepare for their semifinal encounter, which they’ll be welcoming after the whirlwind of the last few days.
This Pacific team may have been almost counted out a week ago, after they stumbled into the playoffs with three losses that sent them from second place into fourth. They felt entering Wednesday’s game that they shouldn’t really have been in that match at all; by failing to beat Forge, Vancouver or Cavalry, though, they slid down the table and landed in that fourth-versus-fifth game.
The adversity seems to have helped Pacific turn things around, though. Right now, none of what happened in the regular season really matters, because the Tridents are right where they wanted to be: one game away from the Final.
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Wanderers throw everything at Pacific, but storybook season comes to close
There’s pain in Halifax right now, but once the dust settles on their 2023 campaign there will be a lot for them to be proud of from this year, having made a lot of strides after a disappointing 2022. In Patrice Gheisar’s first year as head coach, they improved by 13 points and jumped from seventh place last year to third. For the first time in club history, they hosted a playoff match at the Wanderers Grounds.
And on Saturday, in that first playoff game, they left everything on the field but came up short. Ultimately, it may go down as one of those days where the soccer gods just won’t cooperate; the Wanderers his the woodwork several times, Emil Gazdov made several outstanding saves, and Pacific’s defenders managed to get legs or bodies in front of shots at the very last moment every other time as Halifax assailed their goal in the last 10 minutes.
All in all, the Wanderers had 14 shots and beat Pacific in the expected goals battle, 0.74 to 0.41. They had 72 final third entries, and made a staggering 531 successful passes compared with Pacific’s 152. Indeed, one of the only statistical contests they weren’t better in is the only one that actually matters: the final score.
“We ended up hitting three posts, had two cleared off the line, I give a lot of credit to our guys that in the second half we certainly brought all that we could, and the bounces weren’t really going our way,” Gheisar said after the game. “Everything was a bit short, everything was a bit long. We take the experience, it’s really difficult to take it because I still think we did enough to get something out of it but we didn’t and that’s the cruelty, or the beautiful part of this game — it depends on which end you’re on today.”
The Wanderers Grounds certainly felt primed to explode if just one of those chances did cross the line, and the team will be immensely disappointed they didn’t have the opportunity to experience such a moment. The sold-out stadium was fully engaged throughout the game, applauding the team to lift them after they conceded and fervently egging them on as they probed for a goal.
Although the 2023 season has now come to an end in Halifax, the club will feel that it made incredible progress this year and now has a strong foundation on the pitch to accompany its already-solid foothold in the Maritime community.
“It’s been a roller-coaster,” Gheisar added, reflecting on his first year in Halifax.
“I’ll never forget the first eight games and going to places I’ve never gone, to continue to believe in the way we play and the way we do things. We stuck to our principles. I’m so proud of the group for remaining with our identity and continuing to play. I genuinely believe this group has two or three extremely high and elite players that keep moving and moving up and I wish there were more games that we could have played to see what we were made of, but I’m really proud of the way we grew. We got better, we learned to manage things; the 46th-minute goals were gone, the 90-plus minute goals were gone so we learned a lot about management. We learned to stick to our principles and continue to play football and hopefully, the results will go our way and we will go further next year, can’t wait for it.”
Win or lose, this game was always guaranteed to be the last one the Wanderers played at home this year, so the supporters made the most of the afternoon, and at least a few eyes (belonging to both players and fans) misted up as the team did a lap of the pitch postmatch to greet as many of the Halifax faithful as possible.
Thankfully, that community will have one last chance to convene at the Wanderers Grounds this year, when the Canadian women’s national team plays there on Oct. 31. Their CPL club, however, will have to wait until next season to carry on the work they started in 2023.
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Pacific cause transition troubles with 4-4-2, adjust as necessary
Pacific gaffer James Merriman threw a surprising curveball at his opposite number in his squad selection on Saturday, abandoning the 4-3-3 formation he’s used with his starting XI almost the entire season. Instead, he lined up his side in a 4-4-2, with both Djenairo Daniels and Easton Ongaro setting up as central strikers, and Kekuta Manneh and Adonijah Reid patrolling the left and right wings, respectively.
It was undoubtedly a risk, leaving Manny Aparicio and Sean Young somewhat outnumbered in midfield against Halifax’s trio, but it did give Pacific more numbers to get forward in transition, which was clearly a major part of their game plan.
The gamble paid off in the first half; although, at times, Pacific did leave gaps in the middle, they also found areas to exploit out wide — Manneh’s left flank in particular. It was quick, vertical ball movement down that left side that led to the opening goal; the Tridents won the ball just above their own penalty area and Ongaro, dropping deeper, played it forward to Manneh in plenty of space to create a numerical advantage in attack.
Manneh’s pace helped him evade Cale Loughrey before flicking it across goal, where Zach Fernandez attempted to clear but can’t really be blamed for knocking the ball into his own net.
After the game, Merriman explained some of his thinking behind the surprise move to a 4-4-2.
“There’s a lot that goes into that,” the Pacific gaffer said. “We look at how Halifax plays, we look at our travel, the distance we had to come across the country to play this game and the time, the athletes that we have in our group. Kekuta Manneh with his speed, [Djenairo Daniels] and Easton as the two strikers, and Adonijah Reid who does an excellent job on the ball and controlling the ball. Sean [Young] and Manu [Aparicio] have built such a great relationship over the last couple years and they have been in big big matches. Sean’s still a young player but he’s been in all of our big games.
“We believe in trusting the match plan collectively with that eleven and the players were ready to come in as well. We had good confidence, we felt good going into the game and we executed what we wanted to do.”
After going in front, Merriman wisely adjusted his team in the second half. Around the hour mark, he added another body to his midfield, deploying the relatively fresh Zakaria Bahous and taking off Daniels, reverting to their more traditional 4-3-3. Cédric Toussaint, who has probably been Pacific’s best defensive midfielder this year, came in to replace Ongaro shortly after, as the Tridents began stuffing the middle of the park to make it more difficult for Halifax to play through the channels where they might have found less resistance in the first half.
The freshness of this Pacific setup was clearly beneficial, after so many weeks of frustration in their prior structure. It clearly threw a wrench into Halifax’s tactical gameplan, and helped the Tridents move up-field quicker and with more supporting runs.
Merriman ultimately did very well in this game to manage the situations and give his side as much of a chance to win as he could, knowing how tough a game it would be in a hostile environment.
CanPL.ca Player of the Match
Manny Aparicio, Pacific FC
Aparicio was one of several Pacific players to play all 90 minutes in both of their playoff games this past week, and his energy did not drop throughout. The midfield engine ran tirelessly on Saturday, with a team-high 53 touches. He won possession eight times and made three interceptions as well as two tackles, working very hard in front of a well-oiled defensive unit.
What’s next?
Pacific FC move forward in the playoffs to next Saturday’s semifinal, when they head to Calgary to take on Cavalry FC (2 p.m. MT/1 p.m. PT). For Halifax, unfortunately, this is the end of the road for 2023.
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