Final Score: Vancouver FC 2-0 Halifax Wanderers FC
Goalscorers: Romeo 17′, Díaz 52′
Game of the 2024 season: 5
CPL match: 489

Match in a minute or less

Vancouver FC remained perfect at home to begin 2024 on Thursday, as they took down the Halifax Wanderers in a convincing 2-0 result for the sophomore side to remain atop the early Canadian Premier League table.

The hosts found the opening goal thanks to a fortuitous bounce in the first half, as the Wanderers failed to clear a corner and the ball landed in the six-yard box for Rocco Romeo, who smashed it home for his first VFC goal. Shortly after halftime, Vancouver’s Moses Dyer stripped the ball from Dan Nimick in the final third and drove through the box, hitting the post with a shot before Alejandro Díaz stepped up to finish the rebound and make it 2-0.

The Wanderers were unable to find the back of the net and thus still await their first goal of the year after losing their first two matches; meanwhile, Vancouver have won two on the bounce as they now look ahead to the Canadian Championship.

Three Observations

Transitional, disjointed game suits Vancouver as quick chances abundant

Halifax defender Dan Nimick told reporters after this game that it was the transitions and chaotic moments that made a difference on Thursday, which he suggested is an area that Vancouver FC “likes to thrive off.”

Indeed, it was a rather end-to-end affair with the shots ending 15 to 14 for VFC, and the pass map for both teams indicating a willingness from both sides to play vertically and long if necessary. Vancouver, in particular, were very keen to put pressure on Halifax to prevent them from playing their preferred possession-heavy methodical build-up.

This kind of game, with most of the major attacking sequences coming from quick, direct attacks or set-pieces, seemed to be a style that Vancouver were more comfortable with. With centre-backs Rocco Romeo and David Norman keen to send long balls forward to switch play, VFC then called upon players further forward to win the second ball from those situations and launch quick transitions. Kadin Chung, for instance, won seven of his 11 duels and helped spring the ball forward from those situations, and Moses Dyer won all eight of the duels he contested up front.

The problem for the Wanderers was that it seemed Vancouver might try to challenge them with a ball to any part of the pitch at any moment.

“The fact that they play so unpredictable makes it difficult,” Halifax head coach Patrice Gheisar said. “Our team is very systematic, very structured… I’m not sure what else we can say; they kick the ball, a defender has a missed clearance, they score.”

He later added: “We were having a difficult time dealing with direct balls. Rocco [Romeo] was hitting a lot of diagonals, David Norman was hitting a lot, and generally we invite that but we were having a difficult time winning it and then being able to get any kind of sustained attack or even be able to obtain possession. We did change our shape to a back four for the second half to get us a little bit more compact and be able to deal with the diagonals, keep the game in front of us. In some periods it started to work, but also having more numbers back allowed them to keep the ball longer in their half, so you kind of solve one problem but then you have something else to deal with.”

Afshin Ghotbi revealed postmatch that the directness and the desire to win duels and second balls was all by design for Vancouver, who had identified that it might be a way to make the more possession-focused Halifax uncomfortable.

“We do a very detailed analysis of all opponents, we know exactly the strengths and weaknesses, so we’re clear before we go into games where we feel the possibilities will be,” Ghotbi said. “I think we found the areas today; we saw from dead balls we were very dangerous, I think when we pressed them and pushed the ball to defenders who wanted to have the ball; we were successful in stealing long balls. Obviously you have to, when you’re playing Halifax, stop [Lorenzo] Callegari from playing and not give him space to play, and Renan [Garcia] and Vasco [Fry] are two of the best holding midfielders in the league because they’re just relentless in their work ethic.

Wanderers lacking rhythm, penetration in attack in frustrating loss

Through two games in this CPL season, the Halifax Wanderers have six shots on target, three big chances and zero goals.

Although the opener against Pacific FC was a little more positive, with Halifax creating some good chances and building out of the back well, they were more neutralized in Langley on Thursday. Again, they outpossessed their opponent with 54.6 per cent, but they had little to show for it, with just four of their 14 attempted shots even being on target.

Andre Rampersad did hit the crossbar seconds before the final whistle in a moment that felt cruelly unlucky to the Wanderers, but that was by far the visitors’ best chance of the evening.

Vancouver kept their defensive shape well, and they did a good job controlling their own box, but the fact that Halifax sent in 19 crosses and only three found a target in a blue shirt is a concern.

Five Wanderers players had more than one touch in the penalty area in this game. Fullback Zachary Fernandez, probably the team’s most dangerous player on the night, led the way with eight, but of the other four players (who all had three touches): two were later-game substitutes in Giorgio Probo and Tiago Coimbra, and the other two were holding midfielder Andre Rampersad and centre-back Julian Dunn.

What’s been lacking so far for Halifax has been some of the execution of those incisive passes and balls in the final third that did, in fairness, take a while to materialize last year as well. Dan Nimick pointed out that this team went winless in its first eight games of 2023 and still finished tied for second place on points.

It doesn’t help, of course, that some of the team’s most important players from last year, Massimo Ferrin and Aidan Daniels, have only just begun ramping back up to full fitness after knocks in preseason, meaning some of the squad’s newcomers have been thrown into more minutes than would’ve been ideal.

“This is a game where we fell short on some of the things,” Patrice Gheisar said. “For example, they hit the post, rebound pops to them and they score, we hit the post, the rebound doesn’t come to us. Sometimes you need bounces. [Last year] we never lost two games in a row, and I think the expectation of wanting to grow the team is something that we have to manage, and understand that our aspirations coming into the year was to do even more than last year.”

Díaz and Dyer continue developing partnership in old-fashioned two-striker setup

Ahead of this match, Vancouver FC head coach Afshin Ghotbi took some time to discuss his two-striker attacking setup this year, which has seen Moses Dyer and Alejandro Díaz combining as a double spearhead up front. It’s not particularly common in modern football to see managers play with two centre-forwards, with most of the formations currently in vogue preferring a single focal point in the middle, whether flanked by wingers or in front of a deeper-lying number 10.

Indeed, Ghotbi himself admitted he’s rarely used this kind of shape over the course of his illustrious and far-reaching coaching career. With Dyer and Díaz in his squad, though, he explained that he’s really had no choice but to play them both up front.

“The fact that I have so many good strikers in my team, I can’t keep them out. As I’ve gotten more mature and older as a coach, I’ve become more of a coach that takes what I have and I try to create a system that adapts to all the quality players that I have. I have four good strikers, and two of them I think will be the top strikers in the league, so I have to play with them. I have to use my players in a way they’re strong and comfortable.”

Ghotbi went on to add, citing the potential inexperience of some CPL centre-backs with defending two strikers: “It’s tough to be having to deal with not just one, but two of them that are constantly breaking lines, getting behind you, that can receive the ball and in a blink of an eye get a shot off and score with the right, left and in the air.”

The VFC boss has been rewarded for that choice so far this year. Through two games now, both strikers have a goal and Díaz has two assists. The second goal today, where Dyer drove into the box after winning the ball high, might not have happened had Díaz not had explicit instructions to remain close to his partner. If he’d been trailing more, or drifting wider, he might not have been in such a good position to collect the rebound after Dyer hit the post.

Another massive positive for Vancouver will be that Díaz finally returned to the scoresheet. After finding the net in both of his first two games for the club, he hadn’t scored in his last 13 games for the Eagles. Although Ghotbi insisted he was still impressed with much of the Mexican forward’s work off the ball and in a creative role, he knows how uplifting it could be for Díaz to break that slump early in the campaign.

“Goals are vitamins for strikers,” Ghotbi said. “When they don’t score, you see strikers go into depression. … I always try to take the pressure off of [Diaz], it’s not how many goals you score — you can score goals, defend well for the team, hold the ball for the team, create openings for others, but he’s such a great guy, even if he has a bad performance I can never remember that. He’s just one of the most beautiful human beings I’ve ever coached.”

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Rocco Romeo, Vancouver FC

A true heart-and-soul player for this VFC side, Romeo was rewarded for the hard work he’s given the club over the past year with his first goal in a Vancouver shirt. He also played a team-high 52 accurate passes, won four aerial duels and made five clearances in a strong all-around effort.

What’s next?

Vancouver’s next action will be a Canadian Championship match, as they’ll be in Alberta to play Cavalry FC next Tuesday, April 23 (7 p.m. MT/6 p.m. PT) before travelling to play York United in a CPL match on Friday, April 26 (7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT). Halifax, having completed their B.C. road swing, head back to Nova Scotia for their home opener next weekend, when they’ll take on Atlético Ottawa on Saturday, April 27 (2 p.m. AT/1 p.m. ET).

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