Final Score: Vancouver FC 2-1 Halifax Wanderers
Goalscorers: Bitar 10′, Cantave 56′; Coimbra 11′
Game of the 2023 season: 52
CPL match: 419
Match in a minute or less
Vancouver FC reached the halfway mark of their inaugural CPL campaign in style on Friday, as they defeated a surging Halifax Wanderers side 2-1 to temporarily climb out of last place in the league table for at least a day.
In a frenetic match, things got off to a flying start within 12 minutes, as both teams traded goals early on. Vancouver would get on the board first, as Gabriel Bitar got on the end of a great Min-Jae Kwak cross in the 10th minute, but Halifax responded just a minute later, as Tiago Coimbra tapped home a Massimo Ferrin header to make it 1-1.
In the second half, however, Vancouver managed to grab a winner in the 56th minute through new arrival, Mikaël Cantave, before managing to hold on the rest of the way despite a chaotic last 30 minutes from both teams, allowing them to nab their second home win of the season.
Three Observations
Vancouver’s aggressive pressure catches Halifax by surprise:
This season, Halifax have not been shy in their intention to want to play out of the back whenever possible.
Usually building out in a back three in possession, they’ve done a good job of breaking lines and forcing teams onto the back foot off the ball.
Yet, not wanting to be forced to sit back on their home pitch, Vancouver tried to challenge Halifax’s ability to build out of the back in this game. Set up in an aggressive 4-1-4-1 of sorts off the ball, they’d sometimes turn it into more of a 4-2-4 just to deny Halifax their ability to build out of the back.
With Halifax building in more of a back four (although they did hover between a four and a three at times), that 4-2-4/4-1-4-1 of sorts allowed Vancouver to go 1v1 with Halifax’s back line, denying them of the chance to create numerical superiorities in their build-up.
Then, on top of that, they tried their best to deny service to Halifax’s defensive midfielder, Lorenzo Callegari, who often plays a big role in their build-up play.
Knowing that, Vancouver denied him the ball between the lines for most of the game, as he only had 54 touches through the first 75 minutes, a far cry from the three figures he can sometimes comfortably clear in that category (although he did finish with 88 thanks to a strong late Halifax push).
Instead, the Wanderers were left to build up through different sources, which completely changed their ability to get into the game, as they just couldn’t get the same rhythm that they do when playing through Callegari.
“We’re almost it is halfway through the season, and everyone knows Lorenzo is an elite player,” Wanderers head coach, Patrice Gheisar, admitted afterwards. “With that comes the opportunity for other guys to step up and take those spaces because Vancouver were all over him. So we needed to get going, we needed to get on the ball in the game, to find those spaces.”
“We just never got ourselves going, and part of that is Lorenzo not getting on the ball as much.”
Because of that, Halifax struggled to break Vancouver’s lines, and elected to go direct with a lot more of their passes out of the back than they typically do, as they just tried to find a way to get the ball into space through other avenues with Callegari often being marked so tightly.
There, Halifax would then encounter more resistance, as Vancouver did well to win first and second balls in midfield, and in the moments where the ball did fall to Halifax in space, they managed to get into their defensive shape behind the ball quickly and efficiently.
That’d pay off for Vancouver, as they were able to keep the ball away from their final third for a large part of the game, reducing the time they had to spend sitting deep in their own box.
Plus, they were able to catch Halifax in possession a few times, creating a few dangerous opportunities in the final third through that, allowing their attackers to get into some dangerous spots.
“It’s something that suits us, pressing on the front foot,” Vancouver midfielder, Elliot Simmons, said of his team’s high press. “We’ve got a lot of attacking players that are very dynamic, and it suits them playing a bit higher up, as when we win it, we have a lot of runners that can come forward and create chances.”
Especially in the first half, where Halifax were only able to complete 79.3% of their passes (usually a number that hovers above 85%), that really allowed Vancouver to disrupt their rhythm in possession with that aggressive pressure.
“Yeah, they definitely pressed pretty high,” Wanderers midfielder, Mo Omar, said afterwards. “But we’re a team that’s comfortable with that, and we actually prefer when teams are aggressive because that opens up space to play.”
“I feel that today we let ourselves down in the way we wanted to play, I just felt that the quality from everyone, myself included, just wasn’t where it has been in recent weeks.”
Really, other than a 15-minute period late in the game where Halifax pushed for an equalizer, Vancouver seemed to be more in control of the rhythm than their opponents, and for a Wanderers team that is at their best when they’re playing their soccer, that seemed to disrupt them.
Yet, that’s a credit to Vancouver’s tactical approach, as they had a clear idea of how to neutralize their guests, and it ended up paying off for them on the night.
Sometimes, to counter a team that plays like Halifax, you’ve got to fight fire with fire, and while you can risk getting burned, Vancouver managed to strike that balance perfectly en route to the win.
“I think that’s how we had to play,” Vancouver’s head coach, Afshin Ghotbi, said afterwards. “We felt that Callegari is key to them connecting their backline to the strikers.”
“I thought at first they did well (to react) by playing some long balls over the top and stretching us, but then I felt we closed down the spaces we needed to close down as a team, and we made them ineffective and broke a lot of their plays down.”
Tiago Coimbra continues to prove value as an outlet up front for Halifax:
As Halifax has continued to surge up the table, there’s arguably been no bigger beneficiary of that than striker Tiago Coimbra, who has taken a huge step forward as of late.
After a quiet start to the season, the 19-year-old has come alive lately. As a result, he’s started to carve out more minutes up front as a starter for Halifax, where he’s done well to make himself a presence on and off the ball.
He’s starting to get rewarded for that, too, as with his goal in this match, he’s now scored three goals in his last four games.
Top among all U21 Canadian players so far this season, it just shows how good the 19-year-old has been recently.
Yet, while he’s scoring goals right now, his impact has been felt in other ways, too.
Relentless in his pressure from the front, and eager to demand the ball to feet, he’s really started to become a presence up front for Halifax, giving them an outlet to play through.
That’s key, as their system sometimes lacked a bit of a box presence early on in the season, and Coimbra has certainly brought that for them, giving them a bit more of an outlet to turn possession into opportunities.
That importance was highlighted in this game, too. After scoring in the first half, he had to come off at half time as he picked up a knock, which was a big blow for the Wanderers in the second half, as they lacked his presence as they chased a goal.
Sometimes, absence can only amplify one’s importance to a team, and Coimbra’s in that second half shows how key he’s become for this Halifax team at the moment.
“Tiago’s been good,” Gheisar said. ” I thought that when he came off, we lost a lot.”
GOAL🌊
Tiago Coimbra equalizes immediately for @HFXWanderersFC as they draw even with @vanfootballclub on the road!🍁⚽️#VancouverFC | #TogetherFromAways
🔴 https://t.co/7JFAUhgjL6 pic.twitter.com/oFpi0C10Uq
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) July 8, 2023
Because of that, he’ll be someone to keep an eye on in the second half of Halifax’s season. Still super young, and in his first professional season, there’s still a lot more growth to come from him.
If he can keep bringing a presence up front, while being able to bring in players around him such as Massimo Ferrin, Aidan Daniels and Callum Watson into games, as he did in the first half of this match, all while chipping in with some goals, Halifax will have no complaints with that as they look to continue their push in the second half of the campaign.
“I’m so proud of him seeing his growth already this season,” Omar said. “He’s a player with a lot of energy, and he’s still a young player as well.”
“He’s a player that has the full confidence of the group and the coaching staff, we all know what he can do. But in recent weeks, he’s been really believing in himself, and I think that’s what’s taking him to that next level.”
Vancouver’s defence continues recent growth despite absences:
It was a big blow when the lineups for this match were released, as Vancouver’s starting goalkeeper and captain, Callum Irving, was ruled out with a stomach bug.
Having played every minute this year for Vancouver, it was a key absence for his team, as he’d saved them in a few games that they had no business being in, serving as a key presence in goal.
Instead, 24-year-old Jeremy Zielinski stepped up for a first professional start, as he looked to fill the big shoes of his captain.
Yet, despite having every reason to be nervous, Zielinski shone, as he made two saves en route to his first professional win.
A big reason for that? The continued improvement of Vancouver’s defence in front of him.
Despite also missing Ibrahim Bakare due to suspension and Nima Moazeni Zadeh due to injury, meaning that they had to slot centre back Anthony White in midfield, Vancouver were still very solid defensively on the night, doing well to keep things easy for Zielinski.
As a result, despite facing 1.91 xG on 13 shots, Zielinski will feel that he wasn’t as busy as he could’ve been, as he didn’t have to face a litany of five-alarm chances like Irving sometimes has this season.
That’s a credit to Vancouver’s defensive performance, but for those paying attention, they won’t be surprised to hear that.
Quietly, they’ve only allowed five goals across their last five games, in what has easily been their best defensive stretch of the season.
Not only that, but they’re doing well to limit dangerous chances, too, as they’ve been full value for those defensive results.
Led by Rocco Romeo, who wore the armband in Irving’s absence in this one, and supported by the likes of White, James Cameron and Tyler Crawford, Vancouver’s defence has really started to build some chemistry as of late, and it’s showing in their performances.
Plus, as Romeo mentioned ahead of this game, they’ve also quickly become a tight-knit group, doing well to come together despite all being on a new expansion team, which can sometimes be the hardest thing for a new defensive group to do.
Because of that, they’ve been able to put together performances like this one, where they kept the Wanderers to just three shots in the box, thanks partly to an impressive five blocks.
As they continue to find their feet offensively, that’s key, as it’s given them the confidence to go out and get after games, knowing that their defence will be up to the task when called upon.
They certainly were in this game, and were able to take home all three points, allowing them to hit the halfway point of their season in style.
“When you have a structure in defence, and in the attack and you have consistency in your organization and how you want to play, (it’s key),” Ghotbi said.
“It’s not just the defence, but I think the whole group is feeling it (right now),” Simmons added. “I think we’ve missed that feeling of walking away from games with that winning feeling, and I think today, the fans really enjoyed it, we enjoyed their energy, and that’s the sort of the feeling we want to create week-in and week-out.”
CanPL.ca Player of the Match
Mikaël Cantave, Vancouver FC
After a strong first game for Vancouver last week, Cantave took his play to a whole other level in this game, making his second-half winner a deserved one.
That’s reflected statistically, too, as he finished with two shots, two chances created three dribbles in the attack, while also chipping in with an impressive six tackles, one interception and five recoveries defensively, marking a complete game on both sides of the ball for the attacker.
What’s next?
Vancouver will head out on the road next week, as they get set to visit Atlético Ottawa on Sunday, July 16th at TD Place (11:00 p.m. PT/2:00 p.m. ET). Meanwhile, Halifax will head home, where they’ve got a short turnaround ahead of their next game, a clash against Pacific FC at Wanderers Grounds on Tuesday, July 11th (3:00 p.m. PT/7:00 p.m. AT).
Watch all CPL matches live on OneSoccer. In addition to its website and app, OneSoccer is now available on TELUS channel 980 and on Fubo TV. Call your local cable provider to ask for OneSoccer today.