2021 CPL regular season — Match #39
Pacific FC vs. Valour FC
August 4, 2021 at 6:30 pm PT/9:30 pm ET
Starlight Stadium in Langford, British Columbia
Watch Live: OneSoccer.ca // Tickets available here

STARTING LINEUPS

Pacific FC: Irving, Chung, Haynes, Samake, MacNaughton, Blasco, Diaz, Bustos, Hojabrpour, Dixon, Aparicio

Valour FC: Sirois, Reyes, Romeo, Cebara, Fordyce, Levis, Ulloa, Akio, Rea, Pena, Baquero

MATCH PREVIEW

Pacific FC and Valour FC take to the pitch in Langford, BC on Wednesday in a clash of the top two teams in the CPL standings.

Coming off very different results, Pacific will look for a third consecutive win after beating Atlético Ottawa in their final game at The Kickoff and following it up with a 2-0 victory over Cavalry at Starlight Stadium on Friday. Valour, meanwhile has lost their last two matches — a 1-0 defeat at the hands of HFX Wanderers at IG Field followed by a 3-1 loss to FC Edmonton at Clarke Stadium on Saturday.

This will be the first time they’ve come across each other in 2021, with the last meeting between the sides a 2-o Pacific FC win on August 25, 2020 at the Island Games in PEI. Alejandro Diaz and Victor Blasco scored the goals in what would be their only matchup of the season.

They’ll play each other five times in CPL action in 2021, with three of those coming in August. As well as Wednesday’s game, these two will meet at IG Field on August 16, and again at Starlight Stadium on August 29.

With a win on Wednesday, Pacific (5-2-2, 17 points) would jump over Valour (6-0-3, 18 points) and claim the top spot in the standings, while Valour could extend their one-point lead with a victory. With a couple of other teams hot on their trails, early-season points against other teams at the top are important.

There have been some memorable matches between these two sides, including Valour’s first-ever match in 2019 — a 2-1 contest in which Stephen Hoyle scored the club’s first goal, and Dylan Carreiro scored a 78th-minute winner in Langford. There was also the fall season clash that year when Michael Petrasso scored a 91st-minute penalty to tie it up at 2-2 in a scrappy match that saw seven yellow cards handed out.

Fans at Starlight may be in for another classic as these two good teams square off on Wednesday night.

Make your match picks prior to kickoff at canpl.ca/predictor for a chance to win prizes, including the grand prize of a trip to the 2021 CPL Final!

 3 THINGS TO WATCH

• Pacific looking to put on another show for home fans: Pacific FC returned to Starlight Stadium last week, well over a year since their previous home game in October 2019, but the fans showed up to support their team. The first time they were able to see many of their players, including star forward Marco Bustos, wearing their kit in person, they were treated to a 2-0 victory over Cavalry FC. They’re back at home again on Wednesday for this match, and head coach Pa-Modou Kah said in his pregame press conference that having fans in the stands again is a welcome sight. “It was amazing,” Kah said of the atmosphere on Friday night. “Everybody that came was fantastic, it’s the kind of support that we need and that we want from our community and our fans… The boys and myself, we truly appreciate it and we’re looking to get more and more support on Wednesday and beyond.”
• Rocco Romeo impresses in Valour debut: On loan from Toronto FC, centre-back Rocco Romeo made his Valour FC debut on Saturday against FC Edmonton. While his side did concede three goals in a 3-1 defeat to the Eddies, Romeo looked comfortable on the ball and defensively sound — earning praise from Valour boss Rob Gale. “Good in the air, wasn’t afraid to get on the ball, used the ball quite well,” were among the qualities listed by Gale. “I thought it was a good debut… I think there’s more to come from Rocco but he’s a good addition.” Romeo is a highly-rated centre-back prospect in Toronto, and if he can continue to play well, he may be in contention for the end-of-season U21 Canadian Player of the Year award, as his fellow Toronto FC defender Julian Dunn did while on loan at Valour in 2020. It’s obviously still very early in his CPL career, but it was a strong performance to build off of going into Wednesday’s game against Pacific.
• How will Valour respond?: Rob Gale wasn’t happy with how his team’s midfield looked against FC Edmonton, and is hoping that they bounce back in a big way against Pacific. “I would expect a response,” Gale said in his pre-match press conference, mentioning that the team had a long travel day from Edmonton to Langford which prevented them from getting any training in. “They have to get their focus back onto the 90 minutes, that’s part of being a professional footballer no matter what’s going on around you. When you cross that line you have to knuckle down and execute the gameplan. We haven’t done that the last two games.” Gale said that individual errors are what ultimately cost them the past two games. If they want to end their two-game losing streak, they’ll need to bounce back in a big way against an in-form Pacific side.

ALL-TIME SERIES

Pacific FC wins: 4 || Valour FC wins: 1 || Draws: 1

Previous match:

August 25, 2020 — Pacific FC 2-0 Valour FC

KEY QUOTES

“You expect a hard working team, they did well in the Winnipeg bubble. They racked up points and they played a solid defensive shape.” – Pacific FC head coach Pa-Modou Kah

“I think they’ve got a good attacking threat… It’s always a good football game against them. We try and play a similar style — it’s not quite the physical battle of some teams that we’ve faced.”  Valour FC head c0ach Rob Gale