2022 CPL Regular Season — Match #85
Valour FC vs. Pacific FC
August 28, 2022 at 3:00 p.m. ET
IG Field in Winnipeg, Manitoba
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Valour FC host Pacific FC at IG Field on Sunday in the first match of a Canadian Premier League doubleheader. The Tridents are playing in this match after an intense Concacaf League match midweek in Costa Rica. Despite going down to ten men after Jamar Dixon was sent off, Pacific kept pushing for a crucial away goal, and found it in the final moments of the match off the boot of Gianni Dos Santos. They would ultimately be knocked out of the competition on penalties, but it was a fantastic showing against one of the top teams in the region, and a performance they can build on for the remainder of the CPL campaign. Before that match in San Jose, Pacific were in Halifax to take on HFX Wanderers, and left empty-handed. A late goal from Pierre Lamothe — a shot from outside the box that floated into the top right corner of the net — was the difference, earning Halifax a vital three points as they barely hang onto their playoff hopes. Manny Aparicio was sent off in the first half of that match for alleged violent conduct, and as a result has been given an automatic three-match ban. Merriman said in his pregame press conference on Friday that he didn’t agree with the decision, and didn’t seem optimistic when asked if his team’s appeal had been successful. Sean Young and Abdou Samaké will also be out of action on Sunday as they serve suspensions for yellow card accumulation.
Valour, meanwhile, will look for improvements after a draw against FC Edmonton last weekend. FC Edmonton played well in that match and were more-than-deserving of a point, but if Valour are going to make the playoffs, they can’t afford to drop points at home, and especially not against the team sitting in eighth place. Sean Rea gave Valour the lead moments before the break with a cross-goal strike three minutes into first half stoppage time, but a lapse in concentration after the interval let them down. Within two minutes of the second half they were already picking the ball out of their own net, as Tobias Warschewski and T-Boy Fayia combined well down the right side, before Fayia played a pass to the back post that Azriel Gonzalez put into the back of the net for a 1-1 draw. Nassim Mekideche served a suspension in that match, but should again be available for Phillip Dos Santos in this one. Daryl Fordyce was asked to play centre-back instead of his usual midfield spot for some of that game, a less-than-ideal situation but one brought about by the absences of Mekideche, Andrew Jean-Baptiste, and Tony Mikhael, who left the match with cramps.
Valour probably need a win to keep their playoff hopes alive this weekend. With Forge and Ottawa playing each other on Saturday, at least one of them will drop points, and Cavalry are playing York, who they have lost to twice already this season. It’s getting to the point where the seven-point gap between them and fourth-place Cavalry (entering this weekend’s set of matches) is looking even more daunting with a handful of matches remaining, especially with Forge visiting IG Field twice this week. A win may be hard to come by, however, as Pacific are not only the defending CPL champions, but has dominated this fixture. In 14 all-time CPL matches, Pacific has won 11 of them, with two draws and one single Valour win. Most recently, on July 30, two goals in two minutes from the since-departed Alejandro Diaz saw Pacific make a second half comeback at IG Field and beat the hosts 2-1.
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3 THINGS TO WATCH
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Brown available for CPL debut, but trio set to miss out through suspension: Pacific announced a new signing on Monday, bringing in former Cavalry FC striker Jordan Brown. Brown, 25, scored eight times in 42 matches for Cavalry between the 2019 and 2020 seasons, including the first goal in club history, and one of the goals in Cavalry’s historic victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps in the 2019 Canadian Championship. After departing Cavalry following the Island Games in 2020, Brown played for VfR Aalen in the German fourth tier, before a stint in Iceland with Fylkir. Then he returned to Canada with League1 Ontario side Electric City FC, where he scored 11 times in 17 matches, before now returning to the CPL with Pacific FC. Tridents head coach James Merriman said on Friday that Brown “should be available”, and that everyone else in the team is fully fit. Manny Aparicio, however, who was given a straight red card last weekend against HFX Wanderers for alleged violent conduct, won’t be taking part. That red card comes with an automatic three-match ban, and according to Merriman it seems as though Aparicio will have to sit out the entire period instead of having a successful appeal reduce it. After picking up their fourth yellow cards of the season last time out as well, midfielder Sean Young and defender Abdou Samaké will also be on the sidelines.
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Valour continue difficult home stretch against the defending champs: After only picking up a single point in an important match against FC Edmonton last weekend, Valour FC’s schedule is about to get much more difficult. They host Pacific FC in this match on Sunday, before two matches in five days against Forge FC. They then hit the road to take on HFX Wanderers at a difficult away venue, before returning home again to play Atlético Ottawa ahead of a three game road trip to end the season. It’s a difficult stretch to end the season, and if they want to squeeze into that top four, this week is absolutely vital to their season. It doesn’t get much more difficult than Pacific, Forge, Forge inside a week, but that’s the challenge that Phillip Dos Santos’ team will have to overcome. In order to make the playoffs they will have to overtake one of Forge, Pacific, Atletico Ottawa or Cavalry, so playing five of their remaining eight matches against those teams will be a huge challenge, especially before playing one of them again in an even more intense match if the Winnipeggers are somehow able to close the gap and jump into that pack. It all starts on Sunday afternoon.
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Pacific need to shake off Concacaf defeat midweek: It’s been an intense, physical week for Pacific, in which they went down to Costa Rica and picked up a 1-0 win over Herediano before falling on penalties in the Concacaf League round of 16. That came just days after they lost in CPL action to HFX Wanderers in Halifax. They now travel to Winnipeg for this match in what has been an extremely busy week of travel, and another challenge both physically and mentally against a Valour team that will be looking for some crucial points. “It’s a challenge that we’ve put to the group, to put the same level of concentration and focus to the league now that we’ve given to Concacaf matches,” said Merriman. “Through it we’ve grown a lot as a team, we’ve become very strong as a group, we’ve dealt with a lot of adversity — the travel has been challenging and how the players have taken that on has been really good to see. We’ll take all of the learnings from the experience from Concacaf, and we’ll put our full focus into the league now.”
ALL-TIME SERIES
Valour FC wins: 1 || Pacific FC wins: 11 || Draws: 2
Previous match:
July 30, 2022 – Valour FC 1-2 Pacific FC