VANCOUVER ISLAND – How thin can a roster get before the cracks begin to show?

That was the challenge at hand for Pacific FC as the club hosted FC Edmonton on Sunday, June 23rd, just three days removed from a 1,900-kilometre trip to Valour FC’s IG Field.

Striker Marcus Haber was out, sidelined with a knee injury from Thursday’s clash in Winnipeg. Ditto for centre-back Lukas MacNaughton, who left the match against Valour with a groin injury midway through the second half. Hendrik Starostzik, the 6’2″ linchpin of Pacific’s back line, was still missing from a bruised tendon suffered in Pacific FC’s home opener, nearly two months ago.

And then there were Jose Hernandez and Issey Nakajima-Farran, still returning to form after nagging ankle troubles.

“We play with the guys that are ready,” Silberbauer told reporters post-match. “And I must say, I felt like the guys that were on the pitch did (well). Are there one or two things we could have done better? I’ll have to see, but my feeling on the bench was they put in a good performance.”

PFC’s back line, stretched thin in the absence of MacNaughton and Starostzik, was exposed early and often by FC Edmonton. The dearth of options at centre-back has hurt Pacific FC the most. Lacking his primary starters, Silberbauer opted for a pairing of Matthew Baldisimo and Emile Legault in between Blake Smith and Kadin Chung.

More comfortable as a defensive midfielder, it was the second straight start for Baldisimo on the back line – already a shuffle of the roster for Silberbauer, after alternating between Legault and Ryan McCurdy for most of the spring season. McCurdy did not travel to Winnipeg; he was listed as a substitute on Sunday.

“I thought we controlled most of the game, even though the score line doesn’t say that,” Baldisimo told CanPL.ca. “But we’ve got to take our chances when they come, and that’s exactly what they did.”

As a defensive foursome, it was an inexperienced one for Pacific: Entering Sunday’s match, the back line had seen just 32 minutes of action together – all of them Thursday, after MacNaughton left the match against Valour FC. Edmonton made them pay in short order, their size and speed a challenge for the Vancouver Island club to handle on the counter-attack.

“When you have the ball a lot, and you’re being ambitious in your attack and getting a lot of guys forward, you’re always going to leave holes in places where if you lose the ball, you’re going to be in a tough situation,” Smith told reporters after the match. “I think they only had three or four chances today, and the luck was on their side.”

Victor Blasco added: “Football is like this: sometimes you go home thinking you didn’t do anything and you won, and sometimes you have possession all the game and lose 3-1. We just have to start again, work harder, and keep going.”

Up front, Pacific missed Haber’s presence. Several times, goalkeeper Mark Village—who wore the captain’s armband in his absence—was left with the ball at his feet but no discernible target upfield. Blasco—a bright spot for Pacific on offense—found the back of the net from distance, but in the 83rd minute, it was too little, too late.

One would understand if Silberbauer was quick to make excuses for any Sunday woes. The spring season title was already out of reach, Pacific having been eliminated nearly two weeks ago, after a 1-0 road loss to York9 FC. The turnaround from Thursday’s road trip to Winnipeg was a short one. The Danish coach opted for youth against FC Edmonton, starting Hernandez in place of stalwart Ben Fisk.

Still, he remained positive.

“We play probably the hardest kind of football there is: Playing with the ball, creating chances yourself. It’s not easy. And the boys are doing a really good job of it,” Silberbauer said. “We need to learn from the few mistakes that there were, but the rest, 90, 95 percent was good.”

Now, the focus shifts to July 1st for the Langford-based club, and one more chance to earn a home win during the spring campaign. Hosting Cavalry FC, who—depending on how the next week plays out—could still be looking to clinch the spring title by the long weekend, there will be added pressure to defend their home turf.

“This is a good time for us to get back to what we’re good at,” Silberbauer said. “You saw at Valour, it ended up with a victory. Today, same kind of thing, unfortunately ended with a loss. But in both games, there are things to learn.”