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‘We were minutes away’: Silberbauer laments late equalizer in Winnipeg

While the late equalizer seemed like deja vu for Valour FC and those at IG Field, it was still a shock for the visitors.

Valour snatched a second injury-time equalizer in as many matches Wednesday, peeling points away from the Tridents in a 2-2 draw.

“You have to take the whole match into account,” Pacific FC head coach Michael Sliberbauer began. “We played a really good first half … In the end, we were minutes away from the victory.”

A pair of first-half goals from Ben Fisk and Lukas MacNaugton gave PFC a good start to their first league match since July 20.

That second half, of course, featured Michael Petrasso.

The Canadian international had only taken part in one full training session, after being sidelined with an injury for over a month, before arriving in the 57th minute. He made an instant impact, overwhelming PFC’s left side for half an hour.

MacNaughton hauled down Skylar Thomas in injury time, handing Petrasso and co. a way out.

“We played a really good first half but we didn’t manage to quite get it together in the second half, Valour, obviously, pressed high and played a lot of long balls,” Silberbauer said.

“We didn’t handle that very well but, at the same time, we put ourselves in a position where it was our match to lose so that’s positive. This group needs to do a better job of that in the future.”

Wednesday was Pacific FC’s eighth-straight match with three or more goals scored total, six of which featured four between both sides. While their early goalscoring troubles seem to have forgotten them, defending, especially in clutch situations, has emerged as another problem area for Silberbauer’s side.

“You feel like you lose when you conceded in the last minute,” Silberbauer admitted, despite splitting points with their Manitoban opponents.

Pacific will have another extended break before their next match, set to face FC Edmonton at Clarke Stadium on Saturday, August 10 (6 p.m. ET, 4 p.m. MT/OneSoccer).