FINALLY! This kind of performance had been lurking for Pacific FC over the first four matches of the season, and on Saturday everything just clicked into place in the nation’s capital.
You could see the creative ability this team has all over the pitch during the month of April, but it was on the first road trip of the season that the goals finally started to flow. A 4-1 away victory against Atlético Ottawa, last season’s regular season champs, gives the Tridents the kind of statement victory it has been looking for to start the year.
This match shows that when this team is playing at its best, there is no one in the league that can stop them.
Tactics Talk
Stylistically, the biggest change for Pacific was the use of Djenairo Daniels through the middle, after the Dutchman had been used in more of a wide role during his first few starts of the season. The change paid off for the Tridents with Daniels playing a big role in the first two goals of the match (we’ll talk more about that below). Another change in the XI was Manny Aparicio’s return to the starting lineup. Like Daniels his presence was felt right from the start and allowed Pacific to get on the front foot right away.
Digging into the numbers, we can see how the Tridents creativity turned into goals on Saturday. The xG graph below looks similar to the club’s four previous matches, except for the yellow circles indicating those chances were finally turned into goals. Obviously the huge circle right at the goal line (Amer Didic’s tap-in from Ayman Sellouf’s corner) won’t happen every game, but turning chances into goals was the main problem for the Tridents to start the season and the concerns around that have started to alleviate after this pummelling of Ottawa.
Looking Ahead
That was the perfect performance to have in the lead-in to a big quarter-final match. With TSS FC Rovers making the trip over to the Island in the coming days, Pacific will feel like they have finally clicked into gear and found their rhythm as a team. We’ll discuss TSS more in the Match Preview tomorrow.
The Tridents and the Pirates line up on Wednesday in the Canadian Championship, don’t miss out on this celebration of BC Soccer!
Favourite Moment
Favourite Photo
PFC Standout Player: Djenairo Daniels
Both Sellouf and Sean Young were absurdly good on the weekend, but in the interest of adding some variety to this section, we’re gonna highlight Daniels this time around, who was also a key contributor to Pacific coming out of the gates on fire.
Spotting an opportunity to press the Ottawa centre-back, Daniels single-handedly caused the original turnover for the opening goal of the match. His sheer force of will to press the Ottawa backline was a constant thorn in the home team’s side on Saturday. On this occasion he was able to cause the turnover and poke the loose ball back to Manny Aparicio who then charged forward and squared the ball for Young to sweep it home.
Daniels again played a big role in the second goal. First, he peeled off the Ottawa defender brilliantly to create the passing lane for Sellouf to pick out. He then unselfishly squared the ball for Josh Heard to put into an empty net after spotting the goalkeeper cheating over to his side.
He also should’ve had a goal to his name, but we won’t talk about that here today. All told though, it was a great all-around performance from the Dutchman to lead from the front and set the tone from the very first minute.
Scoring Summary
6’ – Pacific FC – Sean Young
9’ – Pacific FC – Josh Heard
34’ – Pacific FC – Ayman Sellouf
52’ – Atlético Ottawa – Ollie Bassett
69’ – Pacific FC – Amer Didic
Statistics
Possession: PFC 50 % – ATO 50 %
Shots: PFC 14 – ATO 14
Shots on Target: PFC 5 – ATO 4
Saves: PFC 1 – ATO 2
Fouls: PFC 11 – ATO 13
Offsides: PFC 0 – ATO 1
Corners: PFC 4 – ATO 5
Cautions
44’ – Malcolm Shaw – Yellow
54’ – Jean-Aniel Assi – Yellow
75’ – Aboubakary Sacko – Yellow
90+3’ – Gianni dos Santos – Yellow
