Pacific FC and the Halifax Wanderers battled in front of the Starlight Stadium crowd, resulting in a 1-1 draw. The game was set, the sun was setting, and the Pacific fans were looking to see their team back in the victory column following their defeat on Wednesday against the Vancouver Whitecaps. Halifax on the other hand was in desperate need of points, sitting in the last place in the Canadian Premier League.
The first half opened with the Wanderers being very dominant, creating pressure and forcing the Pacific defenders to work, and proving they were a force to be reckoned with. Pacific shined on a few counterattack opportunities which threatened the Halifax end and successfully found the back of the net first. As Adonijah Reid finally pocketed his first of the season, and his first as a Trident.
The Wanderers in search of a tying goal maintained the pressure against Pacific, only to allow Pacific to have a handful of breaks which were soon to be dismissed by the defense. The first half concluded with Pacific clinging onto a 1-0 lead after being pressured the whole half.
The start of the second half brought no change in terms of Pacific’s strategies. Halifax continued to pressure the Pacific side forcing them to clear the ball without any counter opportunities. Pacific brought in a few substitutions in hopes of sparking more opportunities for goals, but the Halifax side was too strong.
It wouldn’t be until the 84th minute that the Wanderers would finally catch a break. When Aidan Daniels buried the ball past Pacific’s goalkeeper Kieran Baskett leveling the game 1-1. Pacific, determined to get the three points pushed to find the game-winning goal, but they were stopped on all accounts as the referee blew his whistle concluding the game. The game ended with Halifax retaining a dominant 60% of the position over Pacific’s 40%.
“No, I don’t think underestimated at all, we go into every game with the same mentality, just after two days it’s hard to bounce back mentally and physically. But we’ll come back, and we got Vancouver coming up”.
Said team captain Josh Heard, when asked if perhaps the Pacific side had underestimated the Halifax side.
Pacific sits in second in the standings behind Forge at 12 points while Forge has 15 points. They’ll now hit the road and head to Langley where they will take on Vancouver FC on Friday, June 2nd, 2023, and look to get back to winning. Halifax, however, moves up above Atletico Ottawa to seventh in the standings with just 6 points.
