In a bit of an oddity, considering Pacific FC is the defending Canadian Premier League champion, the club will play its first home playoff game in franchise history today at Starlight Stadium as the holders meet the sudden-upstart challenger and 2022 regular-season champion Atletico Ottawa which went from worst last year to first this year.
As the lower seed in both the single-game semifinals and final last year, the Tridents won both those games on the road in Calgary and Hamilton to lift the 2021 North Star Shield. The 2020 CPL season, in which PFC made the playoff round, was played in a pandemic bubble in Prince Edward Island. The Tridents missed the playoffs in the inaugural 2019 CPL season.
With the semifinal playoff format changed this year to a two-legged home-and-away, fourth-seed Pacific FC will host top-seed Atletico Ottawa this afternoon at 4 at Starlight before heading to the nation’s capital Oct. 23 at TD Place Stadium.
“To start at home is fantastic and it’s really important to start right in front of our fans,” said PFC striker and Victoria-product Josh Heard.
“This is exciting … the kind of games easy to get up for.”
The Tridents have played playoff-like games at Starlight Stadium, notably the landmark Canadian Championship quarter-final victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps of MLS last year and two CONCACAF League fixtures this season after qualifying for that regional tournament as defending CPL champion.
PFC head coach James Merriman harkened to the lessons absorbed in the last of those played at Starlight — the opening game of the two-legged CONCACAF League quarter-final against a CS Herediano squad that will provide the Costa Rica national team with six players next month in World Cup Qatar 2022.
“We learned in that game that these situations are about small margins and being clinical and ruthless,” said Merriman.
“We had chances but didn’t take them against Herediano. They had one chance and took it and then we had to go on the road down there [behind 1-0 on aggregate].”
The aim for PFC is to reverse that and to go into Ottawa next week leading, or the very least, on even footing.
“We want to win three games to finish off the season [the CPL final is one game on Oct. 29],” said Merriman.
“We have given ourselves a chance. We have good energy and good confidence. There’s not much more to say about motivation. Now it’s about action.”
In other words, getting the job done when it matters most.
“When we are at our best, we feel there’s not a team in the league that can beat us,” said Heard, the former University of Washington Huskies star and Whitecaps MLS draft pick.
Atletico Ottawa, however, topped the regular-season standings (13-5-10 in wins-losses-draws) in a worst-to-first storyline in making the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. Ottawa’s only playoff-like experience has been in Canadian Championship games. PFC (13-8-7) feels its playoff experience from last year, combined with its Canadian Championship and CONCACAF League experiences, holds it in better stead in these pressure situations.
“You learn in two-legged series that you focus on one game, one half, at a time,” said Merriman.
As with the Whitecaps game last season and CONCACAF League games this year against Herediano and Jamaica’s Waterhouse at Starlight Stadium, a large crowd is expected today.
“To be playing this game at home in front of our crowd in our stadium, we know we need a big performance, and we know we can go in with confidence. It’s important to start right when we are playing in front of our fans,” said Merriman.
Unlike in CONCACAF two-legged play, away goals aren’t weighted and don’t count for more.
“That doesn’t change our philosophy,” said Merriman. “We always want to be on the front foot and dynamic, home or away.”
PFC won the season series against Atletico Ottawa, owned by La Liga giant Atletico Madrid, 2-1-1.
Second-seed Forge FC of Hamilton, Ont., and third-seed Cavalry FC meet in the first game of the other CPL playoff semifinal today in Calgary.
