Pacific FC head coach Pa-Modou Kah made it clear, right from the top of his regular day-ahead-of-game Zoom call with national media, that he wanted to discuss only one thing Friday.
It was soccer, the topic of 颅conversation across the country.
Before he would even 颅consider taking any questions about FC Edmonton, who league-leading PFC faces today in a Canadian Premier League fixture at 3:30 p.m. at Starlight Stadium, Kah said: 鈥淚 want to make a statement. Congratulations to the Canadian women鈥檚 team and its Olympic gold medal. It鈥檚 huge. It鈥檚 fantastic. The national team has been on the rise for a long time. The women are leading the way. Hopefully, the men can follow with World Cup qualification [Qatar 2022]. All Canadians should celebrate the gold medal. If this happened in the U.S., it would be everywhere. It is what you wish for cultures to achieve. It is inspiring for a lot of females, including my daughters.鈥�
Kah noted how many of the Canadian women鈥檚 players came out of the Vancouver Whitecaps REX program.
鈥淥ur Pacific FC Van Isle Wave program also wants to be a feeder for the national team,鈥� said Kah, of PFC鈥檚 female development branch.
鈥淭here is no separation in our club [between the boys鈥� and girls鈥� developmental programs],鈥� added Kah, who helps out in practices for both boys鈥� and girls鈥� Wave teams.
Van Isle PFC Wave girls鈥� U-18 and U-15 head coach Dave Dew guided sa国际传媒 to its first female victory over the U.S. in 颅Columbus, Ohio, in 2000, and its last before the Tokyo Olympic semifinals this week.
The pre-game media conference, meanwhile, eventually got to the PFC-Eddies game. Pacific FC comes in today atop the table at 6-2-2 following its dizzying rally for a 2-1 victory Wednesday against second-place Valour FC of Winnipeg, scoring the late winner through Marco Bustos, despite being down to 10 players.
FC Edmonton (3-5-2) is coming off a 2-1 loss to Cavalry FC of Calgary in the Alberta CPL derby know as Al Classico, a play on the El Clasico rivalry game between Spanish giants Barcelona and Real Madrid.
FC Edmonton is coached by Alan Koch, under whom Kah was assistant coach at FC Cincinnati in Major League Soccer, so each knows the other鈥檚 style and approach well.
PFC hits the road after today鈥檚 games for fixtures in Calgary against Cavalry on Wednesday and in Winnipeg versus Valour on Aug. 16.
