The diminutive field magician Marco Bustos was at it again Sunday afternoon at Starlight Stadium, waving his foot wand across the field. Bustos assisted on all three Pacific FC goals in a 3-2 Canadian Premier League soccer victory over Valour FC.
The defending league-champion Tridents moved to 2-0 while Valour FC, based in Winnipeg, fell to 0-1-1.
“Marco Bustos just has that quality on the ball,” said PFC head coach James Merriman.
Manny Aparicio scored at 20 minutes on a header off the far post on a cross by Bustos. A foot-first diving Alejandro Diaz scored his second goal of the season at 33 minutes off a Bustos cross. Josh Heard scored at 56 minutes to complete the Bustos assist hat-trick.
“Marco [Bustos] just has that instinct. He is a game-changer,” said Aparicio.
Both attacking midfielders have been capped for sa国际传媒. At the club level, Aparicio has been both an opponent of Bustos and now a teammate for two seasons. He knows which he prefers.
“I have played against him and am glad he’s on my side now,” said Aparicio.
With opposing defenders tracking Bustos, other players see more open space.
“We have a great team and I’ve been given a free role to roam a bit more,” said Aparicio, who can dart dangerously in attack.
Bench-boss Merriman likes what he sees of the second-year Trident: “Manny has been excellent over two games and picked up where he left off last year.”
Tony Mikhael of Valour FC was expelled from the contest for a dangerous high-boot challenge with PFC leading 1-0 at 26 minutes, which changed the tone of the game, as red cards tend to do.
“It’s tough to get back into a game when you get a red card,” said Valour FC head coach Phillip Dos Santos.
“After that, it’s damage control, as you’re trying to get something. The game was determined in the wide areas, which Pacific likes to use in attack.”
That the margin of victory wasn’t larger, with a man advantage for much of the game, seemed to irk the Tridents.
“We have to smell blood more and go in for the kill,” said Aparicio. “If we want to be back-to-back champions, we can’t have these kinds of results.”
That’s even though Bustos had a penalty kick saved, PFC a goal called back and while Valour FC’s counters only came on an own goal by PFC defender Kunle Dada-Luke and a penalty in injury time taken by Moses Dyer on the game’s last play.
“We need to manage the game [better],” said Merriman.
“We wanted more from the position we were in and should have controlled the game more.”
Pacific FC is atop the CPL table on six points with surprising Atletico Ottawa, the former lowly squad, which has also opened with two victories.
“It’s crazy to look at the standings right now,” said Dos Santos.
PFC hosts the HFX Wanderers of Halifax (1-1) on Saturday at Starlight Stadium.
CORNER KICKS: Both teams Sunday at Starlight were missing bright young stars. Kamron Habibullah, on loan to PFC from the Vancouver Whitecaps of MLS, and Matthew Catavolo of Valour FC are in the Team sa国际传媒 acclimatization camp that runs through April 22 in Costa Rica in preparation for the CONCACAF U-20 championship June 18 to July 3 in San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa, Honduras.
