In sports, as in general, it’s important to have built up enough of a cushion for when things turn chaotic. Pacific FC had enough of the former for when the latter hit Saturday at Clarke Stadium. PFC led 3-0 before hanging on dearly for a 3-2 Canadian Premier League pro soccer victory over host FC Edmonton.
“It’s great to get the three points but that’s not the way we wanted to end the game,” said PFC midfielder Sean Young.
“We should have killed that game off. We let our foot off the gas.”
Victoria-raised Young opened scoring on a volley at 39 minutes. Another hometown-product, Josh Heard, made it 2-0 at 43 minutes on an assist expertly dropped into the former University of Washington Huskies star by Cape Verde-capped Gianni dos Santos. Former Netherlands U-17 and U-18 striker Djenairo Daniels initiated the third goal at 59 minutes and then finished it off on a deft give-and-go with former Mexico U-23 and U-20 international Alejandro Diaz. It was Daniels second goal in as many games.
“That was more our style of play,” said Young.
But FC Edmonton wasn’t done just yet and responded bang-bang at 79 and 83 minutes through Gabriel Bitar and San Jose-MLS drafted Mamadi Camara to leave the result in doubt right to the final whistle.
“It was important to get the result today, and knowing the run we were on [winless in eight games coming in since May 14 with four losses and four draws], we needed that,” said PFC head coach James Merriman.
“But it was frustrating to give away two goals after being in control.”
It echoed the previous game, which ended in a 3-3 draw last week against Cavalry FC at Starlight Stadium in Langford, after PFC had built a 2-0 lead.
“Those are errors we can’t commit. But the most important thing is the win. We took the three points and have to be happy with that. It gives momentum and confidence and we can build from this.”
The third-place Tridents moved to (6-4-5 in wins-losses-draws) while the Eddies (2-9-4) remained at the foot of the table.
Edmonton FC head coach Alan Koch said he believed one of the PFC goals was off-side and a disallowed Eddies goal was onside.
“It’s incredibly frustrating. There are incorrect decisions every week,” he said.
That said, Koch added: “They [PFC] outworked us and were hungrier than us, to be honest. They are a talented team with way more resources than we have. Our players responded. But you should never put yourself in that hole in the first place.”
PFC was without key team engines, Manny Aparicio and Kunle Dada-Luke, because of card violations and former sa国际传媒 U-17 captain Matthew Baldisimo, who went out early with injury.
PFC travels to the GTA to play York United on Friday before returning home to meet Cavalry FC of Calgary in the annual Pride Game on July 22 at Starlight Stadium.
