No sport travels quite like soccer, with banks of visiting-team supporters a staple of games in the U.K. and Europe. That has been hard to replicate in North America due to the far greater distances between cities in Major League Soccer and the Canadian Premier League.
An exception will be the cross-strait games in the CPL between Pacific FC and expansion Vancouver FC. The CPL has acknowledged that by shifting PFC’s first game of the 2023 season, and VFC’s first in franchise history, from an originally scheduled Friday night 7 p.m. start on April 14 to a Saturday 4 p.m. start on April 15 at Starlight Stadium in Langford. It is to allow fans from the Lower Mainland to attend the game and be home the same day.
The PFC-VFC game would have originally kicked off the CPL season as a standalone on April 14. It will now be the third game of an opening-day triple-header April 15 following earlier kick-offs that day between the HFX Wanderers of Halifax and Atletico Ottawa at TD Place Stadium in the nation’s capital and between visiting Cavalry FC of Calgary against defending-champion Forge FC at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ont. The opening weekend concludes April 16 with Valour FC of Winnipeg visiting the Greater Toronto Area to play York United.
The schedule change is being welcomed by PFC.
“This is a call to our fans that we want to pack Starlight Stadium on April 15 and show Vancouver FC what Island pride means as we defend our house,” PFC managing-director Paul Beirne said in a statement.
“This will be Vancouver FC’s first-ever match and the beginning of a sa国际传媒 rivalry that stands to make history in our province.”
It will kick-start an Island-heavy beginning to the PFC season, which sees the Tridents open with three consecutive home games at Starlight Stadium, continuing April 23 against Cavalry FC and April 30 versus Forge FC. In total, four of PFC’s first five games and nine of its first 13 are scheduled for Starlight Stadium. That includes a league co-leading span of four consecutive home dates from June 18 to July 8.
“Travel is the challenge of this league. That is the advantage of home games in a wide-spread national league, and makes it even more important for us to start the season well in those early home games,” says PFC head coach James Merriman.
The first Tridents’ road game is May 6 in Ottawa against Atletico. The first-ever ferry trip to play VFC in the new Langley Events Centre stadium is June 2.
Each of the eight CPL teams will play 28 regular-season games, 14 at home and 14 away, from April to October.
