CLEVE DHEENSAW
sa国际传媒
No slight against popular former Pacific FC mainstays Manny Aparicio and Amer Didic, now with Atlético Ottawa, but tonight at Starlight Stadium is just another Canadian Premier League game, says PFC.
“You give the old-teammate salute in the tunnel. But once you are on the pitch, you forget about who your teammates were last year,” said Haiti-capped PFC midfielder Cedric Toussaint.
“It happens. It’s footy.”
You can also throw in Ollie Bassett, the slippery and elusive former U-19 Northern Ireland international, who was on PFC’s 2021 CPL championship team, and who went on to become league MVP in 2022 with Atlético and is still dangerous in the Ottawa attack.
“They [Aparicio, Didic, Bassett] were important players on our team. But they are on another team now and we have our locker-room. We are strong in our culture,” said PFC head coach James Merriman.
It will be a battle of undefeated clubs atop the table as PFC and Ottawa are both 3-0-2 in league and 4-0-3 overall.
The clubs met previously in playing to a scoreless draw at TD Place Stadium in Ottawa in the opening leg of their Voyageurs Cup Canadian Championship quarter-final with the second leg set for Starlight Stadium on May 29. The winner will advance to a semifinal match-up against the winner of a quarter-final between Calgary’s Cavalry FC of the CPL and the Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer.
Merriman, however, said his club can’t afford to look down the road to the Cup match when a battle for first place is in the offing tonight: “You can’t put too much into that [the Cup angle between the clubs]. It’s one match at a time. When the Cup match comes, we will focus on that game. But [tonight] is a big league game and an opportunity to go in to first place. We don’t fear anybody.”
PFC has recorded clean sheets in six of its seven games this season across all competitions and the Tridents’ stingy defence has been one of the talking points of the early CPL season. The Tridents’ five consecutive clean sheets recorded in league play is a CPL record.
“It’s part of the process to be strong without the ball and behind the ball,” said Merriman.
“Our guys have been putting their bodies on the line in front of goal.”
The offence, however, has been slower in finding its groove with just five goals in league and six across all competitions.
That job got harder with the three-game suspension handed to 26-time Trinidad and Tobago-capped PFC striker Reon Moore, who received a red card in injury time in the Tridents’ last game. During a break in play, Daniel Parra of Forge FC picked up the ball, and Moore slapped the ball out of his hand. Merriman thinks the suspension was on the harsh side: “I think it’s excessive and will leave it at that.”
