The Netherlands famously invented total football and Ayman Sellouf has turned into a totally adept practitioner of it and a real Dutch treat for Pacific FC supporters.
The striker continued as one of the revelations of the Canadian Premier League season as he scored the winning goal at 85 minutes to give PFC a 2-1 victory over Valour FC of Winnipeg on a hot late-summer Saturday afternoon before 3,286 fans at Starlight Stadium.
The slithery 22-year-old continued showing why he was with his hometown club NEC when it earned promotion to the Dutch top-tier Eredivise, which is a pretty big deal, considering the stature of Netherlands soccer. Sellouf also played on the second team of Eredivise giant FC Utrecht. Because of family ancestry, he was also eligible to attend training camp with the Morocco U-18 team.
“Ayman has changed the game many times for us this season,” said PFC assistant coach Armando Sá, who handled the Tridents bench duties Saturday, with head coach James Merriman serving a one-game suspension.
“He can start or change games [coming off the bench]. Ayman can give matches to us,” added Sá, himself capped six times for Mozambique with a 16 season pro career with Benfica, Villareal, Espanyol, Rio Ave, Braga and Leeds United.
Sellouf, a sub at 55 minutes, coralled the rebound after fellow Tridents striker second-half sub Easton Ongaro rattled the ball off the Valour FC cross-bar. Sellouf managed to control the ball off the woodwork and found the far corner for the win and his sixth goal of the season. He’s also tied for the league lead in assists with seven.
“I come from a footballing nation. I was not even aware there was a Canadian league,” Sellouf said, earlier this season.
But the establishment of a Canadian domestic pro league (CPL) in 2019, followed by a first World Cup appearance in 36 years last year at Qatar 2022, has raised the profile of Canadian soccer and the native of Nijmegen, Netherlands, decided to cross the ocean this year to play here. The Tridents are glad he did.
The win was crucial for PFC as it halted a three-game losing skid and moved the Tridents into sole possession of second place.
Former sa国际传媒 U-20 player Adonijah Reid gave PFC a 1-0 lead at 35 minutes on a cunning assist by midfielder Manny Aparicio.
“Manny has many tricky plays like that and I anticipated it,” said Reid.
Sá said the Tridents, who dominated the first half, were unlucky not to be ahead by two or three goals at the break. The inability to convert possession dominance, a season-long issue for PFC, came back to haunt when Matteo De Brienne of Valour FC hushed the home faithful with a sliding against-the-grain goal to tie the game at 77 minutes. Then it was Sellouf to the rescue.
“That was a very important game for us. Every game, every point, is crucial now with six games remaining,” said Reid, as the Tridents track Cavalry FC of Calgary, four points ahead atop the table.
Seventh-place Valour FC remained 12 points adrift of a playoff spot with games running out.
“We’re not going to quit,” said goal-scorer De Brienne.
“We’re not mathematically out of it yet [but] we can’t continue to drop points. But playing at Pacific is never easy. We had a good response in the second half. But the end product wasn’t there again.”
PFC was missing more than just Merriman from its bench. Also on one-game suspensions were normally-starting defenders Amer Didi膰 and Georges Mukumbilwa plus striker Djenairo Daniels. Sitting out due to card accumulation were Didic and Daniels. CPL players are suspended for one game following their fourth yellow card. Mukumbilwa sat out because of a red card incurred during injury time in the last game, a 1-0 loss to Cavalry in Calgary.
PFC plays the HFX Wanderers of Halifax on Friday night at Starlight Stadium, the Tridents’ second-to-last regular-season home game, in a match-up featuring the third-longest distance travelled in the world between pro teams in a domestic Premiership soccer league.
