Resolutions Revisited: How did Pacific FC's players fare against expectations in 2021? (Part 1)
Is Alessandro Hojabrpour a U-21 Player of the Year candidate? Does Callum Irving deserve Golden Glove recognition? Has Alejandro Díaz lived up to expectation?
Ten days. That’s all the remains until Pacific FC take to the pitch at Tim Hortons Field with the chance to achieve a Canadian Premier League first: beating Forge FC in a final. In 2019, Cavalry FC failed in a two-leg affair. (Say what you will about Tristan Borges and the overturned red card.) HFX Wanderers FC, tournament darlings in Prince Edward Island, fell 0-2 in 2020.
It has been a seasons of ups and downs for Pacific FC. After surging to first place through much of 2021, the Langford-based club saw their lead disappear in an end-of-season skid. Expectations were high—though perhaps guarded—entering the season with the addition of Manny Aparicio and the return of Marco Bustos. Back in May, I wrote resolutions for each PFC player. Find them below:
As Pacific FC’s CPL Final with two-time champion Forge FC looms, here’s the first in a five-part series looking at how the players have performed against pre-season expectations:
DF - Abdou Samake (2021 CPL stats: 25 games played, 1 assist, 62.8% tackles won, 88.4% passes completed | 2020 CPL stats: 2 games played, 50% tackles won, 80.3% passes completed)
Preseason Resolution: Stay healthy.
Key Quote: “If the Mali-born defender can spell any absences from Thomas Meilleur-Giguère and Lukas MacNaughton, while providing the form he showed as a 2019 All-Big Ten Tournament Team player with the University of Michigan Wolverines, it’ll be a successful 2021.”
You would be hard-pressed to find another Canadian Premier League player in 2021 who has made more of their opportunity than Abdou Samake. Thrust into Pacific FC’s starting centre-back role after Meilleur-Giguère’s season-opening injury, Samake went from playing 89 minutes in 2020 to 2,169 in 2021—more than any PFC player not named Lukas MacNaughton.
More than merely available, Samake has been reliable—putting himself in the path of opponents’ shots and proving steady on the ball.
In Kah’s 4-3-3, Samake has found himself a key part of building Pacific’s attack from the backfield. While his performance may not have earned much recognition beyond Vancouver Island—Samake earned just one Team of the Week nod in 2021—the Mali-born defender can rest assured there’s a future for him in the CPL—and perhaps beyond it, too.
FW - Alejandro Díaz (2021 CPL stats: 28 games played, 10 goals, 4 assists, 50% shots on goal | 2020 CPL stats: 10 games played, 3 goals, 2 assists, 42.1% shots on goal)
Preseason Resolution: Top three Golden Boot finisher.
Key Quote: “The Wanderers rode the wave of Akeem Garcia and Joao Morelli (ten goals combined) to the 2020 Finals. Having Díaz and Marco Bustos humming as a one-two punch could lift Pacific to similar heights.”
Díaz fell just short of a top three finish in 2021: with ten goals, the Mexican striker finished fourth in the CPL, behind João Morelli (14), Easton Ongaro (12), and teammate Terran Campbell (11). But unlike Morelli and Ongaro (who benefitted, by and large, as their teams’ lone scoring options), Díaz picked up his tally in an offense that scored by committee.1 That he remained so efficient in his goal-scoring speaks to his joining the ranks of the Canadian Premier League’s ten most valuable players, per Transfermarkt.
At 25, Díaz is not quite the fresh-faced prospect he once was with Club América. But he is not old, either—and has plenty more to show at the CPL level. Just look at his back-of-the-shoulder assist to Terran Campbell on October 16th as evidence of what he’s capable of providing beyond a mere finishing role.
MF - Alessandro Hojabrpour (2021 CPL stats: 25 games played, 1 goal, 85.6% passes completed, 60.5% tackles won | 2020 CPL stats: 10 games played, 80.5% passes completed, 84.6% tackles won)
Preseason Resolution: Make Pa-Modou Kah’s decision difficult when choosing a Starting XI.
Key Stat: “After seeing 78.7 minutes of action per game under Michael Silberbauer in 2019, Hojabrpour’s usage dropped to 38.5 minutes under Kah at the 2020 Island Games.”
Fortune favours the prepared. Alessandro Hojabrpour may not have necessarily projected as a matchday fixture at the start of the season, but, well, that was before Matthew Baldisimo spent much of the season on the injured reserve list. And to Hojabrpour’s credit, he has risen to the occasion—twice earning league-wide Team of the Week honours while cementing his place in Pacific’s midfield—and scoring a cracker of a goal against FC Edmonton.
At 21, Hojabrpour is still young—and not without mistakes in his game. Against Forge FC on July 4th, in a midfield with 20-year-old Sean Young, the Burnaby native looked overmatched as Kyle Bekker and Hamilton’s attacking side reeled off three unanswered goals in the final 20 minutes of play.
But in his third year with Pacific FC, Hojabrpour is showing a level of comfort in the midfield beyond his years. He is calm and composed—and could still nab a U-21 Player of the Year nomination before all is said and done.
GK - Callum Irving (2021 CPL stats: 26 games played, 7 clean sheets, 2.64 saves/90 mins, 1.11 goals conceded/90 mins | 2020 CPL stats: 6 games played, 1 clean sheet, 3.7 saves/90 mins, 1.3 goals conceded/90 mins)
Preseason Resolution: Corner kick composure.
Key Quote: “More defensive cohesion on set pieces will help Irving notch more clean sheets in 2021.”
Irving is unlikely to finish the season as the league’s Golden Glove winner—that honour belongs, in all likelihood, to Valour FC’s Jonathan Sirois—but he has been reliable for Pacific FC, backstopping the West Coast club to the tune of seven clean sheets, third only to Sirois (nine) and Forge FC’s Triston Henry (eight). Several times, he has flat-out saved his club from defeat, as he did in the 30th minute against Cavalry FC in the CPL semifinal, or in his three-save performance against FC Edmonton on September 14th, or his three-save performance against the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Set pieces are still an issue. It was a corner kick that led to Cavalry FC’s lone goal in the semifinal, and a pair of set pieces that sank PFC in a 1-2 loss to the Cavs on October 21st. In 2021 alone, Pacific have also conceded on corners against Valour FC, HFX Wanderers FC (in the 83rd minute in a 0-1 loss), and York United (in the 82nd minute in a 2-2 draw). Look at the regular season table, and it’s hard not to see those squandered points as the difference between first and third place—and a home-field advantage in the CPL Final.
That fault doesn’t rest squarely on Irving’s shoulders—his defenders need to do a better job of sticking with their marks in the box—but it reveals a discomforting trend that has dogged Pacific FC from 2019: defensive composure. Pacific have been riding the wave of their offense in 2021—counting on outscoring teams, rather than keeping them off the scoreboard entirely.2 (By contrast, defending champion Forge FC conceded less than a goal a game in 2021.3)
Irving could still win the Golden Glove award. But locking down set pieces will help in getting there—and in bringing home the North Star Shield.
Pacific boasted six players with at least three goals scored—more than any CPL club, save for Forge FC (7).
Pacific FC recorded a league-best 1.68 goals per game in 2021—up from 1.6 goals per game in 2020, and 1.25 in 2019.
Forge FC has recorded a goals-against average of 0.86 in 2021. By contrast, Pacific FC’s goals-against average is 1.21.