Resolutions Revisited: How did Pacific FC's players fare against expectations in 2021? (Part 2)
How important has Jamar Dixon's voice been to the club? Has there been a more fun PFC player to watch than Josh Heard? Has Gianni dos Santos lived up to his billing?
Back in May, I wrote resolutions for each PFC player. Find them below:
As Pacific FC prepare for their flight to Hamilton, Ontario, here’s the second in a five-part series looking at how the players have performed against pre-season expectations:
DF - Christopher Lee (2021 CPL stats: 3 games played, 42.8% tackles won, 80% duels won | 2020 CPL stats: N/A)
Preseason Resolution: Seize the moment.
Key Quote: “At 20, Lee is still young enough to have hopes of upward mobility in his footballing career. If he can find his rhythm with Pacific in 2021, that door may still be open.”
Chris Lee’s window to make an impact wasn’t very long. The UBC U-SPORTS draftee made three appearances at left-back for Pacific, first against HFX Wanderers FC in the club’s season opener (a 2-0 win for PFC), then two weeks later against the Wanderers in a scoreless draw, then against FC Edmonton in August (a 2-2 draw).
To Lee’s credit, and minus some early jitters, he belonged on the pitch in those minutes—it was only injuries that prevented more opportunity. But he’s made the most of his return to UBC, notching three assists in 16 appearances for the Thunderbirds en route to a U-SPORTS quarterfinal appearance.
Was it the grand arrival he might have hoped for at Pacific? Maybe not. But it wouldn’t come as a surprise to see him back in the CPL.
FW - Gianni dos Santos (2021 CPL stats: 16 games played, 1 goal, 1 assist, 57% shots on target | 2020 CPL stats: N/A)
Preseason Resolution: Make a case for starting on the left wing.
Key Quote: “If you’re looking for super-sub minutes, dos Santos has an opportunity to prove himself here.”
Dos Santos has been an in-and-out contributor for Pacific in 2021. Expectations were probably too high that, having come from Dutch second-division football, the 23-year-old forward would make an impact right away. But one needs only to look at Cavalry FC to see that Eerste Divisie imports can make an immediate difference; Daan Klomp has been a revelation at centre-back in Calgary, earning seven CanPL Team of the Week nods since coming from NAC Breda. Dos Santos has none.
What he does have is one heck of a YouTube highlight:
But one flashy goal aside, there hasn’t been much of a case for dos Santos to be made Pacific’s starter on the wing. Josh Heard is more consistent in pressing when out of possession. Victor Blasco, 2021 struggles aside, has shown he’s capable of scoring bursts. And Kunle Dada-Luke just showed the kind of game-changing impact he can have. That’s without mentioning Marco Bustos or Terran Campbell, whose names should be written in Sharpie onto the Starting XI.
Maybe dos Santos gets another season and finds his scoring touch. Maybe he’s the hero in the CPL Final. But it wouldn’t be all too surprising if he moved on after the season.
MF - Jamar Dixon (2021 CPL stats: 25 games played, 85.9% passes completed, 65.2% tackles won | 2020 CPL stats: 9 games played, 1 goal, 79.9% passes completed, 38.9% tackles won)
Preseason Resolution: Set the tone for the club.
Key Quote: “Veteran voices are few and far between on this roster—and in assuming the captaincy, Dixon has a responsibility to set an example for his younger teammates.”
Mission accomplished for Jamar Dixon. In his second season with Pacific, the 32-year-old Ottawa native has taken the reins of his club and guided them to the CPL Final. Through it all, he has been a rock in the midfield—improving in both passing accuracy (79.9% to 85.9%) and his success rate on tackles (38.9% to 65.2%) from 2020 to 2021.
It isn’t always the big tackles or long, looping crosses that stand out in Dixon’s game. He is never the main scoring option, and he’s not often the set-up man either. What stands out about Dixon are the intangibles: the hustle plays, the steadying influence, the consistent focus on communication. He is Kyle Lowry on a soccer pitch: seldom top of the scoresheet, but with his fingerprints all over the game’s outcome.
DF - Jordan Haynes (2021 CPL stats: 25 games played, 74.5% tackles won, 50.9% aerial duels won, 76.3% passes completed | 2020 CPL stats: 8 games played, 61.5% tackles won, 69.6% aerial duels won, 70.1% passes completed)
Preseason Resolution: Lock down the starting left-back spot.
Key Stat: “In his eight appearances in 2020, Haynes posted a respectable success rate on his tackles (61.5%) and won more aerial duels (16) than any PFC player not named Lukas MacNaughton. Of greater concern for Haynes: no player on Pacific failed more passes in their own half (37) than him.”
Haynes deserves credit for taking a step forward in 2021, too. With 25 games under his belt, the Peterborough native saw improvements in his tackle success rate (61.5% to 74.5%) and pass completion rate (70.1% to 76.3%), all while hanging onto the starting left-back role and looking every bit like a weekly starter.
There were low moments—in PFC’s 0-3 loss to Forge FC on July 4th, Haynes looked like he’d rather be anywhere than on the pitch during the second half—but by and large, the 25-year-old is a defender who understands his assignment and sticks to it. He is not a touchline burner and counterattacking threat in the mould of Mo Farsi or Kadin Chung; he is a wing-protector, first and foremost. And that may be just what Pacific needs.
MF - Josh Heard (2021 CPL stats: 25 games played, 4 goals, 1 assist, 76.8% passes completed | 2020 CPL stats: 5 games played, 1 goal, 1 assist, 71.7% passes completed)
Preseason Resolution: Confidence, baby, confidence.
Key Quote: “With a healthy Victor Blasco in the left midfield, it’s a tough rotation to crack. Heard’s task for 2021 will be proving he’s worth a shot.”
Have you ever tried walking two dogs at the same time? I’ve been doing it for the past two-and-a-half months, and let me tell you this: if one of those dogs is a one-year-old puppy, and a squirrel—or a cat, or a crow, or a tree branch, or anything, really—happens upon your path, those suckers will take off at a hundred miles an hour while you’re left clinging onto their leashes for life and limb. If I strapped on a good pair of water skis, I’m fairly certain they could pull me across the Juan de Fuca Strait. They are, together, about eighty pounds of pure rocket fuel.
Anyway. Watching Josh Heard is a little like that.
Spend any amount of time watching the 26-year-old Heard on a soccer pitch, and one thing becomes abundantly clear: nobody runs harder than him. When he’s off the ball, he is pressing relentlessly; when he’s one-on-one with the ball at his feet, he is kinetic energy in human form. He is the prototypical winger you would want in a gegenpressing club: one always ready to pounce when the moment presents itself. (“Front-foot defending,” as James Merriman would say.)
To use another Raptors analogy, Heard is having a Fred VanVleet-esque “bet on yourself” season. He was not the projected starter at the onset of 2021, but he’s made the most of his opportunity—to the tune of four goals and one assist in league action, and another goal in the Canadian Championship. The Victoria native has already shown what he can do when the stakes are high and the spotlight is bright. Now, with one match remaining and a trophy on the line, would you bet against him?
Heard has been one of the best players for PFC this season with MacNaughton amd Samake. Hoping he can terrorize the left wing and throw off Forge's backs off.
Totally agree about Heard! More often than not, the most exciting player on. The field. Hope he can make some noise on Sunday.