Three burning questions entering Pacific FC's 2021 season

Just how good is Pacific FC? And what to make of the squad's newcomers?

Photo: Martin Bauman.

There’s a moment, I imagine, when you’re skydiving for the first time, and a series of nagging thoughts enter your head. They build in urgency as the plane ascends to cruising altitude and your guide gives you the go-ahead nod. How good is my parachute? When’s the last time I threw up? Am I going to regret chugging that bag of milk earlier this morning? The answers to those questions become ever-more important as you drag your way to the open door.

The life of a sports fan, and each offseason of renewal, comes with its own set of nagging questions. How good is my team this year? When’s the last time they were at full strength? Am I going to regret that Stewie the Starfish back tattoo?

As we enter the third Canadian Premier League season, Pacific FC’s questions feel a bit like that plane in ascension. Can they reach new heights after last year’s playoff appearance, or does turbulence loom? Here’s what they’ll have to answer:

1. Has Pacific FC done enough to reach contender status?

In an eight-team league, every offseason is an arms race. Just witness HFX Wanderers FC’s rise from 2019 Wooden Spoon winners to 2020 Island Games finalists. Last season, a mere three points separated Pacific (fourth, and clinchers of the final playoff spot) from Atlético Ottawa (seventh)—and it was only an 85th-minute left-footer from Marco Bustos in the last breaths of the regular season that made the difference.

Canada Soccer @CanadaSoccerEN

Marco Bustos 🍁 with the 🚀 to take Pacific FC into the next round on the road to the 2020 Canadian Championship Final

Bustos was the big difference for Pacific in 2020. No Canadian Premier League signing changed his club’s fortunes more last year than the Valour FC departee. Five goals and three assists in ten appearances earned Bustos a healthy share of league MVP chatter —and deservedly so. By and large, he lived up to the hype. Per Opta and Centre Circle Data, no CPL player tallied more assists (3), total scoring chances (16), or shots on goal (11) in 2020.

If Bustos was Pacific’s splash signing in 2020, midfielder Manny Aparicio has filled that void in 2021 (more on him in a moment). But Aparicio’s addition aside, there isn’t much in the way of new talent that would trouble opponents’ sleep. Continuity—as with last year’s squad—reigns: Terran Campbell, Victor Blasco, Kadin Chung, Matthew Baldisimo, Lukas MacNaughton, Nolan Wirth, and Alessandro Hojabrpour are all back for a third season, and Callum Irving, (newly captained) Jamar Dixon, Bustos, Alejandro Díaz, Thomas Meilleur-Giguère, Jordan Haynes, Sean Young, Josh Heard, and Abdou Samake will return for their second. That’s sixteen of a possible twenty-three players—more than any other CPL club.

Not returning to Pacific? Plucky midfielders Zach Verhoven (off to Ottawa) and Noah Verhoeven (York United).¹ They might have seen their usage drop from 2019 to 2020,² but their absence will hurt. Few midfielders in the league—Bustos notwithstanding—are better at creating opportunities out of seemingly nothing than Verhoven, and on more than a few occasions in his 29 club appearances for Pacific, Verhoeven was among the best players on the pitch.

Martin Bauman @martin_bauman

Marcus Haber, on @Pacificfccpl teammate Zach Verhoven’s one-on-one ability: “He can go by players and create something out of nothing.” #PacificFC #CanPL

Former captain Marcel de Jong, retired after two seasons, will surely be missed, too—though the sting is lessened by a sturdy back line and the fact that, well, de Jong hadn’t played much to begin with. (Even if, when he did play, he was rock-solid.)

Meanwhile, other teams have gotten better. Two-time reigning champion Forge FC is bringing 2019 MVP Tristan Borges back on loan after a year-long spell with Belgium’s OH Leuven. The rich get richer. The club will miss centre back David Edgar (now an assistant coach with Forge), but Canadian international Dejan Jaković³ makes a fine replacement. Then there’s Anthony Novak, David Norman Jr., and former Cardiff City attacker Joe Mason joining Cavalry FC; Dominick Zator, Chrisnovic N’Sa, and Niko Giantsopoulos joining York United;⁴ Ryan Telfer heading east to Ottawa; Shamit Shome heading home to Edmonton; and Morey Doner joining an already-sturdy HFX Wanderers FC.

So: will a bet on continuity pay dividends for Pacific? Has the Langford-based club assembled the right pieces, or will they wish they’d done more to dethrone the back-to-back champs?

2. Just how much of an impact will Manny Aparicio make?

Central to Pacific’s title hopes is incoming midfielder Manny Aparicio. Last year, Aparicio was second only to Bustos (12) in chances created from open play (10). The former York9 FC captain leaves his club tied for third all-time in assists (3) and fourth all-time in goals scored (4). He’s also the lone CPL player to crack the ESPN SportsCenter Top 10.

At his best, Aparicio is a playmaker capable of picking apart an opposing defense, posing a serious scoring threat from deep, and haunting opposing keepers on set pieces. The thought of Aparicio and Bustos at the top of the box is legitimately scary.

FotMob @FotMob

If you think the keeper is out of position for this free-kick, it’s because the same player put one the other way just 4 days earlier! Manny Aparicio is getting in people’s heads. 🎥: @onesoccer

What’s less clear, for now, is how seamlessly Aparicio will slot into Pacific’s formation. Assuming a 4-3-3 with Blasco, Díaz, and Bustos in the attacking third,⁵ that leaves the Argentine to form a starting midfield with Dixon and Baldisimo. Or, head coach Pa-Modou Kah might explore a 4-2-3-1 (Dixon and Baldisimo in the defensive midfield; Blasco, Aparicio and Bustos in the attacking midfield; Díaz up top). Or maybe a 4-1-4-1 (Dixon as holding midfielder; Blasco/Heard, Baldisimo, Aparicio, and Bustos as attacking midfielders; Díaz up top).

But that brings its own set of questions: how much offensive firepower can you bring before giving it up on the other end? And how do you keep the Chung-Bustos tandem humming without mucking things up? Finding the right balance will be Kah’s first task.

3. What will the rest of the newcomers provide?

Also new to the club are fullback Kunle Dada-Luke, formerly of Atlético Ottawa; defender Duran Lee, formerly of FC Edmonton and HFX Wanderers FC (out for the season due to injury); midfielders Matteo Polisi and Ollie Bassett, the former a standout at Simon Fraser University, the latter a versatile attacking midfielder and one-time Aston Villa academy product; and U SPORTS draftees Christopher Lee and Victory Shumbusho, both University of British Columbia products.

Of the bunch, Bassett is perhaps the most intriguing addition. Pacific’s starting back line—Haynes, Meilleur-Giguère, MacNaughton, and Chung—is about as immovable as rush-hour traffic approaching the Malahat, which leaves Dada-Luke and the returning Samake as depth pieces. (Which isn’t to say you won’t see the bench earning minutes: a single-site bubble to open the season virtually assures there’ll be roster shuffling match-by-match, and if there has been any constant at the back in Pacific’s two seasons, it has been injury.⁶)

There’s at least precedent for U SPORTS newcomers Lee and Shumbusho to earn larger opportunities with Pacific. The two needn’t look any further than how Zach Verhoven thrived in his rookie season. But Shumbusho—a former Victoria Highlander and Whitecaps academy product—won’t face any easier of a time earning minutes than his fellow UBC Thunderbird Lee: the competition at striker will be steep with Campbell looking to return to his eleven-goal 2019 form and reclaim his starting role.

So, Bassett: what to make of the Northern Ireland international? A part of Aston Villa’s system from age seven to sixteen, he comes with an English Premier League pedigree that’s rare in the CPL. With Team Wellington in the New Zealand Premiership (2019-20), he amassed six goals and eight assists in ten appearances. Not too shabby. But how will that translate in the Canadian Premier League?

As with each of these burning questions, time will tell.

1. Farewell to the “Last Names Most Likely to Be Confused for One Another” title-holders, soon to be succeeded by Duran Lee and Christopher Lee.

2. Verhoeven: 77.1 minutes per game in 2019; 57.7 minutes per game in 2020.

Verhoven: 58.4 minutes per game in 2019; 34.2 minutes per game in 2020.

3. 100+ MLS appearances from 2009-2020 (D.C. United, Los Angeles FC); 2018 MLS Supporters’ Shield winner; 42 appearances for Canadian men’s national team.

4. Though Zator is on load to Swedish side Vasalunds IF.

5. Pacific FC’s most frequent formation in 2020, per Transfermarkt.

6. Some of these woes are likely to have resolved. De Jong—as much as he’ll be missed—has retired, and MacNaughton looked fully recovered last season from the groin injury that kept him out a month in 2019. Both Chung and Meilleur-Giguère were workhorses at the Island Games, with the Repentigny, Quebec native playing all 900 minutes of action—and making a strong case of his own for Pacific’s biggest difference-maker. But then there was Meilleur-Giguère going down with a grade-two MCL tear at Canada’s U-23 camp. And Duran Lee rupturing an Achilles tendon in preseason training. So, again: injuries.