'When things are done right, the results take care of themselves': One-on-one with Pacific FC midfielder Manny Aparicio
On finding his form, Pacific's hot streak, and settling into life on the Island
If you’ve watched Pacific FC in recent weeks, Manny Aparicio has been impossible to miss. There he was, slicing and dicing his way through the Vancouver Whitecaps’ defence en route to a goal, three shots on target, and a team-high 81.8% passing accuracy.1 In the highest-pressure matchup in the franchise’s history, he played like a man possessed—a one-man scoring threat.
“He’s somebody that has the capability to unlock [a] defence,” Pacific FC head coach Pa-Modou Kah told me at the season’s onset. “Technically, he’s very good. Tactically, he’s good.”
“The quality he brings to the field speaks for itself,” said teammate Marco Bustos. “He’s calm on the ball, he has a good shot, he has everything to be a top midfielder in this league—and that’s what I think he is.”
That’s certainly the hope Pacific FC had for Aparicio when signing him this past offseason—that, together with Bustos and Pacific’s third-year core, he could lift the club to new heights. But the results weren’t immediate. An early start in the Winnipeg bubble soon turned to an eight-game absence due to knee troubles.
“I’m still trying to recover from it—at certain moments, I [still] don’t feel 100 percent,” he said.
If there were any early doubts about Aparicio’s fit, they have long since vanished. As Pacific FC has surged to a 9-4-3 record through the opening half of 2021, so too has the Buenos Aires-born Aparicio settled into his role as the midfield engine and key chance creator.
I spoke with the PFC midfielder about finding his form on the West Coast, Pacific’s hot streak, and settling into life on Vancouver Island.
It feels like you’ve hit your stride with Pacific in recent weeks. You had a huge performance against the Whitecaps, and a strong showing against Valour FC on August 16th—it was your through ball that set up the cross from Josh Heard to Alejandro Díaz. How comfortable are you feeling out there?
MA: I think it’s a mixture of myself hitting my stride and then a couple other guys as well hitting [their] stride. We’ve seen Josh Heard, he did well in the [Winnipeg] bubble, then he had a few games where maybe he wasn’t at [his] best, and now all of a sudden, he’s picked it up again: [he had] the assist against Valour, the goal against the Whitecaps… the other day, he came on against Valour at home and did extremely well.
I think most of us are now starting to know each other and jell as a group; with most of the guys staying around, we were halfway there from last year. But now, with new guys like myself or Matteo [Polisi], or some young guys like Sean [Young] playing more minutes, getting to know each other, I think it’s coming along nicely, and our team chemistry is really showing now.
Early on in the season, it felt like the quality was there [in your game], but the timing was maybe just a bit off at times. Any time a player changes teams, it’s going to take time to adjust to a new setting. There’s a new team culture to learn, new teammates’ habits to learn—the runs they make, a new coach to get accustomed to. What’s made the difference in recent weeks?
MA: Yeah, I agree [with you]. I played the first two games; we played against Halifax and won, and we did pretty well. We had a few spells with Marco [Bustos] and [Alejandro] Díaz, and Josh Heard as well, where we kept it a little bit. Then we hit York [United]: all these young guys running at us, and we didn’t know what to do. And unluckily, I got an injury—it was the most [games] I’ve ever missed. When you miss three weeks, and all of a sudden you miss eight games, it’s like, “how the hell is that happening?”
“At certain moments, I [still] don’t feel 100 percent. But a lot of the times, when you come into a new club [with] a new coach, a new system, new players, that timing is everything.”
It was a little MCL strain on my knee; it was tough to kind of get back to myself. I’m still trying to recover from it—at certain moments, I [still] don’t feel 100 percent. But a lot of the times, when you come into a new club [with] a new coach, a new system, new players, that timing is everything—and sometimes, my pass had good intention, it’s just the run wasn’t there, or sometimes, the opposite: I’d make a run where I thought [my teammate] would see it, and it wasn’t seen, and sometimes those go unnoticed.
But I think with Pa[-Modou Kah] and James [Merriman], the way they study the game and teach it to us, they notice those things. So even though [sometimes] it doesn’t seem like I’m doing much, or some of us aren’t doing much, they see what we’re doing, and that’s huge: they’re always on top of it, and they’re always trying to help us.
When the stakes are high, it feels like you unlock another level. You were everywhere against the Vancouver Whitecaps in the Canadian Championship. At York9 FC, you found another gear against the Montreal Impact. What is it about those moments that brings out the best in your game?
MA: I think for anyone, really, those are the games we play for; that’s what we live for. It’s kind of cliche to say, but to me, it really is. When you’re a CPL club trying to establish yourself in a new league and a new world of football in Canada, and you get to play teams like Vancouver like Montreal, like TFC—teams who have been around for 15, 20 years now—and you get to maybe upset them, I think that’s the best thing you could ever ask for.
It shows how far we’ve come in three years—and not even three years, because last season was only ten games. As a team, as a club, I know from the owners down, it was a huge goal, even from the first years, that this was going to happen. I don’t think they thought it was going to happen this soon, but we took our chance, we went out and left everything on the line—and to tell you the truth, we even thought we didn’t deserve to get scored on three times. As much as it was a good game, we know we probably could have made it even more of a win.
So I think that’s a huge stepping stone for us. Now, it’s just about keeping it up in the league and in the [Canadian Championship], because we’ve got another ten, fifteen games to play for that matter just as much as that one game did.
I want to go back to 2020 for a moment—before you joined the club. After the Island Games, Pa-Modou Kah told Rob Friend, “if there’s one player I want in this club that can take us to the championship and be the standard, it’s Manu.” How does it feel to hear that belief from your head coach?
MA: It’s amazing. It’s one of the reasons why I decided to end up coming here. When I did get a chance to speak to Pa and James after the Island Games … or when I spoke to Rob, and he told me that same thing, it’s a huge confidence boost—and I think that’s showing within myself, and even with other guys. Last year, Matteo [Polisi] wasn’t even in the league, and now all of a sudden, he has three goals. No matter if he’s starting or coming in as a sub, he’s doing the job.
When you have two coaches—especially Pa, who has played at the highest level—who know what it takes to get to the next [level], and he’s giving you that confidence and trying to get you going, you can’t really do much but take [it] in and try and get better every single day.
Back in November, you mentioned to CanPL.ca’s Marty Thompson “details off the pitch” drove your decision to join Pacific FC. What was it about the club that made you want to join?
MA: I’m a big believer that when things are done right, the results take care of themselves. And in PEI, I saw a team who was doing the little things off the pitch: not just training hard and playing well—because that’s all you see on TV—but seeing, for example, when I came to [Vancouver] Island, and they were showing me around the stadium, and I got to see the Island Training Centre they had already set up.
You think about it, and it’s a club that’s two, three years old, hasn’t even played three full seasons of professional football, and they already have a full-on training centre established for the professional team, for the youth, just to develop players. And if you really think about that, there’s really no other [organization] that’s investing that long-term into their team.
“I’m a big believer that when things are done right, the results take care of themselves. And in PEI, I saw a team who was doing the little things off the pitch.”
So when you see those types of things, you know you’re at a club where they’re thinking long-term. They’re thinking, “we want to win.” It may not be today, but we’re going to get there, and we’re going to get there by [developing] our own players—our own Island players, our own B.C. players. And that’s what this league was about from the beginning: nurturing Canadian players for the World Cup, [and] for the future.
Before, we didn’t have anything. I ended up going to Spain. I was lucky enough to have my Italian passport and be able to make the move over. Not everyone can have that [opportunity]. So the little things like that, you know you’re in the right environment day-in, day-out with a club that’s trying to make a difference in the game here in Canada.
Off the pitch, how has it been settling into life on the island?
MA: It’s been amazing, to tell you the truth. I’m a nature guy. I’m from Argentina, so even when I go down there, I try to [get into] the mountains. So when I came here, I’m living with my girlfriend and my dog, and we just spend most of our days off and anytime we can going hiking, going to the beach, going to the ocean. I’ve been loving it so far. I grew up in cities; I grew up in Buenos Aires and Toronto, but I think that’s what makes it even [nicer] to live outside of the city now.
What’s your favourite place you’ve discovered so far?
MA: Our go-to beach is Witty’s Lagoon—just because usually, you have a lot of space there. Especially right now with COVID. And hike-wise, Goldstream Park. You can basically hike anything you want there.
Leaving home’s never an easy choice. You grew up in East York. You’d played for Jimmy Brennan with Toronto FC’s academy. What memory will you hold onto most, being able to represent your hometown CPL club for two years?
MA: I think the memory is exactly what you said: being able to represent my hometown, and to be one of the first signings in [the league], be part of [the CPL] jersey reveals, all those big moments we had. First-ever CPL game, first-ever York captain. I think more than anything, all those firsts in Canadian soccer. That was a huge takeaway for me, being able to come back and start something new with the CPL and the clubs here. It’s something I wish I would’ve had [earlier], and I [hope] in the long-term, it keeps on going. I look at my little brother; he’s nineteen now [and] in U-SPORTS.2 If he gets a chance out of this, it would be amazing.
The Canadian Premier League is unique in that you have players who are just beginning their careers—guys like Sean Young; you have guys like Jamar [Dixon], who have been around the block and are ready to bring that experience back to younger guys; and then you have players who are aspiring to use this league as a springboard to [bigger opportunities]—be that MLS, or a move to Europe. What’s your motivation at this point?
MA: I take it one day at a time, but if I was to think long-term, I’m more in [that group] of players trying to take their game to the next level. I’ve been in an MLS club,3 but that’s in the past now; I have to work my way [back] to it and try to get back, whether that’s MLS or Europe again, anything like that. I think as an athlete, as a professional, if you’re not striving to get better and move onto better things, you’re kind of [stagnating], and you’re not going to progress much. So just having those goals set of wanting to get better and wanting to get into better leagues is always a positive thing.
Sixteen games in, you’re at the top of the CPL table. Pacific FC is first in both goal differential (+10) and goals scored (27). How do you keep it up for another half-season?
MA: I think [the same way] we have been. There’s games where, for example, against Vancouver, we played [Thursday], and then Valour came around [on Sunday]. There were a few early subs, and guys have come on and done just as [well as the starters]. I think right now, we’re showing that we have a 23-man roster and that we have some depth to us.
Obviously right now, we have [Marco] Bustos out, but we’re hoping to get him back as soon as possible. He’s a huge part of our team. But if we can keep everyone engaged and ready to go for games, then we’ll be fine. We have a very, very good team.
It was Aparicio’s early blast that set up Terran Campbell’s rebound and the subsequent penalty. His four shots (three on target) were the most of any PFC player that match, and his passing accuracy (81.8%) was the highest of any PFC player with more than five pass attempts.
Aparicio’s younger brother, Pedro, plays in the midfield for the York University Lions.
Aparicio joined Toronto FC’s academy in October 2010 and signed with the club’s first team in 2013 as a Homegrown Player—the eighth player in the academy’s history to sign for the first team. He spent the next two seasons on loan to the Wilmington Hammerheads and TFC II, making 40 combined appearances before it was announced in December 2015 that he would not be returning to Toronto FC for the following season.
It’s been a joy to watch him lately