2024 CPL Regular Season — Match #62
Pacific FC vs. Valour FC
July 28, 2024 at 2 p.m. PT/4:00 p.m. CT
Starlight Stadium in Langford, British Columbia
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Matchweek #16 of the 2024 Canadian Premier League season wraps up with some action out on the West Coast, as Pacific FC gets set to host Valour FC at Starlight Stadium on Sunday.

Their third meeting of the season, Pacific has so far had the edge in this battle in 2024, claiming victories in both matches, but Valour is eager to pull things back with a key road victory.

For Pacific, however, this is a crucial match for them in the schedule, as they play just their second home match in the past seven games after tackling a road-heavy stretch of their calendar.

Having won just twice in their past 10 games after winning three of their first four matches of the season, they’ll feel this return home can provide them with a big boost of confidence, given that those three early-season victories all came within the confines of Starlight Stadium.

Still sitting in the fifth and final playoff spot in the CPL table despite their recent slump, they want to affirm their position with a positive win and performance, allowing them to start the second half of their season on a high note.

Plus, given that they’re coming off an extended period of rest, having last played on July 14th, they’ll feel that break was exactly what they needed in order to reset and return to what worked for them earlier in the campaign, too.

“We needed to get fit and healthy, to have our whole squad available day in and day out for training, and for matches, for a lot of different reasons,” Pacific’s head coach, James Merriman, said this week. “(We needed it) for competition for starting positions, for matches to be at full strength, so the little break in our schedule this summer has been really good, the energy and the attitude from the players has been excellent.”

As for Valour, they’ll be looking to return to winning ways after a slump of their own, given that they enter this match winless in their last three games, and with just one win in their last seven.

Still within touching distance of a playoff spot despite their slump, as they sit eight points behind Pacific, they know that this is the perfect chance to close that gap, instead of letting it extend to as many as 11 points.

Given that they’ve faced a road heavy schedule to start the year, which included a seven game road trip to start 2024, as well as a recent stretch in which they’re about to play their third straight match on the road, it’s not been easy to navigate.

At the same time, they know that road-heavy first half of the season only means they’ll get set to play a home-heavy schedule to end the campaign, with seven of their last 12 games set to be played in Winnipeg.

No better way to get set for that stretch of games than with a big road win, and that’s not lost on this Valour side, who will look to begin their climb towards a playoff spot in this game.

“The expectations are going to be on us to obtain results when playing at home,” Valour’s head coach, Phil Dos Santos, explained. “And making sure that we bridge that gap that is at its limit when it comes to us being able to still see the line and not feel that it’s out of reach.”

“The mountain is a big one to climb, but like a friend of mine that is now coaching the Columbus Crew, Wilfred Nancy, said last season – ‘Impossible isn’t is an opinion’, and I 100 % agree with that statement, that’s how we need to approach things.”

In terms of squad availability, Pacific enters this game without any major concerns per Merriman, while Valour remains without two names – midfielder Juan Pablo Sánchez, who only just returned to training after an injury, and Roberto Alarcón, who is set to serve the last game of a three-match suspension he earned for a red card earlier this month.

3 THINGS TO WATCH

• Rested Pacific set to take on busy Valour side: Naturally, it’s always an interesting storyline when a side that is rested takes on a team in the midst of a busy schedule, as it leads to the all-important question – who gains the advantage in that battle? Ultimately, the answer is likely neither side – there are positives and negatives to having extra rest, as there also is when dealing with a busy run of games. When given the extra time to rest, it helps players recover from small injuries and provides extra training time, which is valuable, but it also can lead to rustiness and reduce match sharpness, which is a negative. On the flip side, teams dealing with a busy schedule can build up match sharpness and find a rhythm, but can build up bad habits due to a lack of training time and can sometimes get overworked. Because of that, the real advantage for Pacific and Valour in this matchup will come to whoever can make the most of the positives of their respective situations. For Pacific, that’ll mean using that rest to give them a boost of energy, while for Valour, they’ll want to show that they’re able to build off the momentum they gained last week, where they recovered from a tough road loss to Halifax to pick up a key road draw against league leaders Atlético Ottawa just days later.

• Pacific hoping attack can benefit from extra training time: No doubt, while Pacific’s extra training time was important to them, it was crucial that they used it to hone in on some specific areas of their play in those sessions, as they look to sharpen up their play in their hunt to build some positive momentum. In particular, the big area they continue to work on is with their attack, as they enter this match having scored a league-low 13 goals in 14 games, which is a surprise for a side that had the second-most goals in the CPL last year. Despite that, they’ve struggled to replicate that success so far this year, as some new arrivals and some key injuries have made it hard for Pacific to build chemistry. Because of that, it made these past two weeks crucial for their attack, as they finally got to build some chemistry with their full complement of attackers in training, which will allow Merriman to pick his best attack for this Valour match, instead of his best available attack. For a group that is quite strong when at their best, they’ll hope that extra competition will help this attack find another level, allowing them to pour in the goals at the rate they want to be at when at their best. “We need to be more more ruthless and more direct in the final third,” Merriman explained. “We need to get in the box, to deliver more crosses, we need more players sacrificing to make the movement, to make that last run, to get into the box and get on those crosses, and then we need to be more aggressive as midfielders to take a bit of risk in their final act, their final pass, and to take more shots. We need to create more in front of goal.”

• Valour looking to find consistency as road swing comes to an end: Sometimes, the hardest thing for a young team to find can also be quite simple – consistency. Be it consistency from match-to-match, or even half-to-half, or the consistency with which one approaches training sessions, actions in games and more, the toughest part about becoming a full-time professional is finding consistency, as the best aren’t just best in spurts, but they’re consistently the best game-in and game-out. For a Valour side with several players who are new to the CPL or in a professional environment for the first time, that’s been a big adjustment for them, as they get used to the rigours of a competitive circuit. At their best, there’s no doubt that this Valour side can be a threat – wins over current playoff sides like York and Vancouver this year shows they can be tough to beat when everything clicks, but they’ll want to find that sort of play more often from game-to-game. With the toughest part of their schedule now behind them, and having had a few months to bond and gel as a team, this Valour side is well set up to go on a run as they get set to tackle the home-heavy portion of their schedule, but that they’ll only be able to do that if they can find some consistency as a group. Perhaps, a win over a Pacific side looking to re-find their form is an ideal way to start, giving them something to build on. “The guys know they have it in them, so for us it’s always been the same, it’s (about) consistency,” Dos Santos said. “This is probably one of the best versions of Valour that I’ve coached when it comes to quality, so it’s frustrating to see that we haven’t been able to find consistency, not just from game-to-game, but in the same game we can go from absolute control to complete chaos within a game. I think the guys are aware of that, so we’re working very hard to find that middle ground when it comes to our consistency throughout 90 minutes, as well as from game-to-game.”

ALL-TIME SERIES

Pacific FC wins: 16 || Valour FC wins: 2 || Draws: 3

Last meeting:

June 14, 2024 — Valour FC 2-3 Pacific FC

KEY QUOTES

“They’re a group that doesn’t quit, they’ll put everything into this game. They just came off a positive result, in my opinion, so I think they’ll want to come in here and and try and get something from us, as well – they’ll feel up for it even if they’re away from home. At the same time, we need to focus on ourselves, we’ve had a much needed break, so we have no excuses not to have maximum effort and energy in this match, so I expect us to start on the front foot and stay on the front foot for 90 minutes here in front of our home fans.” — Pacific FC head coach James Merriman