For the first time in 2025, it’s derby weekend in British Columbia, as Vancouver FC are getting set to host Pacific FC in the ninth installment of the Salish Sea Derby at Willoughby Community Park on Saturday.

Now into season three of this rivalry, 2025 might be the biggest year yet in terms of this derby – at least in terms of games played, that’ll be the case, as both teams are guaranteed to meet at least five times this season after playing each other four times apiece in 2023 and 2024.

That, of course, is thanks to the Canadian Championship draw, which pits these two teams against each other in the preliminary round in less than two weeks, in a match that will be huge for both teams.

Before then, however, this Canadian Premier League clash awaits, and make no mistake – even though this isn’t a knockout match, both teams are willing to swing big in chase of a result, as this is a key fixture.

Given that both are off to less-than-ideal starts to their CPL campaigns, this match is a chance to reset momentum at a crucial time ahead of a busy month of May, where slow starts can go from a small worry to a whole lot of trouble for clubs.

In particular, this is a big game for the hosts, Vancouver, who lead the all-time series in this derby, sitting with five wins in the eight games, as they’re still looking for their first win of 2025.

The good news, however, is that they come into this game with some wind in their sails. That, of course, is because they were able to pick up an important point away to Cavalry, putting together one of their best performances as a club.

Therefore, while they’ll be frustrated that they missed a chance to pick up all three points late, they’ll gladly take that point, their first of 2025, and try and carry that level of performance into this game.

“The commitment as a group to our tactical plan and the way they executed, it was brilliant,” Vancouver FC head coach, Afshin Ghotbi, said. “We’ll build on that performance, and we’re hoping that it will be duplicated consistently, as those performances will usually result in maximum points and climbing the table – and we’re not happy where we are in the table.”

As for Pacific, though, they’re coming off some more frustrating results than their Vancouver-based counterparts, as they’ve lost back-to-back games after opening 2025 with a win.

On a more positive note, they did win the last derby between these two teams, as they dismantled Vancouver 3-0 at Starlight Stadium last September, picking up a victory that eventually propelled them to the playoffs ahead of the Eagles.

Often, in derbies, momentum carries over from the last matchup, so Pacific would be happy to bring some of those good vibes into this game, helping close the gap between them and Vancouver in the all-time series, having lost five derbies in a row before that September triumph.

“We had a difficult time against Vancouver, and that needs to be the focus for us, to understand everything that a derby has in it,” Pacific’s head coach, James Merriman, said this week. “We’re representing not only Vancouver Island, but our entire fan base, they’ll come over and be in the stands to challenge and push us, they’ll be there in numbers.”

In terms of roster availability, Vancouver might be without Allan Enyou, who is a gametime decision after leaving the Cavalry match with an injury; otherwise, everyone appears to be available for selection, including Vasco Fry, who returns from a suspension. Meanwhile, Pacific will only be without Daniel de Pauli, who will be week-to-week with an ankle injury; everyone else is available for this match.

3 THINGS TO WATCH

• Can a familiar foe push Vancouver back to home success? It’s no secret that Vancouver wants to be better at home, as after picking up a league-low 16 home points last year, they’ve opened 2025 with back-to-back home losses. Not only that, but the performances were not up to the standard that they’d hope for matches at home, either as they allowed their visitors – York United in week one and Atlético Ottawa in week two – to control proceedings in both of those matches. Given that Vancouver were able to put in a much more aggressive performance away from home vs. Cavalry in week three, it shows that this team is capable of making life uncomfortable for teams on both sides of the ball, but they didn’t show enough of that in their two home games, something they’ll want to change here. What will encourage them, however, is that they’ve got a good record vs. Pacific at home – of the four wins they had at Willoughby Community Park last year, two of them were against Pacific, and they’ve won three straight derbies at home. Because of that, look for them to use this derby to reignite some home magic. On the flipside, Pacific will know that, given Vancouver’s home struggles, this could also be a chance for them to turn around those fortunes in terms of their record at Willoughby Community Park. Certainly, it feels like Pacific will come out and test that idea with an intense start – from there, it’ll be up to the hosts to either match or best that energy.
• Capitalizing on strong starts is a must for Pacific: What will frustrate Pacific most about their loss to Halifax last week isn’t that they failed to capitalize on what was a strong performance, but that they didn’t capitalize on a perfect start. Sometimes, this sport can be funny, and you can put in a good performance that doesn’t yield a result, but you can’t let certain moments go to waste. Certainly, it feels like Pacific weren’t able to make the most of one of those important moments in the first 20 minutes of that Wanderers game, as they had some glorious chances to go up a goal, including one less than a minute into the game, but they were unable to finish those opportunities. That’s something to watch, as Pacific have conceded the first goal in back-to-back games, after having opened the scoring first in their season opener in Valour, and just weren’t able to get themselves back level once they went down. Having dominated against Valour with the lead intact, it’ll frustrate them that they haven’t led a match since. When this Pacific side is at their best, they’re one of the hardest teams to play, especially when they have a lead, so look for them to start strong and give themselves a chance of operating in that game state as early as possible. “We need to build that mentality to be stronger and not change things if we concede or if something doesn’t go our way,” Merriman offered. “And to understand that we have 90-plus minutes to get a result and we have to manage the moments of the game (to do that).”
• Will Vancouver keep balance from Cavalry matchup? It’s harder to know what Vancouver will be more pleased with from their matchup with Cavalry – will it be that they looked dangerous in the attack, generating 1.16 xG from 12 shots? Or that they kept Cavalry to just 0.59 xG from 11 shots of their own? For fans, they’ll be happy to see the former – this Vancouver team has the potential to be very dangerous offensively, but didn’t show enough of that in the first two weeks, scoring just one goal in their two home games, coming when they were already down 3-0 vs. Atlético Ottawa in week two. As for Vancouver’s coaching staff, however, the defensive numbers will stand out – Vancouver looked as disciplined and organized defensively as they’ve ever looked, doing a great job of staying together and composed in a 4-2-3-1 off the ball. Yet, the one thing they’ll want now is to stay strong in both categories – often, the hardest thing to do in this sport is to find a balance between being dangerous offensively without sacrificing defence. Often, it’s easy to find goals but by sacrificing defence, or to be defensively sound but struggle to score goals – the best teams tend to be good at both. Over the last two years, Vancouver has struggled to find that balance between the two, one they seemed to find vs. Cavalry – because of that, they’d love nothing more than to use that as a building block and be more proficient in both boxes going forward. “We’re working on it,” Ghotbi said. “We’re trying different things, and we’re hoping that we can find the right formula for the group when we play at home.”

PROJECTED STARTING XIs

Vancouver FC: Irving; Dada-Luke, Campagna, Norman Jr., Bah; Fotsing, Fry; Campbell, Mezquida, Godbout; Díaz

Pacific FC: Anchor; Chung, Quintana, Machado, Greco-Taylor; Young, Browning Lagerfeldt; Kratt, Bustos, Zanatta; Heard

ALL-TIME SERIES

Vancouver FC wins: 5 || Pacific FC wins: 3 || Draws: 0

Last meeting:

Sept. 14, 2024 — Pacific FC 3-0 Vancouver FC

KEY QUOTES

“We’ve been the better team in this derby, we’ve had the upper hand, and we will take that mindset into the match. I believe that derbies are very important to grow the game, as derbies create the kind of excitement and competition that you need between teams that are so close to one another, but I also expect that it will very exciting match because both teams will play to win.” — Vancouver FC head coach Afshin Ghotbi

“(This derby) is very important for us. It changed the trajectory of our season last year, these games, so we talked about it with everyone in our group, the staff, all of us, and I think we need to be focused, we need to be at our best right now, and we need to have a big performance. We need to respond to our last matches, so I think it’s going to be a good game.” — Pacific FC head coach James Merriman