After allowing early goals in three of their last games, Vancouver FC was hoping to go a little longer against Pacific FC on Saturday, Sept. 14 before picking a ball out of their net.
But no. After conceding goals in the sixth minute against Forge on August 18th, in the second minute against Ottawa on August 31st and in the fourth minute against York on September 6th, they had a goal breach after just seven minutes, against a team they'd beaten five times in a row.
Pacific ended their losing streak against the Eagles with a 3-0 shutout of their Langley-based rivals, with their first goal coming from Dario Zanatta after a Moses Dyer shot.
Then, Dyer doubled his team’s lead in the 43rd minute, as he headed home on a corner after a perfect delivery from Andrei Tîrcoveanu from that dead ball situation.
Pacific then found their third goal in the 72nd minute, as Zanatta slotted home into an empty net after Tîrcoveanu had a free kick denied by Callum Irving.
Vancouver’s head coach, Afshin Ghotbi, indicated personnel changes could be coming.
"When it doesn’t get done, you have to change personnel in the field,” Ghotbi said post-game. “Players can’t keep making the same mistakes over and over – at some point, you have to make changes.”
“I think we could have done better,” Vancouver defender, Matteo Campagna, said afterwards. “We’ve talked a lot about the set pieces (and wide balls) we were conceding, so it just wasn’t good enough, and we need to keep working on towards the future to really secure our playoff spot.”
With the win, Pacific climbed into a tie with Vancouver for the fifth and final playoff spot in the CPL with 26 points, also sitting with a game-in-hand over their Langley-based rivals.
Vancouver will return home for a match against Forge at Willoughby Community Park on Saturday, September 21st (3:00 p.m.
