An extraordinary weekend of soccer was not sweet for all outside of Spain and Argentina. That was doubly so for Pacific FC fans, who suffered through not only Alphonso Davies floating a penalty kick off the cross bar for Canada in the Copa bronze-medal game, but the Tridents losing 2-1 to Forge FC in Canadian Premier League play in Hamilton.
What hurt the most in the latter from the PFC perspective Sunday was that the Tridents blew a 1-0 first-half lead — through a penalty kick by Dutch-import Ayman Sellouf at 33 minutes — by allowing the Hammers two second-half goals by Kwasi Poku at 47 minutes and Canada-capped Tristan Borges at 85 minutes.
“We lost concentration and focus to start the second half,” said Pacific FC head coach James Merriman, of former Canada U-20 player Poku’s tying goal just after the break.
Even that might have been an OK outcome at Tim Hortons Field, one of the toughest places to pick up points in the CPL.
“We could walk away with a road point, but then to give away all three points,” Merriman further lamented, about the veteran Borges’ late winner.
“When you get to the 80th minute, you need to finish the game better. We didn’t take care of the ball very well. Up 1-0, we need to take better care of the ball.”
PFC went to 5-5-4 in wins-losses-draws in league play while Forge FC moved to 6-4-3.
Forge FC has set the standard that all other teams in the league look up to, having won four and played in all five, of the CPL championship games contested to date. The only time the Hammers did not win the league playoff crown, and advance to CONCACAF competition the ensuing year, was when they were beaten 1-0 in the 2021 CPL championship game by PFC.
The Hammers, who beat CF Montreal of Major League Soccer in the Canadian Championship quarter-finals, were coming off a 2-1 win last week over Toronto FC of MLS in the semifinal first leg. PFC came into Sunday’s game following a gamely-contested 1-0 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps of MLS in their Canadian Championship semifinal first leg.
The Tridents are off until July 28 when they host Valour FC of Winnipeg at Starlight Stadium.
“This is a timely break for us,” said Merriman.
“We need recovery and to get back into our own environment and focus on the second half of the season. We want to be on the front foot and more aggressive in the second half of the season.”
CORNER KICKS: Highly-promising Chris Greco-Taylor of Pacific FC is among the four CPL players on the Canadian team for the 2024 U-20 CONCACAF championship in Mexico, along with Khadim Kane of Forge FC, James Cameron of Vancouver FC and Tavio Ciccarelli of the HFX Wanderers. Canada opens in Group B against Honduras on Saturday and plays the Dominican Republic next Tuesday and El Salvador on July 26.
