Pacific FC’s trio of strikers, who have made the former moribund offence come to life over its last two games in the Canadian Premier League, could be facing the freshness factor in Nova Scotia.
PFC played Saturday at Starlight Stadium and then flew 5,803 kilometres to Halifax to meet the HFX Wanderers today at 3 p.m. PT in the third longest distance in the world to travel between teams in a pro soccer domestic Premiership league.
That will take a toll on anybody’s body, including the Tridents’ terrific trio of late. Former Canada U-20 and Scottish Premiership player Dario Zanatta, 11-time New Zealand capped Moses Dyer and Romanian-import Andrei Tircoveanu have provided the goals in PFC’s consecutive 3-0 victories over HFX and Vancouver FC the last two weekends at Starlight Stadium that halted a previous five-game PFC scoreless drought that stretched to Aug. 2 and 10-game winless streak across all competitions.
Hometown-product Zanatta has three of those six PFC goals over the last two games, which are his first three of the season, Dyer two and Tircoveanu one.
“We brought Dario [Zanatta] in because of his experience from Scotland and to have him return to the Island because he is from Victoria,” said PFC head coach James Merriman, in his pre-game media conference.
“The goals weren’t coming so easy for him. It’s the life of a striker and it can grow into a bigger challenge.”
Zanatta noted that himself following his two goals in Saturday’s win over Vancouver FC: “I haven’t been as good as I want to be, and two weeks ago was sitting on zero goals on the season, and now I feel alive in the box and a whole new player.”
PFC bench boss Merriman said it has all come down to Zanatta’s perseverance and persistence: “Credit to Dario. He hasn’t stopped training, hasn’t stopped working and hasn’t stopped pushing and now he’s getting rewarded.”
The recent star turns by Zanatta, Dyer and Tircoveanu have been key for PFC, especially with striker and captain Josh Heard having been out long term with injury, and not expected back until next month.
Another trio of PFC players have returned from national-team duty during the recent FIFA international window and will almost certainly be pressed into action today. But they will also have jet legs after flying to Victoria from the Caribbean and Central America, and now all the way across Canada to Halifax, after midfielder Marco Dominguez started for Guatemala and forward Reon Moore and midfielder Steffen Yeates started for Trinidad and Tobago in CONCACAF Nations League games.
Today’s game is crucial in the hunt for the fifth and final playoff berth in the CPL. The Tridents and Vancouver FC are tied for fifth place with HFX and Valour FC of Winnipeg both three points behind. PFC and HFX each have six games remaining.
