It was the type of game that goes into the signature lore of any team. It will for Pacific FC, to be remembered as the day the club qualified for the Canadian Premier League playoffs on the last day of the season in a driving rain storm at Starlight Stadium.
A first-half goal by hometown-product Dario Zanatta gave the Tridents a 1-0 victory Saturday afternoon over regular-season league champion Forge FC as PFC qualified for the playoffs for a fifth consecutive season.
“The rain, the surface, the pressure of the game, it was all there,” said PFC head coach James Merriman.
“This was not an easy day in wet, difficult circumstances with a skipping ball that doesn’t come true off the foot.”
It came off true enough in one defining moment, however, at 32 minutes as Zanatta took a cross-field pass from fellow-former Canada Under-20 player Adonijah Reid and buried a goal that stood as the winner.
“I’m a confident guy in that situation,” said Zanatta.
“[Reid] told me before the game that he was going to set me up and he lived up to it. It was clear what we needed to do today and we stuck with the game plan.”
Zanatta, the former Scottish Premiership pro, has scored all five of his goals in the latter portion of his first season with the Tridents: “It’s huge. It was a tough few months at the beginning for me.”
The Victoria product described scoring the winning goal Saturday: “It’s a special moment at home that I’ve not had the last eight years [while playing in Scotland]. Both my parents were here and I knew where they were sitting [to acknowledge as part of the goal celebration].”
The Zanattas were part of the hardy crowd that showed up. The club said more than 3,500 tickets were sold for the crucial game, with about half of the ticket buyers braving the adverse conditions and showing up, packing near the upper reaches of the stands under the covered portion to stay dry. Those who came made enough noise to make up for the no-shows.
But the best quip about the conditions Saturday belonged to Forge FC veteran midfielder and former Sweden Under-19 player Alexander Börje Achinioti-Jonsson, who has played in the top-level Swedish Allsvenskan: “We call this Tuesday in Sweden. It’s like a nice summer’s day for us.”
The result secured for PFC the fifth and final playoff berth, which hung in the balance heading into the final game of the season.
“Nobody remembers what place you finished in the regular season if you win the whole thing,” said Zanatta.
Merriman said his club did the “bare minimum” of the standard that is expected of the Tridents every year – that is make the playoffs: “Every season we want to be a playoff team. Leaving it to the last game of the season is not where we want to be. But we put ourselves in that situation. That said, we stayed positive and optimistic and came through a challenging period with grit and character, and have looked more like ourselves the last six weeks. Now it’s a blank slate and we feel good moving forward on the road in the playoffs.”
PFC travels to Toronto to meet fourth-place York United in the 4-5 playoff game on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m. PT, the first step leading to the CBC nationally-televised CPL championship game Nov. 9. The Tridents had to beat the CPL’s gold standard Saturday to make it into the championship hunt. Forge FC has won four of the five league playoff championships since the CPL was inaugurated in 2019 (PFC beat Forge in the final to win the other in 2021). This year the Hammers won the regular-season championship, and the 2025 CONCACAF Champions Cup berth that goes with it. (The CPL playoff champion will also earn a CONCACAF Champions Cup berth).
“It’s our attention to detail when it matters most,” said Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis, whose Hammers head into the CPL playoffs as the top seed.
“Anything other than being champion is a disappointment. Trophies are the driving force for us.”
The Tridents on Saturday also earned themselves an entrance ticket to the playoff trophy chase.
