July 1, 2023...Preview: Vancouver FC vs. York United - 2023 Match #51 (from canpl.ca)
PREVIEW: Vancouver FC vs. York United — 2023 Match #51
2023-07-01
by ALEXANDRE GANGUÉ-RUZIC, CANPL.CA CONTRIBUTOR (@ALEXGANGUERUZIC)
CANPL MATCH PREVIEW
2023 CPL Regular Season — Match #51
Vancouver FC vs. York United
July 2, 2023 at 1:30 p.m. PT/4:30 p.m. ET
Willoughby Community Park in Langley, B.C.
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Having picked up their first-ever home victory courtesy of a 2-0 win over Forge on June 20th, Vancouver FC are now looking
to make it two straight this weekend, as they host York United at Langley’s Willoughby Community Park on Sunday.
After sitting with two draws and two defeats in their first four home games, they found a way to put that behind them
in a clash against the defending champions, who they caught by surprise on the day with a youthful outfit.
Now, they’ll look to build off that against York, a team that they know very well, even if they haven’t met in over two months.
The side who they beat 2-1 for their first-ever win as a club back on April 22nd, they’ll be looking to conjure up similar
magic this time around, this time in front of their home fans.
Eager to build a bit of consistency, as that recent Forge victory snapped an eight-game winless run dating back to that
York victory, this game will be a great opportunity for them to find a bit of form.
They’re coming off a defeat in their last match, as a visit to Valour last weekend saw them fall 1-0, but they’ll try
to quickly put that behind them in time for this one.
“There are no easy games for us, and there are no easy games in this league,” Vancouver’s head coach, Afshin Ghotbi, said
this week. “There’s so much parity, and there’s so much quality in all of the teams, the difference between teams sometimes
is one goal or one moment, so I expect it’ll be a difficult game (on Sunday).”
As for York, they’re also coming off similar heartbreak from that same matchday, as they fell 2-1 away to Cavalry via a late
Ali Musse free kick the day prior.
Now, all of a sudden, they’re riding a three-game winless run, as their form has quickly reversed after a five-game run that
saw them nab four wins and one draw in May and June to climb up the CPL table.
They still sit third in the standings, so they haven’t slid down too much after this run, but the gap is closing behind them,
so they’ll look to open things back up with another win.
Sitting third in the league in away points per game, they’ll look to prove their status as road warriors with a strong
performance in Langley, spoiling Vancouver’s party in the process.
With their performances remaining solid despite the recent run of results, they’ll now look to turn that into more points,
allowing them to resume their surge back up the table after a slow start to the campaign.
“If the performances were poor, I’d fear the direction we’d be going in, but the performances have been really good,” York’s
head coach, Martin Nash, said after his team’s last match. “It’s tough, Pacific was a tough one to swallow, we’ve allowed late
goals in all of our last three games, but there’s still a lot of positives to take from that, for me all we’ve got to look at
(cleaning up) are the last 10-15 minutes of games.”
“If we can correct the wrongs of those moments and see out games, we’ll be in a good place in the second half of the season.”
OneSoccer is also available as a linear channel on Optik TV (Ch. 980), the pay-TV service operated by Telus, one of Canada’s
‘big three’ telecoms companies, as well as on streaming service fuboTV Canada.
3 THINGS TO WATCH
Can York follow in Vancouver’s footsteps with U21 minutes? Vancouver FC hit a big milestone this past weekend, as they became
the second team to clear the required 2000 minutes that each team must give to U21 Canadian players, after Valour. A requirement
that must be hit to be eligible to make the playoffs and to avoid a fine, Vancouver will be pleased to hit it as early as they did,
all the way in game #12, serving as proof of their mandate to develop Canadian talent. Plus, with some of their U21 players
sitting as valuable contributors, that minute tally will only continue to grow, which could pay off by the end of the season
as they gather experience and get used to the level of the league. Therefore, keep an eye on youngsters like TJ Tahid, Tyler Crawford,
Anthony White and James Cameron, who still have a lot of growing to do despite looking good in their stints so far. Interestingly,
York might look to use Vancouver as inspiration, too. Sitting last with just 341 U21 minutes, sitting 1659 minutes short
of the 2000 minutes requirement, they must now average 110.6 minutes across their last 15 games to clear the mark, which means
that they’ll pretty much need at least one or two U21 Canadians in their lineup in each match. Because of that, expect to see
a lot of Noah Abatneh, Eleias Himaras, Theodore Afework and Markiyan Voytsekhovskyy over the next while, as York works on that
requirement. If not, it could dampen what’s already been a solid campaign for York, who have done well to find themselves where
they are in the standings despite dealing with several key injuries.
Can Cantave bring an immediate touch of magic to Vancouver’s attack? On their day, Vancouver’s proven to be a tough unit to beat,
sitting with a solid defensive identity. Where they’ve struggled, however, is in the attack, where goals have been hard to come by,
as they sit last in the league with 10 goals. Shaan Hundal has done a pretty good job of scoring them when called upon, sitting
with half of their total with five goals, but other than that, the 16-year-old Tahid is the team’s next-best goalscorer with
two goals, with no one else sitting with more than one. Because of that, they’ve been eager to find new avenues to get more goals,
and they proved that this week, bringing in Cavalry’s Mikaël Cantave in a trade for youngster Maël Henry. A creative piece,
one who can play both wide and centrally, Cantave will look to bring a jolt to this Vancouver offence, already sitting tied
for second in team scoring with two goals. Able to score out of nothing, they’ll hope that he really steps up and supports Hundal
in that regard, while offering some much-needed link-up play with Vancouver’s midfielders. If he can do that, he’ll be a massive
pick-up for Vancouver, who remain very much in the playoff hunt as the halfway point of their inaugural campaign nears. “With with
the team being so young, the energy is already there,” Cantave said this week. “That’s one thing I’ve seen in training this week,
there’s a lot of energy in the changing room, on the pitch, so hopefully I can bring a bit of my experience on and off the pitch
off the pitch to help players, and then stay calm in the final third in those moments that count most.”
York still looking to get strikers firing: A big reason for York’s success this year? Their offence, because while they sit
with the second-most conceded goals in the league with 17, they’ve made up for it by scoring 15, good for third in the league.
Yet, despite that, they’re still looking to find some consistency up front, as main striking options, Osaze De Rosario
and Brian Wright, have combined for only one goal so far this season, coming via De Rosario. They’ve made up for it in other ways,
as Mo Babouli has four goals, including two in his last two games, while they’ve got eight different goalscorers, but one can
only imagine what getting De Rosario or Wright in form could do for them. Especially with Babouli heating up, he could form
a lethal one-two punch with whoever steps up, completing a dangerous front four with two of Austin Ricci, Clément Bayiha
and Kévin dos Santos. With York’s defence only set to improve, as they continue to deal with injuries in midfield and at the back,
their offence could be crucial to determining how far they can push as the season goes along, and having an in-form striker
will only aid them in that quest.
PROJECTED STARTING XIs
Vancouver FC: Irving; Cameron, Romeo, White, Crawford; Zadeh, Simmons; Tahid, Bitar, Cantave; Hundal (4-2-3-1)
York United: Giantsopoulos; Grant, Gee, Abatneh, Ferrari; Soumaoro, Gagnon-Laparé, ; Santos, Alou, Ricci; De Rosario (4-2-3-1)
ALL-TIME SERIES
Vancouver FC wins: 1 || York United wins: 1 || Draws: 0
Last meeting:
April 22, 2023 – York United 1-2 Vancouver FC
KEY QUOTES
“I think this game is massive for us for so many different reasons. We’re reaching a point where every point counts, the distance
between us and the top of the table cannot get larger than it already is, and we need to really chip at that difference. We have
two home games back-to-back coming up, and I believe that we need maximum points in both of these games to bring us to a good position
in the table, and to make us a little bit more competitive in our challenge for the playoffs.” — Vancouver FC head coach Afshin Ghotbi.
“Earlier in the year, our success came because we could see out games. Right now, we haven’t been, we’re playing well and deserve
more points than we’ve had, but we have to keep reminding the players of that.” — York United head coach Martin Nash
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