The Eagles Soar No More

Friday night in the GTA, Vancouver FC took on York United in a Canadian Premier League match at York Lions Stadium that ended 3-0 in favour of the home side.

Going into this one, former York United man Paris Gee had been a one man wrecking ball on the left side of the pitch for VFC. Gee had recorded a goal, an assist, and an average player rating of 7.85 (FotMob) in his first two league matches this season. In many ways, Gee represents the shift in mindset that VFC have undertaken since the end of the 2023 season. One that had seen the club come out of the gate to a hot start in the league with two dominant home wins.

Afshin Ghotbi appears to have found his ideal starting XI for this season, squad congestion and injury aside, after an inaugural year that saw an almost constant rotation between players week in and week out. The new off-season acquisitions for Vancouver have proven to help immensely. With four new faces in the starting lineup, The Eagles showed no problem dispatching both Valour (4-1) and Halifax (2-0) within five days of each other. A newly founded attacking partnership of Diaz & Dyer gave the offence a much needed spark, and with an upgraded defence including Gee, Norman Jr, and Romeo, the team looked ready to challenge for the top of the league this season, at least two matches in.

For the Nine Stripes, it was a tough start to 2024. Having lost some key players from last year like Gee, Gagnon-Laparé, and Osaze De Rosario, York struggled to find their form over their first two outings of the year. Losing both games by a cumulative 5-1, offence and defence were both in need of improvement for Martin Nash’s side. With the Eagles coming off an upsetting 1-0 loss in a mid-week Canadian Championship match, could York look to upset Vancouver and give them their first league loss of the season? As it turned out, York gave VFC all they could handle and more.

Before this match-up, the all time competitive record between both clubs was 4 wins for York United, 1 win for Vancouver FC, and 0 draws.

With Kadin Chung unavailable, after a hard tackle in VFC’s mid-week game against Cavalry, James Cameron was called upon by Ghotbi to fill in on the right flank. Additionally, TJ Tahid and Kembo Kibato were given the nod to fill in for Ben Fisk at right-midfield and Renan Garcia and central-midfield respectively.

Nash’s side lined up in a different formation from their opening games, going with a 4-4-2, giving Frank Sturing his first CPL start after coming over from Austrian club SV Horn. Soumaoro was also chosen to start again in a central-midfield position instead of Josue Martinez.

The game started as a relatively cagey affair, with neither team really standing out or doing anything dangerous. York had the upper hand with 54% of the first half possession and 6 shots; however, in the first half at least, the VFC defence seemed like they were holding up. They stayed cool and composed every time York moved into their attacking third of the field.

In the 10th minute of the match, Vasco Fry was shown a yellow card for stomping on the leg of Sturing, and he was probably lucky to only be shown a yellow in that situation. Kembo Kibato was also shown a yellow card in the 28th minute for a hard foul on York’s Mo Babouli. A couple of minutes later, Austin Ricci had a solid strike that was saved by Irving, and then a couple of missed chances by VFC at the end of the half would see the two teams at nil-nil going into halftime.

While it wasn’t a perfect first half for the Eagles, it wasn’t a terrible first half in any regard either. With a couple of close chances that Dyer couldn’t quite connect with towards the end of the half, it seemed like VFC could come out and potentially make a difference in the second half of this matchup. Unfortunately, that’s not what the cards had in store. 

To start the second half, Renan Garcia and Tyler Crawford were brought on for the youngsters, TJ Tahid and James Cameron. The second half started brightly, with Dyer trying again to find the net, but none of his three attempts within the first 15 minutes would end up testing York’s keeper too much.

Just like the first half, the second was a pretty stagnant affair until the 70th minute, when York would take advantage of their more dynamic play. Ferrari was given the ball just at the edge of the eighteen, then he played a lovely through ball to Cordova who flung the ball low across the face of goal to an awaiting Brian Wright. 1-0 for York.

Jose Navarro would come on for Diaz, but it would be a little too late to make a difference. Garcia would pick up another yellow card for VFC in the 74th minute, before a long drop kick from Vincensini would make Norman Jr slightly lose his balance as Brian Wright found his way around the defender and made his way towards the net and found Dennis Salinović to make it 2-0 for York. Ferrari and Salinović would both get a pair of yellow cards before another counter attack would see Wright get his second goal of the night in the third minute of added time to make it 3-0 and seal the deal for York United.

A disappointing second half from VFC would see them lose a match that was theirs to take at halftime. After a great pair of opening games, it will be back to the training pitch for Ghotbi’s side to figure out what went wrong. On the other hand, Nash will be impressed with his side who knocked off the league leaders for the first win of their season.

VFC’s next game will be another away matchup on Friday, May 3rd, as they try to get revenge on Cavalry FC who just booted them out of the Canadian Championship.

(Header Image: Beau Chevalier, Story Images: CHANT)