Wednesday May 15, 2019 ~ LANGFORD
by Mary P Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
Pacific FC was on field tonight at Westhills Stadium playing a Canadian Championship game against Cavalry FC here from Calgary. A light drizzle for the first half of the game may have dampened the turf but not the crowds … they cheered for the home team.
The team handled their passes pretty well and worked at keeping possession of the ball.
At half time a score of 0-2 Pacific-Calvary shot them into the second half with more intensity. But the final score remained as 0-2 Pacific-Cavalry, leaving coach and team disappointed but looking forward.
“The game and movements are there but we need to put it together. So the opponent doesn’t score goals, we do,” said Pacific FC Coach Michael Silberbauer.
How will Pacific FC players prep for the next game? “We need to keep going at it,” said Coach Silberbauer. “There’s so much talent in this group. They’re young, they’ve been heavily front loaded. I believe this team will only get stronger.”
The strain of travel does take up energy. “We need to get through this next week, then we have a bit of rest and hopefully we’ll come back strong,” said Silberbauer. “But before that happens we have two games and we need to put something together in order to get some results.”
“We played three days prior to this, and before that we played three days prior to that. Travelling to Toronto and travelling to Edmonton. There hasn’t been a lot of training going on,” said the Pacific FC coach.
Silberbauer’s insights for moving ahead to success include: “We need to keep being good with the ball and good in front of the goal. There are things we can work on and take away from this game. “
Pacific FC goalkeeper Nolan Wirth said after that game that they “started off flat” but there were a couple of wakeup calls. “But we couldn’t find the back of the net, couldn’t find a pass to put us through. But there’s next week which we’ll look forward to,” Wirth told media.
What kind of strategies is the team working on to handle the field the best they can? “We’re working on our press,” said Wirth, adding: “Starting from the strikers and all the way down to the back line for pressing.”
And is that working? “Slowly but surely we’re getting on the same page and hopefully we’ll see some results. Next week we’ll come out full bore. We have to play the first half next week. Go out on our front foot,” said Wirth who was tired after the long game night, but engaged.
Cavalry FC Coach Tommy Wheeldon, Jr was last up in speaking to local media about his team’s win tonight. “One goal changes this game for the second time. Whoever gets up first… if it’s us, if it’s a three-goal game that makes it harder. But we’ve seen with the Champion league — these cushions don’t really mean anything. I’m sure Michael’s got some good young side here, He will make some decisions with an eye to playing and coming at us next week,” said Wheeldon.
“We’re prepared for another battle, we’ve got another job to do,” the Cavalry FC coach said. And talking organizational strategy: “We’ll play what we’ve got available. Whoever’s fresh will play, whoever needs minutes will play. We’ll play with a team that we think can win any football match. I signed 23 good players,” said Wheeldon.
What did Cavalry see as weaknesses in the Pacific FC game? Wheeldon said: “Michael’s put together a good young team. But at times they can be a little bit naive. Our ethos of hunting together made sure we tried to disrupt their rhythm because they’re a good passing team. When we did that, they’d look long to Marcus. I thought we dealt with them very well.”
“Pacific is going through a journey, they’ll be a good side in the end,” he noted graciously.
Stadium attendance tonight was 2,294 which is about 35% capacity, not bad for mid week on a coolish rainy night.