Final Score: Halifax Wanderers 3-0 Vancouver FC
Goalscorers: Morelli 5′, 58′, Ferrin 66′
Game of the 2023 season: 75
CPL match: 442

Match in a minute or less

The Halifax Wanderers continue to be dominant at home, as they claimed their sixth win in nine games at Wanderers Grounds this season, picking up a 3-0 victory over Vancouver in CPL action on Saturday.

They got the scoring started early in this one, too, as João Morelli turned home a perfect cross from Andre Rampersad just five minutes into the game to give his team the lead.

From there, Morelli would then add his brace via a penalty he won himself in the 58th minute, before Massimo Ferrin coolly converted a great through ball from Wesley Timoteo to make it 3-0 in the 66th minute, allowing the Wanderers to cruise the rest of the way en route to victory.

Three Observations

Resilient Wanderers do well to bounce back with dominant win:

In this sport, it’s important to have a short memory.

Sometimes, dwelling on anything can be dangerous, be it a moment in a match, to a stretch of games.

No matter the circumstances, you have to focus on the present, or you can quickly get swept up in ‘what ifs’, which is a dangerous game to play at any level.

Therefore, while the Halifax Wanderers were frustrated to drop all three points in a loss to Pacific earlier in the week, one where they felt some harsh penalty calls let them down, they knew that the only way they could respond was with a strong performance in this game.

Safe to say, in a game where they scored inside just five minutes, kept a clean sheet and scored three goals for the second time all season, they did that and then some on Saturday.

“We always think of the next game,” Morelli explained afterwards. “If it’s a bad result, we forget about it, even if it’s a good result, we forget about that, too.”

It might not have been a stereotypical Halifax performance, as they ended up ceding a lot more of the possession battle and completed their passes at a lower rate than usual, but what they lacked in style they more than made up with their ruthlessness.

That’s reflected in the advanced numbers, as they ended up taking the xG battle 2.02 to 0.48, reflecting their ability to generate dangerous chances, as well as keep Vancouver out of their end of the field.

Yet, that’s exactly the sort of response that they needed, especially at home. A team that wants to keep Wanderers Grounds as a fortress, they don’t want to make it a habit to drop points at home, especially not two games in a row.

Now up to a league-leading 19 points from nine games at home (2.11 points/game), they’ve certainly continued to do that, and this latest result just cemented that.

“That Pacific game was passed (our minds) before this game,” Morelli continued. “This is where we love to play, we have the best fans in the league, so we can never lose twice here in a row. Never. We can’t let that happen. Sometimes, it’s normal to lose as sometimes the game plan doesn’t go as planned, but you then have to focus on the next game, and we knew that we had to come up with a good performance today (after our loss to Pacific).”

Therefore, a lot to like from Halifax’s perspective, as they did what they needed to do, and did so with conviction, claiming another big victory as they continue to mount a late push towards the regular season title.

“We didn’t get the result we wanted (vs Pacific), but we said heyy let’s bounce back, and come out with hunger and energy,” head coach, Patrice Gheisar, said. “And I felt the guys did that today, they really ran their socks off out there.”

Disjointed final third play sees Vancouver continue offensive woes:

To get an idea of where Vancouver’s at with their offensive struggles right now, let’s just say by the end of the game, they would’ve been relieved to score even if it came via an own goal.

Instead, that wouldn’t come, as they were kept off the scoresheet for a third straight match, and now have just two goals in their last five games.

Not only that, but they just couldn’t get much going in the final third in this game, either. At least across their last few matches, finishing was more what let them down, as they got into good areas, but couldn’t execute.

In this game, however, they just lacked the creativity and movement to cause much of a problem for Halifax’s defence.

Despite Vancouver holding onto 55.8% of possession, just 29.6% of the game was spent in Halifax’s final third, giving an idea of how much they struggled to get going offensively.

Along with the fact that they generated just 0.43 xG on 12 shots, with most of their best looks coming from well outside of the box, that just further reflects what kind of day it was offensively for Vancouver.

Because of that, they’ll now need to find a way to change that, and quickly. Now sitting last in goals for in the CPL after Valour’s recent goal outburst this weekend, Vancouver’s offence has really hit a wall as of late.

Undoubtedly, as an expansion team, that’s to be expected – it can be hard to put together certain patterns of play and create chemistry as a new side, especially at this level.

At the same time, it’s not as if they’ve struggled to score goals all year – they did have 13 goals in their first 14 games of the season, which isn’t groundbreaking, but it is certainly solid.

Especially given that they’ve only made improvements to their attacking group as of late, bringing in some intriguing new pieces such as Alejandro Díaz and Mikaël Cantave, one would’ve only reasonably expected them to improve on that early start, making this recent run surprising to see.

“I feel that we’re getting there,” fellow new signing, Vasco Fry, said afterwards. “We just have to score. We’re getting the ball into the box, and we’re getting numbers into the box, so we just have to put the ball into the net.”

Of course, that’s sometimes the risk of new signings – sometimes it can take a few games to gel.

Yet, that’s the most frustrating part of this result for Vancouver – they had been playing well as of late, especially in the attack, but just weren’t converting their chances.

Therefore, for them to take a step back in that regard in this match is what will be most frustrating, and will be something they’ll look to clean up as they get set for a big clash at home to Pacific next week, one where they’ll need to be firing on all cylinders to have any chance at grabbing a result.

“Winning and losing is about momentum, and it’s about habits,” Vancouver head coach, Afshin Ghotbi, said. “I think one of the things that is very difficult for teams that sit at the bottom of the table is how they mentally recover from losing matches.”

“I do believe our players were in a very good place before this game, but now I have to lift them up psychologically and move on and try to quickly get them to believe in the mission at hand, as we have nine games left, and as long as mathematically we have a chance at the playoffs, we’re going to fight and we’re going to try to find our way back in this competition.”

Timoteo emerging as an important part of Halifax’s build-up play:

It’s been the key theme of the Wanderers season – everything runs through Lorenzo Callegari.

The league leader in touches and passes, it’s rare to see a Halifax attack that doesn’t involve the French midfielder in some form or another, as he plays a big role in how they build up from the back.

Either by playing between the lines, or dropping into Halifax’s back line, he does a great job of getting on the ball and unleashing his team, thanks to his ability to break lines with his passing.

Yet, while that strategy has worked to all sorts of success for Halifax this season, it does lead to a conundrum at times – what do the Wanderers do when Callegari is either unavailable or struggling in a match, be it due to form or teams trying to mark him out of the game?

Turns out, they may have just found their weapon in Wesley Timoteo.

Normally an attacker, usually either playing as a #10 or winger, Timoteo has found a new home on this Halifax team – as a left back.

Not only that, but he’s not playing the traditional left back, either – he’s actually spending most of his time dropping into the left side of a back three on the ball, before shifting out wide off it.

After playing out wide when on loan to FC Edmonton last year, where he nabbed five assists, it’s been a different role for Timoteo, but one he’s really taken to.

That’s reflected in his playing time, as after playing just 500 minutes across the first 11 games of the season, struggling to get minutes, he’s played over 700 minutes in the eight games he’s played since slotting into his new role.

Plus, he’s growing each week in his performances, too, showing more and more comfort in his role. In particular, he’s really becoming a key weapon for Halifax in their build-up play, offering a second option to play through that’s not just the feet of Callegari.

In this game, that proved to be key, as he actually ended up leading Halifax in touches with 64, as Callegari had an uncharacteristically quiet day with just 60. Instead, a lot of the play went through Timoteo, who also finished with two chances created, one assist and completed 38/45 of his passes (84%), including 7/10 long balls, marking a solid performance on the ball.

Yet, for those paying attention, they won’t be surprised by that, as he’s been quietly putting up performances like that for weeks now.

Therefore, expect to see a lot of him in this new role going forward. Seeing the success that the Wanderers have found as of late, he’s certainly played his role in that, and this game was just the latest example of that.

“Here’s a young man that we tried out wide on the left, right, and in at attacking midfield,” Gheisar said of Timoteo. “And I remember how disheartened he was when we played Calgary at home (on June 17th), he played zero minutes and he was gutted.”

“He thought he’d be a guy that was going to come in and play a lot, but we people forget that we had 17 new players, and we’ve only been together for five months. We’re still finding everybody’s best position, figuring out relationships between players, seeing who plays better on home and who plays better away, those are all things that other teams have had a five-year headstart on us for, but I think we’ve found a really good home for Wesley.”

“But I also think that he’s grabbed the bull by the horns, and had really made the left back position his own. I mean, I don’t want to put pressure on the guy, but he’s growing more and becoming one of the prominent left backs in the league, and I look forward to seeing his growth down the line as we reach this final stretch here.”

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

João Morelli, Halifax Wanderers

It was a special day for Morelli, who scored his first two goals at Wanderers Grounds since September 29th, 2021, when he nabbed a brace against Atlético Ottawa.

Not only that, but he did so with his wife and child in attendance for the first time, too, as they joined him in Halifax this week, further adding to the occasion for Morelli, who celebrated both goals by pointing a heart to them in the crowd.

Safe to say, he was motivated for this one, and that’s reflected in his brace, marking a deserved player of the match performance from the 2021 CPL MVP and Golden Boot winner.