---

The 2025 Canadian Premier League season kicks off April 5, as Canada's top-flight domestic league enters its seventh season.

In the lead-up to matchday one, CanPL.ca will have all you need to know about each of the league's eight clubs. To see every CPL team's season preview, click here.

---

After taking a step back in 2024, it’s all systems go for Pacific FC in 2025, as they look to re-establish themselves among the top sides in the CPL. 

To their credit, they were still able to make plenty of noise last year despite their struggles, making the playoffs for a fifth straight season, but they fell well short of their expectations, as their fifth-place regular season finish and first-round playoff loss is below the standard they’ve been used to operating at in past seasons. 

As a past North Star Cup winner, the goal is to return to those heights, while improving their regular season results following fourth and fifth-place finishes over the past two years. 

Certainly, their offseason ambitions have so far reflected that goal - some champions from that 2021 team have returned, joined by some players who know this league very well. 

Because of that, Pacific is aiming to bring a purple wave to the CPL, returning the Tridents to the level they’ve shown in the past.

---

Story of 2024

• 2024 CPL regular season record (W-D-L): 9-7-12 (34 pts, 5th place)
• Goals scored: 27
• Goals against: 32
• Goal difference: -5
• Top scorer: Dario Zanatta (5)
• Canadian Championship: Lost in the semi-finals to the Vancouver Whitecaps

Despite making the playoffs, 2024 was a year of regression for Pacific, who took a step back in nearly every major category compared to the past year. 

In terms of their record, they had six points fewer than in 2023, having lost two more matches, which pushed them from fourth to fifth. 

Then, as for the counting stats, they scored 15 fewer goals, although they conceded three fewer - unfortunately, their improvements in the latter category were not enough to make up for their big struggles with the former, as their goal difference swung from +7 to -5 as a result of that. 

Yet, these numbers paint a good picture of Pacific’s struggles in 2024 - they were a strong defensive team all year long but struggled to score, with most of their results coming from low-scoring affairs. That’s why they finished where they did despite having one of the better defensive records in the league.

Arrivals and Departures

Players in:	Players out:
GK - Max Anchor (on loan)	GK - Emil Gazdov
DF - Kadin Chung	DF - Paul Amedume
DF - Pedro Machado	DF - Kevin Ceceri
DF - Fin Tugwell	DF - Kunle Dada-Luke
MF - Lukas Browning Lagerfeldt	DF - Thomas Meilleur-Giguère
MF - Aidan Daniels	MF - Zakaria Bahous
MF - Daniel de Pauli	MF - Marco Domínguez
MF - Matteo Schiavoni	MF - Pierre Lamothe
FW - Marco Bustos	MF - Cédric Toussaint
FW - Ronan Kratt	MF - Andrei Tircoveanu
FW - Emanuel Montejano	MF - Steffen Yeates
	FW - Moses Dyer
	FW - Reon Moore
	FW - Devin O'Hea
	FW - Adonijah Reid
	FW - Ayman Sellouf

---

To get an idea of how Pacific felt about their 2024 results, one just has to look at their offseason movement, as they’ve put in a lot of effort to rebuild the squad ahead of this new season. 

Out are over a dozen players, including 2024 CPL goalkeeper of the year, Emil Gazdov, who joined MLS outfit CF Montréal in an exciting move, as well as several others who have stuck around in the CPL such as Kunle Dada-Luke, Thomas Meilleur-Giguère, Adonijah Reid and Steffen Yeates. In particular, Dada-Luke and Meilleur-Giguère are two big losses, both being fan favourites at the club given their status as key players and 2021 North Star Cup winners. 

To replace their leadership, however, Pacific brought back some familiar faces - fellow 2021 North Star Cup winners, Kadin Chung and Marco Bustos, are back after stints elsewhere - Chung with Toronto FC in MLS and back in the CPL with Vancouver FC, Bustos in Sweden with IFK Värnamo. Given their importance to that 2021 team, and that both are still in their primes, those are two huge additions for Pacific, helping give them more juice on both sides of the ball. 

Those aren’t the only key signings, however - Matteo Schiavoni, Aidan Daniels, and Ronan Kratt all bring CPL experience and will hope to help Pacific’s attacking struggles. Then, elsewhere, Pacific has brought in an intriguing crop of international players in defender Pedro Machado, midfielders Lukas Browning Lagerfeldt and Daniel de Pauli, as well as striker Emanuel Montejano, giving them strong depth at each position. 

Lastly, Max Anchor is one to watch in goal - the young goalkeeper arrives on loan from the Vancouver Whitecaps, where he has loads of MLS Next Pro experience and a taste of MLS play, making him a good candidate to compete with Sean Melvin to replace the outgoing Gazdov. 

Along with a core of returnees led by captain Josh Heard and midfielder Sean Young, head coach James Merriman will hope these new additions can provide the juice he often felt his 2024 lacked, helping push them forward in 2025. 

---

2025 Outlook

Based on the offseason they’ve had, Pacific have made it clear - they weren’t satisfied with their 2024 campaign. It wasn’t a bad one, on the balance -  most would be happy to make the postseason and make a run to the Canadian Championship semi-finals, but not Pacific. 

In particular, their league performance is going to be a big focus for them, as they feel they’ve not been at the level they expect from themselves over the past two regular-season campaigns. This is a team that wants to push for the top two spots in the league, especially given the advantage those positions have in the playoffs, making it frustrating that they’ve ended up in the #4 vs #5 game the past two years in a row. 

To do that, however, they know what they have to do - score more goals. Teams that finish high up the table tend to score goals, doing so early and often, something that isn’t lost on a Pacific team that was once known for those sorts of exploits. 

At the same time, Pacific can’t sacrifice their defensive solidity for those goals, which will be tough after losing Meilleur-Giguère, Dada-Luke, and Gazdov, who were all so crucial to their strong defensive play. Yet, Pacific will hope that their new additions can slot in seamlessly and will point to the fact that they tended to have strong defensive results no matter who they had in the lineup in 2024, a sign of their strong overall team system. 

Elsewhere, a run in the Canadian Championship will be a big goal, as Pacific have now made the semi-finals three times in the past four years, doing well to establish themselves as a team that loves those big cup matches. Having given the Vancouver Whitecaps a tough time in last year’s semi-final, they’d love nothing more than to return to that stage for a potential rematch, so look for them to capture more cup magic. 

Lastly, this will be a big year for James Merriman, who is entering his fourth season as head coach with Pacific. Having been with the Tridents since day one as an assistant coach, he’s seen all sorts of highs and lows with this club and will want to push this team to past heights. Given the work they’ve put in this offseason, he now knows that he’ll have to find a way to put all of the pieces together while finding the balance that they lacked last season, which will be easier said than done. 

What They’re Saying

“I think we’ve done a great job in the offseason. We've made a lot of changes, probably more than maybe any other offseason, There’s been significant change in our roster, but I think it was needed after the end of last season (...) Some of the new players that we've added, we've added some different types of players, different dynamic players, very position-specific players (...) So yeah, we've made good additions. They've come in, and they fit into the team seamlessly, and so there’s been a positive energy in our early preseason.” – James Merriman, head coach

“I think that's the culture we want to build here. We don’t ever want to settle. We have had past successes, but it's been a while since we've lifted a trophy again. We want to be a club that's always in contention (to do that), so to be frank, I think last year we took a bit of a dip. We were in a cup semi-final, and we made the playoffs, but we want more, we want to compete for more. Guys are hungry to go and make a difference, and we have a lot of fresh, new faces, guys are excited to go, and hit the ground running, as we want to win something - we want to be successful at this club, we want to compete.” – Josh Heard, attacker

---

Projected Starting XI

(4-2-3-1) Melvin; Chung, Machado, Ndom, Mukumbilwa; Young, de Pauli; Bustos, Daniels, Heard; Kratt

It’s going to be fascinating to see who Merriman selects for a day one lineup, as this Pacific squad is littered with competition at each position. 

In this lineup, however, there’s no doubting the ability of Chung, Ndom, Young, Bustos, Daniels, and Kratt, who have all shown they can shine in the CPL. To the point of depth, however, you can see that in the names that miss out on this hypothetical squad.

For example, while this backline and goalkeeper could be a formidable group, it leaves out Max Anchor, Christian Greco-Taylor, Eric Lajeunesse, and Juan Quintana - the latter three were all key pieces last season. 

Then, in midfield, new arrival Lukas Browning Lagerfeldt isn’t included despite his experience, showing the competition in central areas. Lastly, the frontline is crowded - returnee Dario Zanatta and newcomer Emanuel Montejano will fancy their chances of playing a big role themselves. 

Yet, this depth will be a big asset for Pacific. A big reason for their 2024 struggles was injuries, but they’ll look at this squad and feel they’ve got the depth to push an already strong starting group while having names ready to step up when the time calls for it. 

Roster Notes

Domestic U-21	International	Loaned In
Max Anchor	Pedro Machado	Max Anchor (Vancouver Whitecaps)
Christian Greco-Taylor	Aly Ndom
Sami Keshavarz	Juan Quintana
Eric Lajeunesse (U SPORTS)	Lukas Browning Lagerfeldt
Mattias Vales (Development)	Daniel de Pauli
Fin Tugwell ( U SPORTS)	Emanuel Montejano