Match Preview: 3 things to watch in Pacific FC vs. Valour FC (April 17, 2022)

Weekend number two of the 2022 Canadian Premier League season wraps up on Sunday in the same place that saw the end of weekend number one — Starlight Stadium in Langford, BC, home of the reigning CPL champions Pacific FC. They’ll host Valour FC, who head west in search of more road points after starting their season in Edmonton.

3 THINGS TO WATCH:

• Picking up early points on the road important to Phil Dos Santos: Starting their season with three matches on the road — away to FC Edmonton, Pacific and Atlético Ottawa — Valour are of course putting a priority on getting as many points as possible and getting off to the best start possible.
  
  After a season in which they missed the playoffs by a single point, they know that they will have chances to pick up points in front of their fans at IG Field, but aren’t taking any opportunity to pick up points for granted. Ahead of Sunday’s match, head coach Phil Dos Santos told CanPL.ca that he set a goal for how many points he wants his side to pick up in this opening part of the season, and that they’re still on pace to do it.
  
  “If we start playing the psychological game and saying that we wouldn’t aim for nine points… I’m not like that,” Dos Santos said. “I have to be more realistic as a coach, when you have three games on the road, you say ‘how many points does a playoff team need to have in three road games’, and we’ve set that number in our heads. If we manage to grind the results we want to grind, then we’re coming to three home games, and we know we can be dangerous on our turf.”
• Dada-Luke and Bustos already forming a strong partnership on right flank: In their season opener last weekend, the right sided duo of Kunle Dada-Luke and Marco Bustos looked as confident playing together as they are talented.
  
  Bustos missed a lot of the 2021 season with an injury, but stepped back into the starting lineup and looked as sharp as ever. Dada-Luke has very big shoes to fill after Kadin Chung, one of the best players in the CPL, moved on to Toronto FC, but early indications show that he’s set for a big season.
  
  He was causing all kinds of trouble down the right flank, regularly outpacing his opponents to find space for himself to get crosses into the box, and working well with Bustos on overlapping runs.
  
  New Pacific head coach James Merriman was impressed with what he saw from the duo. 
  
  “Bustos is very focused, he’s come back and he wants to play matches, he’s got things to prove for himself,” said Merriman on Friday. “And Kunle is a player that stepped into that right back role and did very well. He’s grown a lot and developed a lot from last season to this season, and he’s come in with a really good attitude and focus in preseason. It’s great for him to get the start that he had, and he needs to continue it and build from it.”
  
  
• Valour not rushing Jean-Baptiste back from injury: After suffering a season-ending injury early on in the 2021 season, Valour boss Phil Dos Santos isn’t rushing to get his star defender Andrew Jean-Baptiste back on the pitch.
  
  The Haiti international was an unused substitute in the first game of the season in Edmonton, and will likely start on the bench again in Langford on Sunday.
  
  “AJB is a day-to-day, it’s all about confidence,” Dos Santos said on Friday. “If everything goes well and I don’t need to use him, I won’t rush him, I don’t need to. I need to look at the big picture and the fact that there’s a lot of games to be played, and I want to make sure that he comes in and I’m putting him in a position for him to succeed and help the team with the maximum of his ability.”