Match in a minute or less
On a rainy afternoon at Willoughby Community Park, the Halifax Wanderers picked up a crucial 2-0 road win vs. Vancouver FC to continue their solid start to the 2025 CPL campaign.
After a quiet first 57 minutes of the game, this match went into a weather delay after a lightning strike, leaving both teams to regroup as they dealt with an extended pause in the match. That break ended up being pivotal for the Wanderers, who opened the scoring right after the game restarted, as Ryan Telfer scored on a breakaway in the 59th minute to put his team up 1-0.
Then, after that, they managed to seal the game late, having done well to survive some dangerous Vancouver attacks that nearly tied the game up. There, it'd be Halifax's Tiago Coimbra who'd seal the deal, as he slotted home into an empty net after a great cross from Wesley Timóteo to make it 2-0, securing the victory for his team in style.
Three Observations
Wanderers use surprise break to their advantage:
It's never easy to have to deal with any sort of delay in a match, especially in a sport where momentum and ryhthm is so key, with a 90-minute match often decided in key moments.
Any time you have to take an extended break, it can throw everyone off their game, especially in a tightly-contested match. Because of that, it was always going to be fascinating to see how both teams would cope with a half-hour weather delay with the game still at 0-0 in the second half.
For the Wanderers, however, it appears lightning struck at the perfect time. Having had a relatively quiet first 57 minutes of the game, in which they'd struggled to impose themselves on the game as much as they would've hoped offensively, they did well to put that behind them after they came back from the surprise break.
Immediately, they seemed to have a renewed sense of energy, as they'd seemed to have been shot out of a cannon following their extended stay in their dressing room.
Thanks to that, they started to stretch Vancouver's defence out more, and that led to their first goal, which came from a direct, transitional attack in behind.
After struggling to attack those spaces earlier in the match, as they lacked that vertical threat before the break, they clearly made a point to attack that space more, and were immediately rewarded for it with Telfer's goal.
From there, they weren't done, either, as Coimbra's late marker also came from a play where they did well to attack the space behind Vancouver's defence on another transition moment, showing that the first one wasn't a fluke.
Thanks to that, they picked up a vital result, one that they'll feel they needed after coming off their first loss of the season, a 3-0 defeat to Cavalry at home.
Having been shut out in their last two CPL matches, with a 0-0 draw with Forge preceding that Cavalry match, the Wanderers needed to find their feet offensively again, and they did that in this win.
Plus, by doing so, they continued to show that they can break teams down in different ways, too. In other weeks, they've relied on dangerous possession play. In others, set-pieces have been their weapon of choice. This time, they went a lot more directly than they were used to, and that paid off for them.
Sometimes, good teams have to find a way to be flexible tactically, especially in a league where teams see each other so often, and in this one, the Wanderers once again showed that this 2025 team isn't as married to one main idea as they've been in past seasons. For example, it's hard to imagine them having a game like this one in 2023 or 2024, as they kept only 47% of the ball in this win, yet that just shows that they're willing to switch things up if needed to in order to grab a result - even if they've got to sacrice some style points to do so.
Vancouver unable to ride the ebbs and flows in otherwise solid showing:
For Vancouver, this result will sting, because the 2-0 might doesn't fully reflect how they played throughout the 90 minutes.
In the end, as the numbers showed, they kept the Wanderers to just 0.6 xG before Coimbra's late goal doubled that tally to 1.39 xG with a value of 0.789 on his goal, which is a good defensive performance. Defensively, the lone frustrations they had are with the fact that the Wanderers unsettled them with a few direct balls, such as the one on Telfer's goal - otherwise, they didn't give up much of quality (and even Telfer's strike came off an xG value of 0.081; it's worth saluting the quality of his finish).
Where Vancouver let themselves down, however, is in the Wanderers' box, as they left some big chances on the table.
In particular, one that will haunt them came from the player they'd want to get a big chance in the opposing box, Alejandro Díaz, who curled a dangerous shot just wide of the goal in a great position in the 53rd minute. It didn't rate too high on the xG metrics, clocking in at just 0.067 xG, likely due to an accumulation of Wanderers' defenders in front of him, but for a finisher of his quality, it was a shot that it felt like he'd usually score.
To his credit, he took it about as well as one can expect, as he settled the ball and picked out the corner, but just lacked his trademark precision.
Yet, that sums up Vancouver's day in front of goal. In the end, they got to some great areas of the pitch - they had 70 final third entries to the Wanderers' 49 - but they lacked the final action required to break open this game. In the moments where they seemed on the cusp of breaking through, they'd just miss the pass or shot, and then even hit the woodwork on one occasion.
Then, right when they seemed to be unlocking that attacking momentum, the weather delay came, and that completely threw them off their rhythm, having controlled the play right before that break - it was that kind of day for the Eagles, after all.
Because of that, Vancouver will be eager to get back out on the field, as they try to get back on track after a good run of results leading into this one. A big part of this run has been their strong level of performances, and this one was another positive one for the most part, with little mistakes being where they lost this game, so they can at least take solace on the fact that they didn't take a step back in terms of their overall game.
The good news? Vancouver will get the chance to get back on the pitch quite quickly, as a big Canadian Championship game awaits in midweek. Perhaps, that could be just what the doctor orders for them as they try to flush this strange match out of their memories.
Another road win a sign of growing Wanderers mentality:
Having otherwise been off to an excellent start to the CPL season, it was going to be interesting to see how the Wanderers bounced back from that Cavalry defeat, which was also their first loss of 2025.
Often, the hardest thing for teams to do is to maintain a good start to the season, as good results typically come at a cost - it places a target on your back.
It's not uncommon to see some surprise teams emerge and grab some good results in the first few weeks of the season - typically, those who win titles tend to their best work in the second half and onwards, however.
Of course, it's far too early to say these Wanderers will handle the latter stretches of this campaign, but a response like this shows that they're on the right track.
In particular, the big thing that continues to stand out with this team is that they've got some strong leaders, and an unshakeable mentality.
After a loss like the one to Cavalry, it can be hard to go out on the road and get a win, especially for a team that has struggled to do so in the past.
Instead, they did well to quickly put their sorrows behind them, and they were able to grab their third win in just four road matches, giving them 10 points from those situations already - for context, they only won one of 14 road matches in all of 2024, picking up just six points.
That's a great sign of their mentality, as sometimes winning on the road is about survival, and the Wanderers once again showed they were willing to suffer to get a result.
It wasn't easy - Vancouver had eight second half shots as they looked to salvage a result, but the Wanderers defended their box excellently, keeping Vancouver to just nine second half touches in their box, which was impressive given the game state (for context, Vancouver had 13 touches in the Wanderers box in the first half). Along with a proficiency in their duels, as the Wanderers won 56% of them in this game, they can look back and feel they left everything out there from a physical standpoint.
For a team that conceded a league-high 43 goals in 2024, and struggled to protect their net in games where they didn't hold the ball, it's been a remarkable turnaround, yet it just shows what's worked for them early on.
At the core, they're still the same high-flying Wanderers who want to hold the ball, score goals and entertain, but they know that to win, you sometimes need to be solid defensively and find ways to grind out results, and this Vancouver match was the latest example of how they've bought into that idea.
What They Said
"We have a lot of grinders; they just grind and grind. We have people who when you feel that things should be (going against us), and panic should be setting in, they don't feel it. They're calm. You could feel it today, we were calm, you could kick the ball to us 40 times, and we'd be good. " — Halifax Wanderers head coach Patrice Gheisar
"We try to keep things simple (on the road). The same effort we give at home is the same effort we want to give away, regardless of where we play. We want to bring that energy all the way from the East Coast to wherever. If we bring that energy, we know that we have quality within the team to shine." — Halifax Wanderers forward Ryan Telfer
“I think always when you lose have a bad result, you want to play the next day, if you can. I think we want to play as soon as possible to get rid of this feeling, it's a bitterness in our stomach. I think we're all gutted because we felt that we did enough to get points out of this game, and even win this game, so to come out down 2-0 is frustrating and disappointing.” — Vancouver FC head coach Afshin Ghotbi
CanPL.ca Player of the Match
Giorgio Probo, Halifax Wanderers
It was a good showing from Probo, who had the decisive assist on the winning goal, capping off a good showing from the attacking midfielder. The numbers show that, too, as he finished with three shots, three chances created, five passes into the final third, two long balls, five recoveries and four out of six duels won in a balanced performance.
All of Giorgio Probo's actions from this game (OPTA)
What’s next?
Vancouver FC will be back in action in midweek, as they get set to host Cavalry FC in the first leg of their Canadian Championship quarter-final tie at Willoughby Community Park on Wednesday, May 21st (7:00 p.m. PT/8:00 p.m. MT). Then, a few days later, they'll head out on the road to face York United in CPL action at York Lions Stadium on Sunday, May 25th (11 a.m. PT/2 p.m. ET).
Meanwhile, the Wanderers will be back in action on Saturday, May 24th, as they get set to host Atlético Ottawa in a top-of-the-table CPL clash at Wanderers Grounds (2 p.m. ET/3 p.m. AT).
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