A historic day for the Canadian Premier League, province of British Columbia, and city of Vancouver, on this week’s CPL Rewind, the clocks are turned back to May 7 of this past season. Vancouver FC’s inaugural game is one that could have gone wrong in many ways, from issues with a brand-new stadium to difficulty on the pitch as a brand-new team. Fortunately, the eighth CPL club’s first game at home experienced neither. The club was already four games deep into their first campaign before their home opener where they welcomed stiff competition from one province over, Cavalry FC. With over six-thousand fans showing up for the occasion to begin with, goalkeeper Callum Irving and his teammates faced early shock when they were welcomed with a tifo. Not just any tifo, an especially evil-looking Afshin Ghotbi styled as Emperor Palpatine in reference to the team’s ‘dark side’ appeal. “We walked out, and I looked to my left and went ‘oh my God, is that Palpatine over there’,” Irving said. “As far as fan support and atmosphere on the game day, it was beyond what I could’ve imagined.” The support did not just live within the dark Emperor’s image as the game got underway to noise stretching across all of Langley, B.C. Thirty minutes in, the Vancouver FC faithful were given something to be loud about as centre-back Rocco Romeo was sent off in what can only be considered a controversial decision. From a Daan Klomp long ball, the 23-year-old defender came across to contest its recipient and, in turn, put his shoulder through the man. Romeo was first arguing the referee’s call, but immediately had his attention turned as red was flashed in his face.
Down to ten men, the team in black was already in for a fight in their new home. Opportunities coming on each end of the pitch, the game entered the half-time break scoreless. Unfortunately for the Eagles, the deadlock would be broken straight away. Just one minute into the second half, José Escalante floated in a ball from the left wing. An attempted clearance would fall straight to future Vancouver FC forward Mikael Cantave who made no mistake, placing his strike past Irving into the bottom right corner. One man down and one goal down, a stroke of fortune would bring this game back to even just minutes later. A long ball played through the middle by Kadin Chung was then played into the path of striker Shaan Hundal who, with fortune on his side, managed to find the back of the net. Before the 24-year-old even realized he had scored, the crowd of 6,000 went wild as history was written in front of their eyes. The first ever Vancouver FC goal scored at Willoughby Community Park. Celebrations now over, Cavalry still had the upper hand and was hungry to ruin the party. Despite the Calgary side’s strong response, the Vancouver native Irving shut the door the entire way. The goalkeeper’s strongest save came in the in the 94’ minute as he pushed a strong Charlie Trafford header wide with an acrobatic dive to his top left corner. Vancouver would survive the late onslaught, defender Ibrahim Bakare showing the purest passion you could find at the ref’s final whistle.
The show of pride was matched in the stands by fans that Irving said bought in right away, a huge boost for the first-year club. “It’s always difficult to get people on board with something new,” Irving said. “The Fraser Valley Fanatics were supporting us from day one and even before that … they showed that there [was] a want for a team in the region and that there will be support.” The game played out as a 1-1 draw on the score sheet, but a resounding success for the club and a hopeful sign of things to come.