Final Score: York United FC 2-2 Pacific FC
Goalscorers: Hundal 74', Accettola 90+4'; Bustos 21', Díaz 34' (pen.)
Game of the 2025 season: 105
CPL Match: 700
Match in a minute or less
York United scraped a point deep in stoppage time against Pacific FC, as they came back from 2-0 down at halftime for a critical point in their final home game of the regular season.
Pacific took an early lead thanks to Marco Bustos' first goal of the season, then doubled it when Alejandro Díaz buried a penalty. York, however, knew they needed at least something out of the match, so they made a handful of impactful changes in the second half to get back in the game.
Shaan Hundal scored midway through the latter frame, getting on the end of a massive Luke Singh ball from the back of the pitch and finishing cleanly. After a number of other chances, York finally equalized as Luca Accettola smashed one home in the 94th minute for a last-gasp draw.
Three Observations
York avoid disaster with late equalizer, hang onto hopes for home playoff match
York United had a golden opportunity in this match to take over third place and put pressure on Cavalry FC. They entered the match three points behind the Cavs, with the tiebreaker in hand, so with Cavalry playing first-place Forge on Friday, the Nine Stripes had realistic aspirations of heading into the final matchweek in third.
Instead, they were off the pace from the start, offering one of their most frustrating performances of the season. Playing at home, where they've been generally excellent the last few months, York seemed to have less energy than the opposition, providing too much space to Pacific for the first goal then giving away a sloppy penalty.
All the while, they weren't able to create much in attack, generating just 0.37 expected goals from five shots in the first half, with 42.8 per cent possession.
To their credit though, York improved dramatically in the second half, in a desperate situation where they absolutely had to get at least something out of the game. Coach Mauro Eustáquio made good subs in the second half (more on them later), and the urgency returned to their play as they created nine shots (five on target) and took control of the ball.
York will still leave this game frustrated, having squandered a golden opportunity to compete for third, but they did at least strengthen their position over the fifth-place Halifax Wanderers.
Eustáquio said repeatedly that he felt his team did not play well in this match — including in the second half. He attributed the comeback to character, rather than tangible improvement with the ball.
The situation, then, looks like this. Cavalry play Forge on Friday night at home, and if they win, they'll clinch third place — and thus, home field in the semifinal qualifier against the winner of a midweek knockout match between fourth and fifth place.
That would doom York to play in said midweek match, which they ideally would've liked to avoid, but at the very least they want to play at home. That requires them to finish fourth.
Halifax take on Valour FC in Winnipeg on Saturday. If they draw or lose, York control their fourth-place destiny heading into the final week. If the Wanderers win, however, they'll leapfrog York, and the Nine Stripes would therefore need external help to secure a home playoff game.
York play on the road next week against Forge, which would be a particularly difficult game to win, but Halifax are at home against Atlético Ottawa, who may also be fighting for the CPL Shield.
All four matches in the CPL next Saturday kick off at the same time (4 p.m. ET) as part of the Outcome on the final day of the regular season. York United will be scoreboard watching over Thanksgiving weekend, hoping for some help from Forge and Valour to keep their third-place hopes alive.
Either way, they'll definitely have something to play for next week.
Frustration again for Pacific with second-straight late equalizer despite early positives
Last time Pacific played at York Lions Stadium, they got battered 5-1 in a game that all but ended any hope they had of making the playoffs.
So, James Merriman called on his side to respond in their final away game of the 2025 season. His team started about as well as they could've — arguably better than they've started a match all year. Marco Bustos, who has had an incredibly frustrating year, finally scored his first of the season, which will have been quite a relief for him.
The Tridents' attack has looked much more dangerous in the past two weeks, with the three goals they scored against Cavalry, plus the two they netted in the first half on Thursday. However, it seems that the offensive improvement may have come at the expense of defending: for each of those five goals they've scored, they've conceded one as well.
In fact, two weeks in a row now they have been close to winning, but gave up the equalizer in the 94th minute.
"I'm frustrated, and I think the locker room is frustrated, because I thought we were very good in the first half," said Merriman postmatch.
He added: "I think the last 15, 20 minutes is very poor from us. Very poor. The frustration is because that's back-to-back games like that. I know it's been a tough season, a long season, all the things we can talk about, rhythm and confidence, and it's not that because the game in my opinion was done, we needed to close it out and finish it off, and we didn't do that."
Still, the Tridents generally found positives with players doing what they do best: Bustos playing with confidence and contributing on the scoresheet, Yann Toualy driving with the ball and taking on defenders, and Aidan Daniels playing the ball forward to create.
Defender Kadin Chung — who missed Thursday's match with injury — said a few weeks ago after a loss to Forge that his Pacific side had to show some fight over the final few weeks of the season, because they owe it to each other and to their fans.
Next week, their season will come to an end in front of those fans, in a game against a fellow eliminated team in Valour FC.
The number one priority for Pacific has to be winning that game, to leave things on a positive note.
Second-half adjustments, substitutions make the difference late for York
It was a lacklustre first half from York at a crucial moment of the season, so it wasn't surprising when Mauro Eustáquio turned to his bench early.
Just ten minutes into the second half, he brought in Shaan Hundal and Luca Accettola, adding in Cam DaSilva ten minutes after that, and then finally deploying Riley Ferrazzo and Gabriel Bitar in the 74th.
Both goals ended up being scored by substitutes in Hundal and Accettola, and Bitar assisted the late equalizer, so it's fair to say Eustáquio will be happier with the performance of his subs than his starters.
"We're not that good [that we can] just show up, turn on the switch and try to compete for three points," Eustáquio said, frustrated at his team's performance early in the game. "That's not the team I want, that's not the team I designed to have. We need to compete for everything. In the last 20 minutes, we showed a little bit of passion, and we showed how dangerous we can be."
Midway through the second frame, York changed formations from the 4-3-3 they started in to the 3-4-3 they have tended to use throughout most of this season. They'd been dealt a difficult hand to start the match, with first-choice centre-back Frank Sturing suspended for yellow card accumulation and midfielder Steffen Yeates away on international duty with Trinidad and Tobago. That meant natural midfielder and captain Elijah Adekugbe had to play centre-back, and he had a frustrating evening, conceding the penalty for Pacific's second goal.
That also meant Leonel López had to play a little further back in midfield to play where Yeates or Adekugbe might be normally, preventing him from creating chances at the rate he often can.
When they got López back into his more attacking role by bringing Accettola on the pitch, good things happeed (even though it was Accettola hanging up high that produced the second goal).
York haven't necessarily gotten the most goal contributions from their bench this season, but their depth ended up being a major factor in this game.
They absolutely cannot afford to start that poorly again next week in Hamilton, but at least they proved, as they have several times this year, that they can't be counted out at any point.
What They Said
"Going into the playoffs, that's what we need. If we go down a couple goals we've got to be able to respond. It's a bit late, and we needed the result for the standings, but we can take a positive out of that." — York United midfielder Luca Accettola
"It's not come easy for us this season, and obviously we've conceded a lot of goals this season, so that lives in us a little bit, even when we're up 2-0 and in good control of the game. We shouldn't let them back in, but we're at the very end and this has been consistent throughout the season, so unfortunately that's frustrating." — Pacific FC head coach James Merriman
CanPL.ca Player of the Match
Kembo Kibato, York United
Kibato's energy and grit helped spur York's comeback, with the way he repeatedly threw himself into challenges and drove with the ball to try and make something happen. He won 10 out of 16 duels, made six interceptions and three tackles, also winning two fouls.
What’s next?
Both these sides, like every Canadian Premier League team, will be in action simultaneously next Saturday, Oct. 18. York head down the highway to play Forge FC, while Pacific host Valour FC, with both matches kicking off at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT.
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