(watch online-) Pacific VS York United live watch 18 June 2023
(watch online-) Pacific VS York United live watch 18 June 2023
Neely is now Pacific's technical director of football. A native of Nanaimo, B. C., Merriman grew up around the game. His father Bill Merriman, now retired, was a longtime coach of the Vancouver Island University men's soccer program with James serving as assistant coach there from 2009 to 2011. Merriman played collegiate soccer at the University of Denver before stints with the Colorado Rapids reserves, Victoria Highlanders FC and Colorado Lightning of the Professional Arena Soccer League. When injuries halted his playing career his father got him involved in coaching. James Merriman served as a Vancouver Whitecaps residency coach from 2012 to 2018 and was an assistant coach at Simon Fraser University's men's program from 2012 to 2014.
Midfield playmaker Marco Bustos leads with four assists while captain Jamar Dixon adds a veteran presence and midfielder Manny Aparacio helps spark the offence. The club is good in goal with incumbent Callum Irving. The arrival of Amer Didic in February helped fill the void in defence left by MacNaughton's departure. The return from injury of Thomas Meilleur-Giguere, Matthew Baldisimo and Bustos has also helped the team. Pacific finished third in the 2021 regular-season at 13-9-6, five points behind Calgary's Cavalry and Hamilton's Forge. But it beat Cavalry 2-1 after extra time in the semifinal before dethroning two-time champion Forge 1-0. MacNaughton says he picked Pacific at the beginning of the current CPL season to repeat as champion, citing the culture and work ethic.
The 36-year-old Merriman has been on the Pacific coaching staff since the club's inception. “If you're talk about somebody that's the identity of the club, it's probably him. because he was there before anybody, ” said MacNaughton. “He knows the Island from the little kids to basically everybody that's played there So he knows everything. ” Mark Village, the team's original goalkeeper, is now Pacific's goalkeeping coach. Merriman recruited MacNaughton through Stuart Neely, a former Toronto FC academy head who was also part of the coaching structure at the University of Toronto where MacNaughton played.