Forge FC smashed FC Edmonton 5-1 in CPL action. The Hamilton side was up 4-0 at halftime and even managed to pull off an Olimpico. Forge dominated all of the possession and shots in a 3-4-3 formation. Edmonton attempted to keep things tight with a defensive 4-1-4-1 but they were not particularly successful. The game was played in somewhat difficult conditions as it reportedly felt like 40 degrees in the stadium with 62% humidity.
- A1 – Very good, could play higher
- A2 – Strong potential to play higher
- B1 – Good, strong player at level
- B2 – Potential to be a strong player at level
- C – Average for the level, rewatch
- D – Below average in this match
Woobens Pacius
Player Profile:
- Nationality: Canadian
- Age: 21
- Date of Birth: 11/05/2001
- Current Club: Forge FC
- Career: CF Montreal (Y)
- Position: Striker
- Preferred Foot: Right
I have wanted to write about Woobens Pacius for Target Scouting for quite some time. He has fantastic off-the-ball movement and is pretty good in the air, making him a deadly poacher at CPL level. The problem is, although those skills are extremely useful, it’s kind of hard to get 300 words out of them. In this match, playing as a lone centre-forward, Pacius touched the ball fewer times than any other outfield starter and scored a hat trick. Over 10% of his touches were him putting the ball in the net. This is a classic Woobens Pacius performance.
Pacius’s meal ticket is his ability to get on the end of high-danger scoring chances. In this particular match, he did not score a goal by getting on the end of a cross but that was more due to the ball not getting to him. There were plenty of times when he evaded a defender but couldn’t quite connect with the ball. In this match, he had a lot more success with diagonal runs behind the defence. Pacius is only moderately quick but he’s very good at getting to balls behind the defence first by just evading defenders with his movement.
On the rare occasions Pacius had the ball at his feet for an extended period of time, what he could do was a bit limited. He did come deep to receive the ball a few times but this seemed to be more to stay connected to the team rather than to do any serious build-up play. Usually, he just passed the ball straight back where it came from. He had one quite nice looped pass in behind the defence that his teammate probably should have done more with but other than that his few attempts at something complicated in the buildup did not go well. He did not dribble very much but he did send Bicou Bissainthe for a packet of Tim Tams on his 3rd goal so he’s not untalented in that department.
Rating: A2
There have been some quite interesting articles written on the concept of floor raisers vs. ceiling raisers in football. Pacius is the definition of a ceiling raiser. He is absolutely fantastic when he’s being reliably set up by strong teammates, maybe better than any other striker in CPL, but he is heavily reliant on the work of others. I think he has the potential to play in MLS but there isn’t really a natural home for him on any of the Canadian teams at the moment and it’s not that likely an American team would want to use an international slot on him. So I think a good next step for him could be a big fish in a small European pond. A club like HJK in Finland, a place where he can use his skills to succeed domestically and perhaps get some shine from playing in continental competition.