The Afshin Ghotbi era is finally over at Vancouver FC – an overview of his time in Langley

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.”

This quote, attributed to the American writer perhaps best known in this century as the author of The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, is one that seems more pertinent than ever. The adage has morphed over the decades but the essence is still the same. Two seemingly opposing views can both hold truth at the same time to a given individual. However, in a world that is more polarized than ever, the ability to hold this tension, admit this, or truly embrace it feels like a lost artform. In this cultural moment it appears as though people lack an understanding of nuance and only latch on to ideas that are seemingly a part of the camp they have chosen to reside in and ignore anything that remotely has a scent of anything counter to it.

As the Afshin Ghotbi era at Vancouver Football Club has come to an end, it feels important to remember that a person can hold seemingly divergent perspectives about his time in charge and still find truth in them.

Ghotbi arrived as the first head coach of the Canadian Premier League expansion side in November 2022 as a bit of an unknown despite his massive résumé. He had assistant and/or head coaching experience with clubs or national teams in the US, South Korea, his native Iran, Japan, Curaçao, Thailand, and China before landing on the shores of Upper Cascadia. Club owners, SixFive Sports, held an event at the Langley Events Centre to unveil Ghotbi along with the club badge and colours. He spoke eloquently about his passion for the project that was unfolding for the side that would be playing out of the new 6,000-seat stadium at Willoughby Community Park. Even with his expansive network of former coworkers and friends, the building of the inaugural squad was hampered by all the other things the organization was having to put time and energy into, especially the completion of the stadium.

Ghotbi has spoken of how that first season was rushed, including the squad construction. The CPL had lost FC Edmonton at the end of the 2022 season, following the withdrawal of the Fath Group and the League running the team for one season. The remaining owners across the country really wanted an even number of clubs to balance out the schedule. SixFive had been working on a club in the lower mainland dating back prior to the launch of their first side in the circuit, Pacific FC in Langford on Vancouver Island. They had announced in November 2021 that Vancouver CPL would be coming in the years ahead but the ideal timing would have been 2024.

That first group of VFC players in 2023 was really cobbled together from a variety of different sources. Ghotbi really had his hands full just fielding a squad for the opening few matches. It wasn’t surprising to see the team get off to a rough start. They ended the campaign with 8 wins, 5 draws, and 15 losses for 29 points while averaging 1 goal a game, with a -22 goal differential. The Eagles were nine points away from making it to the playoffs. Elsewhere, VFC exited the Canadian Championship for the Voyageurs Cup in their first round, falling 1-0 away to York United, while the average attendance for the season was just below 2,800.

One of the limited upsides to the season was not finishing at the bottom of the League table. That “honour” went to Winnipeg’s Valour FC. Another plus was how the club showed they were in line with the League as a whole. CPL exists to create opportunities for Canadians to play and develop in their home country, whether that would become the only League they played in or was a starting point on their footballing journey. To that end, even in year one, Vancouver showed a penchant for finding young talented players that they could develop and move on down the road – to the betterment of the player and club.

The first examples of this were TJ Tahid and James Cameron – a pair of youngsters who were unearthed during open trials. Neither player was sold at the end of the first season but both had meaningful development opportunities in two ways. They were a part of Canadian Youth National Team camps and games and they were also invited to valuable training stints at European clubs that broadened their horizons.

Finally, both the inaugural match away to Pacific (80-100 traveling fans) and the first ever home match (the only ever sellout in club history) were fixtures that were moments that fans will never forget.

So, on the one hand the results were disappointing to poor (if not understandable) but on the other there were signs that Ghotbi and the club were going to be able to develop young talent in a meaningful way. Reasons to be both discouraged and yet encouraged all at the same time.

The second season saw a significant shift in the recruitment strategy. There was an extreme focus on bringing in local players. In addition to the five that were already a part of the team in 2023, at least nine new ones were signed for 2024. There were layers to this strategy. On one level, the hope was that this would increase the connection of the club to the region. On the other hand, many of these players were league “veterans” and their experience was meant to shine through. It was hoped that there would be a noticeable increase in attendance as locals brought their families and friends to support them. Ghotbi wrestled with the challenges this brought, including having to deal with disappointed local players (and their friends and family) when they weren’t starting or even in the matchday 18, and some of that discontent started to spill out online on social media and messageboards, painting a unhappy picture of life behind the scenes.

The much more CPL savvy squad got off to a great start and even at the midway point of the season was in fourth place, seemingly enroute to a first postseason berth. However, when the final match was played, the stats had an eerily similar feel to the previous campaign – 7 wins, 9 draws, 14 losses for 30 points while scoring one more goal than the year before and improving to a –14 goal differential. The side finished just four points behind the last spot for the end of the season tournament. There was also another opening round defeat in the Canadian Championship – a 1-0 away loss to Cavalry FC – while the season’s average attendance increased to just over 3,100.

The Eagles avoided the wooden spoon for finishing in last place, thanks once again to Valour. However, the second half collapse hit the club and its fan base really hard. The final eight matches saw a streak of four losses on the trot followed by four draws in a row. The lowest moment probably being the third last match of the season. It was an away game in Halifax. The side had taken the lead, despite playing down a man. The Wanderers then had a sending off to make it 10 aside, before Austin Ricci had a massive chance to score or set up Grady McDonnell for his first pro goal to win the match and claim the much needed three points. Instead, Ricci did neither and his squib kick was intercepted and taken back the other way for Halifax to finally beat Callum Irving in the 90+8 minute, after he had stood on his head all game long.

It was a crushing defeat… even though it was a tie. Ricci had been a short-term signing near the end of the season and was probably fortunate to be allowed to be on the plane ride back to the west coast. Even though there were definite improvements in several quantifiable categories, the manner in which things went south at the end was quite a bitter pill to swallow – for stewards of the club and fans alike.

On the encouraging side of the ledger, under Ghotbi’s stewardship, the club continued to acquire and develop quality young players. Matteo Campagna, Thierno Bah, and 15-year-old Grady McDonnell were added to Cameron and Tahid. It took a while for Bah to really break into the side but once he did, he has been a favourite of his coach ever since. His versatility, work rate, and positive attitude have made him undroppable – something that carried forward into the third season.

The youngest player in the team, McDonnell, proved the old saying that, “if you’re good enough, you’re old enough.” The tenacity, fearlessness, and football IQ that he displayed in the 401 minutes he played over 17 appearances was inspirational. He loves the game and is a student of it. He also contributed two huge assists. McDonnell became the first player the club sold when he was transferred to the second team of Club Brugge in Belgium, Club NXT. It was a record transfer for the League. Shortly thereafter, Cameron was transferred to Colorado Rapids’ second team that plays in MLS Next Pro.

Both these moves were preceded by the club’s end-of-season media availability, which was the largest expression of the plan to really focus in on developing young players. Players who can be sold for good money. The goal being to one day have enough quality young players to both develop them and contend for titles at the same time. At that gathering, Ghotbi referred to VFC as striving toward being Canada’s “Football Factory” (in a non-hooligan sense). The deals for McDonnell and Cameron paid more immediate dividends than the sums of cash the club received for them. Based on how Ghotbi and the club handled McDonnell, central midfielder Emrick Fotsing left the youth setup of MLS side CF Montreal to come and join the Eagles. Fotsing has been described as the best young player in the country. In addition to Fotsing, teenagers Dominic Joseph and Kevin Podgorni were added to the first team roster. The former was one of the first fruits of the club’s new U19 set up, the latter another addition from out east.

The young talented additions gave some hope for the 2025 season. The same could be said for forward Terran Campbell’s return to the lower mainland to join the Eagles. He missed all last year with injury while at Forge but was being reunited with his former teammate and strike partner, Alejandro ‘Wero’ Díaz. This pair are the top two all-time leading scorers in CPL history. The big questions coming into the season were – who was going to be the creator of chances for the front two and what would their form be like?

Pre-season showed the creativity was missing and so was the form (at least a little). A handful of international signings were made, but all were not in the team to start the campaign as they each faced some form of visa issues. This led to the largest and most important signing of an experienced player in the history of the club. Former Vancouver Whitecap, Nicolás Mezquida had reached out to the club because he had a strong desire to return to play in the Vancouver area. One other meaningful addition that arrived during the season was Aidan O’Conner. The towering centre back came on loan from New York Red Bulls II. He immediately made a massive contribution and sorted out the centre of defence, at least some of the time.

The third season has been the most difficult to date. Fotsing has lived up to his billing, Bah has played just about every match and almost all outfield positions that aren’t centre back, and Mezquida has been the club’s best player in virtually all the matches he has been able
to play in. Ghotbi also seemed to settle on a 4-3-3 structure with three players in midfield that can both destroy and distribute, including the reimagining of David Norman in a CDM role like he played in his youth. However, the lack of connection and consistency in front of goal has seen Wero Diaz’s loan deal come to an end and is not being extended. He is expected to join BC rivals Pacific during the summer transfer window – the club he made his name at in the League. Campbell has a goal and a couple of assists but so far is nowhere near his former glories.

Victories have been extremely hard to come by in the league. The stats, just one game past the halfway mark, are frightening reading: 1 win, 5 draws, 9 losses, with less than a goal a game and -16 goal differential for just 8 points. The side is on course to have the lowest points per game total in League history. Valour is also on 8 points but they have a game in hand. Attendance is way down this season, too. Officially, it is just under 1,600 per game. The eye test would say it is much less.

The inspiring part of the year has been the Voyageurs Cup campaign. The club may not have won an actual match over 90 minutes in the competition, but they have won two rounds. A 1-1 draw on the island in their first round match-up with Pacific saw them advance on penalties. This set up a first ever home fixture in the quarterfinals vs. Cavalry. That one ended 1-1, as did the return leg in Calgary. Another quality shootout victory sees the club into the semifinals where it will host Atletico Ottawa in the first game next month. The return is in September in the nation’s capital.

The Cup run and the growth of some of the younger players hasn’t been enough to keep Ghotbi in his post any longer. The fact that fans haven’t witnessed a home win since a 1-0 victory over Pacific on August 11th 2024 has taken its toll. Eleven months is an extremely long dry run for any sports club to endure. The mounting pressure to turn things around, coupled with an understandably dwindling and snarly fan base has seen SixFive take the decision to end its relationship with Ghotbi.

For many, the Iranian’s time might seem overshadowed by the failures on the pitch or in the League table. However, to reduce it to that and not give him credit for his role in building the club from the ground up, along with the others who shaped it, is a huge disservice. His connections helped bring a number of players into the club (Allan Enyou and Ndiaye Pathé from Leganés are prime examples). His work in Japan enabled his squad to have the opportunity to test themselves against a side like Urawa Red Diamonds last month. He played a significant role in developing the club’s young players, he made the club money through the sale of a couple of those players, and he has played a part in making it a team that young talent across the country want to be a part of. One can know the bitter notes of disappointment while also appreciating the flavour Ghotbi brought to the club.

The official announcement of Ghotbi’s departure came on Wednesday afternoon. Former Vancouver Whitecaps captain Martin Nash has been named Vancouver FC’s interim head coach until the end of the season. Nash brings a wealth of experience to the club, both as a player and a coach and knows the CPL very well after spending time as Tommy Wheeldon Jr’s assistant at Cavalry FC before taking over as head coach of York United in 2021, a role he held until May 2024. Nash was also confirmed as the new head of the Langley side’s academy and will take charge of Vancouver FC’s Under-19 team for the upcoming Fraser Valley Soccer League season.

The question now is what’s next for the League’s youngest club? How will it react to this change. Will Nash be able to turn the season around or pull off a two-legged victory in the Voyageurs Cup? Like with most things in life, time will tell.