New Pacific FC head coach Dunfield to make debut against Forge

Terry Dunfield has had no shortage of country assignments in soccer of late, including recent stints as Canada U-20 assistant coach and TSN broadcast analyst for the 2026 World Cup, but it’s club matters that count for him now as he begins a new era for...

Terry Dunfield has had no shortage of country assignments in soccer of late, including recent stints as Canada U-20 assistant coach and TSN broadcast analyst for the 2026 World Cup, but it’s club matters that count for him now as he begins a new era for Pacific FC. The former Manchester City, Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC midfielder, capped 14 times for Canada, makes his debut as PFC head coach Thursday when the Island club meets Forge FC in a Canadian Premier League game at 4 p.m. PT in Hamilton, Ont.

“As soon as [former Canada player and PFC co-owner] Rob Friend brought it up a month ago, I was in,” Dunfield told the Times Colonist. “My first thought was how do we make this work and my next thought was this is a club with a legacy and history of winning and some really good players.”

But that hasn’t shown recently as Dunfield is inheriting a formidable challenge and a PFC team that has only three draws from its first 12 league games this season and which is the only team in the CPL without a win for the worst start for any club in league history. The Tridents missed the playoffs last year after making the post-season for five consecutive seasons previous. That, combined with the slow start this season, led to James Merriman’s dismissal as head coach on May 21 with season mark of five losses and a draw.

There was a lag in Dunfield joining the PFC team because of his prior commitments to the Canada U-20 team at a tournament in France followed by TSN’s coverage of the World Cup. PFC assistant coach Yiannis Tsalatsidis has handled the head coaching duties the last six games with four losses and two draws. “The national U-20 team is an important player pool for the future of Canadian soccer, and I also think it’s important to do what you say and committed to do, and I had made that commitment to Canada Soccer,” said Dunfield, who has been on site with PFC handling training for the past week in Langford.

“I’ve been watching the games and getting a deeper understanding of the player group. It also gave me time to connect with some of the players one-on-one [by phone] and get to know them and start to build a rapport.” The Tridents haven’t really been blown out and have carried the play in several games only to be denied in the final offensive third of the field and have not converted their chances.

The only previous meeting this season between PFC and Forge FC, played in April at Starlight Stadium, was a case in point as Forge won 1-0 on a goal late in the contest at 76 minutes. “We’re close, and if we adjust things a little bit, I think it will give us a better chance to win games and lay a foundation to build an identity and be clear on who we are, every single day, and focus on the process of getting better,” said Dunfield. “We have talked about having championship standards and creating a high-performance environment.”

Dunfield sees this as a process: “When PFC won the league championship [2021] it was hard to beat, dynamic and vertical. It’s about finding the Pacific way, and from there, there can be full alignment from our academy to the first team with no gap in the player pathway. We have to be clear on our identity and what we are doing.

We want to reconnect with the community with an exciting brand of football.” Starting that job today won’t be easy against historic CPL power Forge FC, which again leads the league at 10-1-1 under head coach Bobby Smyrniotis, whose Sigma FC youth soccer academy in Ontario produced Tajon Buchanan, Cyle Larin and Richie Laryea for Canada’s 2026 World Cup team.