Pacific FC–Vancouver FC rivalry

The Salish Sea Derby, also known as the BC Derby and Pacific FC–Vancouver FC rivalry, is a British Columbian intra-provincial soccer rivalry between Pacific FC of Langford, and Vancouver FC of Langley Township.^[1] They regularly compete with each other in the Canadian Premier League.

Salish Sea Derby

Location	Coastal British Columbia
Teams	Pacific FC Vancouver FC
First meeting	Pacific 1–0 Vancouver CPL (April 15, 2023)
Latest meeting	Pacific 4–4 Vancouver CPL (June 27, 2025)
Next meeting	CPL (August 10, 2025)
Stadiums	Starlight Stadium Willoughby Community Park
Statistics
Meetings total	11
Most wins	Vancouver (5)
Top scorer	Aly Ndom (4 goals)
All-time series	Vancouver 5–3–3
Largest victory	Vancouver 3–6 Pacific CPL (June 2, 2023) Pacific 3–0 Vancouver CPL (September 14, 2023)
Current win streak	–

History

Pacific FC are an inaugural member of the Canadian Premier League, and played their first season in 2019. Despite having developed small and/or temporary rivalries with Cavalry FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps FC, the rivalries were considered secondary, as Cavalry would view their rivalries with FC Edmonton and Forge FC as being more important, while the Whitecaps played in a different league (MLS) completely. However, this would change following the foundation of Vancouver FC, a Canadian Premier League expansion team that started play in 2023.^[2]

The idea of a British Columbia derby or rivalry was quickly adopted by the league and supporters' groups of both clubs.^[3] In addition to their geographic proximity, the pair of clubs drew attention for sharing the same ownership group.^[4] The first player to sign with Vancouver FC was Callum Irving who had been the starting goalkeeper for Pacific for the past three seasons.^[1]

In an attempt to further instigate the rivalry, the league scheduled Pacific FC and Vancouver FC to play their first match of the regular season against each other. Since Vancouver FC was an expansion team in their inaugural season, this match was also their first ever match as a team, excluding preseason friendlies. Pacific FC would win the first match of the rivalry 1–0 in front of 4,825 spectators at Starlight Stadium. The winning goal was scored by Manny Aparicio in the eighty-first minute, which was quickly followed by a provocative celebration in front of the traveling supporters' section.^[5]

As the season progressed, Pacific FC would stay near the top of the table, while Vancouver quickly fell into last place, having won only one league match in their first seven games. Pacific FC triumphed again in their second league game against Vancouver with a 6–3 away win. Vancouver FC's first win against Pacific occurred in their third meeting of the regular season. Despite Pacific being up 2–1 late in the game, Gabriel Bitar scored two late goals for Vancouver in the last fourteen minutes, including an 87th minute winner to give Vancouver a 3–2 victory.^[6] A second win for Vancouver followed as they closed out their first season strongly, bringing the series to a tie with two wins apiece at the end of 2023.^[7]

Both teams started the 2024 season strongly, although the prolonged tussle for second place did not prevent Vancouver from notching up another two victories to take the lead in the series.^[8][9] As both teams faded in the latter half of the season, the fight became one to stay in playoffs contention, with Vancouver securing yet another narrow win at home to bring their series winning streak to five games,^[10] a run that was ended by a strong 3–0 Pacific victory at home in the last derby match of the season, a result that helped them pip Vancouver to the final playoffs spot.^[11]

Statistics

Head-to-head record

As of June 27, 2025

	Matches	Wins		Draws	Goals
		PAC	VFC		PAC	VFC
Canadian Premier League	10	3	5	2	20	18
Canadian Championship	1	0	0	1	1	1
Total matches	11	3	5	3	21	19

Honours

Pacific FC	Competition	Vancouver FC
1	CPL Championships	—
—	CPL Shield	—
—	Canadian Championship	—
1	Aggregate	0

Results

Legend

Pacific FC win

Vancouver FC win

Tie

Season	Competition	Date	Home team	Result	Away team	Venue	Attendance	Series	Recap
2023	Canadian Premier League	April 15, 2023	Pacific	1–0	Vancouver	Starlight Stadium	4,825	PAC 1–0–0
		June 2, 2023	Vancouver	3–6	Pacific	Willoughby Community Park	3,438	PAC 2–0–0
		August 19, 2023	Vancouver	3–2	Pacific	Willoughby Community Park	2,363	PAC 2–0–1
		September 30, 2023	Pacific	1–2	Vancouver	Starlight Stadium	4,404	Tied 2–0–2
2024	Canadian Premier League	May 25, 2024	Vancouver	2–1	Pacific	Willoughby Community Park	3,127	VFC 3–0–2
		June 27, 2024	Pacific	1–2	Vancouver	Starlight Stadium	3,255	VFC 4–0–2
		August 11, 2024	Vancouver	1–0	Pacific	Willoughby Community Park	3,258	VFC 5–0–2
		September 14, 2024	Pacific	3–0	Vancouver	Starlight Stadium	2,807	VFC 5–0–3
2025	Canadian Premier League	April 26, 2025	Vancouver	1–1	Pacific	Willoughby Community Park	1,283	VFC 5–1–3
	Canadian Championship	May 6, 2025	Pacific	1–1	Vancouver	Starlight Stadium	2,017	VFC 5–2–3
	Canadian Premier League	June 27, 2025	Pacific	4–4	Vancouver	Starlight Stadium	2,821	VFC 5–3–3
		August 10, 2025	Vancouver	–	Pacific	Willoughby Community Park	–	–	–
		September 13, 2025	Pacific	–	Vancouver	Starlight Stadium	–	–	–

League ranking by season

This section only includes season results when both teams were playing in the Canadian Premier League. For Pacific FC's season results prior to 2023, see List of Pacific FC seasons.

P.	2023		2024
	Season	Playoffs	Season	Playoffs
1
2
3		SF
4	4
5			5	PI
6
7	7		7
8

Player Statistics

Goalscorers

As of June 27, 2025

Rank	Pos	Nat	Name	PAC	VFC	Total
1	MF		Aly Ndom	4		4
2	MF		Gabriel Bitar		3	3
	FW		Alejandro Díaz		3
4	MF		Manny Aparicio	2		2
	MF		Moses Dyer	1	1
	MF		Vasco Fry		2
	DF		Thomas Meilleur-Giguère	2
	MF		Nicolás Mezquida		2
	FW		Easton Ongaro	2
	FW		Ayman Sellouf	2
	FW		Dario Zanatta	2
12	MF		Elage Bah		1	1
	MF		Mikaël Cantave		1
	FW		Djenairo Daniels	1
	DF		Amer Didić	1
	FW		Henri Godbout		1
	MF		Josh Heard	1
	FW		Shaan Hundal		1
	MF		Min-jae Kwak		1
	GK		Callum Irving	1[a]
	MF		Kekuta Manneh	1
	DF		David Norman Jr.		1
	DF		Ndiaye Pathé		1
	MF		Taryck Tahid		1
	FW		Yann Toualy	1
Totals				21	19	40

1. Own goal scored from a rebound off the post deflecting in off of head.

Players who played for both clubs

As of May 1, 2025

Multiple switches

• Kadin Chung (Pacific: 2019–2021, Vancouver: 2023–2024, Pacific: 2025-present)

Pacific, then Vancouver

• Callum Irving (Pacific: 2022–2022, Vancouver: 2023–present)
• Alejandro Díaz (Pacific: 2020–2022, Vancouver: 2023–present)
• Ayman Sellouf (Pacific: 2023-2024, Vancouver (loan): 2024)
• Kunle Dada-Luke (Pacific: 2021-2024, Vancouver: 2025-present)

Vancouver, then Pacific

• Moses Dyer (Vancouver: 2024, Pacific (loan): 2024)