Ollie Bassett Debuts For Pacific FC

Hi everyone, Jack here and I’m so, so, so happy to see the CPL season finally start! I was thrilled to see some of my favourite teams play in the first CPL doubleheader of the 2021 season. 

A bonus was getting to see if some of my 2021 CPL predictions come true. In this blog post, I will be talking about one of those predictions in particular.

Before the season started I had a hunch that Ollie Bassett was going to be a difference-maker for PFC, just like how Joao Morelli was a magic worker for the Wanderers. In this first game for Pacific it really looked like Ollie Bassett brought the magic!

I will admit that Pa-Modou Kah threw me (and a lot of people who follow the league) a curveball by putting Ollie Bassett as a deep-lying playmaker, but Ollie was amazing there!

Using his adept passing and always moving around to get the ball in good areas, Ollie was able to provide the link from the defence to the midfield and then the midfield to attack.

Ollie was always moving off the ball to be an option for his teammates, he had a great first touch that helped him execute what he wanted to do splendidly! A great example of this is when he took a touch to set himself up for that world class volley which he ended up burying in the back of the net to make it 2-0.

Even when he got the ball under lots of pressure he was always very calm and composed – he always got out of the scramble. He was very comfortable on the ball and he had all these little skill moves that he executed perfectly. It was clear that he has been practicing his craft for a long while.

In the press conference after the game I asked him about his performance and his mentality coming into a new league.

I think Ollie will be an invaluable part of Pa-Modou Kah’s team if he keeps playing at this high level. I’m excited to see what else this young and exciting talent has to offer.