Gopaul hopes to extend breakout season into playoffs

Ethan Gopaul — who transformed himself into a scorer this season — and his FC London teammates face a do-or-die game Sunday with a playoff spot on the line.

(Photo: Paul Hendren).

“It just sort of happened.”

Ethan Gopaul was perhaps as surprised as anyone when he suddenly became a go-to goal scorer this year for the FC London men’s team.

That’s certainly not how he’d describe his game. Traditionally, he’s more of a pass-first player. Someone who likes to set up goals. He plays primarily on the wing, after all. But the 22-year-old got a taste of life as a goal scorer early in the 2021 season, and he liked it.

“When you see the ball hit the net, it’s a different kind of confidence, a different kind of feeling,” said Gopaul, who’s in his third season with FC London. “And when you score in a game, obviously that helps your team ultimately win, so it’s very rewarding.”

Mike Marcoccia, head coach of FC London, rewarded his winger with more opportunities to score, putting him in different positions to do so. He got some penalty chances, and he got time as a striker, a position he wasn’t accustomed to.

But he learned quickly and seized the opportunity.

Just how drastic was Gopaul’s role change this year? In 2019, he had one goal in 14 regular season games. This year? He’s scored 11 times in 11 games. That’s tops on the team.

(Connor Wilson, the team’s leading scorer in 2018 and 2019, is second, tied with Daniel Oshana, with four goals, while Benjamin Vyfschaft has three, and Randy Ribeiro and Tomas Ribeiro have two apiece).

“I owe it to my coach, because he put me on a couple of penalties to start the season, and my confidence built from there. That really got the ball rolling for me,” said Gopaul. “(Mike) has been trusting me in different areas of the field, and I’ve been putting myself in those dangerous spots to score goals. I just want to deliver each game as best I can.”

He’s been delivering since day one. Well, not specifically day one. That was a day to forget – or, one to remember, and put in your back pocket for later.

***

FC London’s season got off to an inauspicious start. Okay, it got off to a bad start. Playing on the road, in their first action since the 2019 season (due to the COVID-19 pandemic), the men lost 6-0 on July 30, stunned by a Guelph United team that manhandled their opponents for much of the game.

At the time, Marcoccia stressed that the score wasn’t indicative of the way FC London played overall in the contest – and that it certainly wasn’t indicative of the level of talent on London’s roster. But the naysayers were quick to judge.

“I was getting messages from people saying, ‘You guys are done,’ ‘Guelph’s the team to beat,’ ‘FC London isn’t the same team anymore,’ stuff like that,” said Gopaul. “That’s probably discouraging to most people, but I took it on the chin and said, you know what, I don’t ever want to experience that again.”

The boys in red and white circled on their calendars their rematch against Guelph United.

But before then, they had to shift their focus to the rest of the league. And things turned around in a hurry. A 2-0 win over Windsor TFC the second weekend of the season began a string of five consecutive wins for FC London, who found themselves near the top of the West Division. Their new scoring threat, Ethan Gopaul, tallied seven goals in those five wins.

A 1-0 loss to Blue Devils FC followed, and then FC London got their rematch against Guelph United – this time at home, on Sept. 24.

“I’ve never been so ready for a game before,” said Gopaul, who played a crucial role in London’s redemption win. “That was the biggest game that we’d played in a long time, and I was happy to play a key part in that win. I feel like that game really earned us our respect, because we took down the first-place team.”

Trailing 1-0 early, FC London evened the score, on a goal by Gopaul, before the end of the first half. Things remained tied all the way until 15 minutes remaining, when Connor Wilson delivered the winner. In the last five minutes, Gopaul put the game away with his second goal of the match.

Ethan Gopaul, and his brother, Chad, share the pitch during a game earlier this season. The brothers have been FC London teammates for the past three seasons. (Photo: Luke Durda).

***

That Guelph rematch may have been the biggest game FC London had played up to that point. But it now dwarfs in comparison to the game they’ve got next. On Sunday (Oct. 24), the men will travel to Oakville for a do-or-die game against Blue Devils FC. The winner will make the playoffs. The loser will have their season ended.

It shapes up like this: With the condensed return-from-pandemic season this year, only four teams make the playoffs. That means two from the East Division and two from the West. Pesky Guelph United (9-2-0) still sits atop the West Division, while Blue Devils FC (8-1-2) currently holds down the second spot, one point ahead of FC London (8-3-0).

That means a draw will not do. London will need to win Sunday’s game – against a team that dealt them a 1-0 loss earlier in the season – to earn a spot in the playoffs and play a semi-final match the next weekend.

“I haven’t stopped thinking about this game since we found out it’s going to come down to this. We have to go there, and we have to win,” said Gopaul. “But we have a very resilient group of guys. We’ve played under almost all types of pressure in different games. We’ve come back from down 3-1, down 2-0 … I think if we stick to our principles, what we’ve been doing all season, we can get it done.”

And if Blue Devils FC plays for the tie – and just the one point they need?

“They might run with it, being okay with a tie. But that’s what we like. We like to go after that. We seize the moment, and we have a lot of talented individuals. We’ll give it all we got on Sunday.”

On a personal level, Gopaul says he feels the need to deliver – like he’s been doing all year.

“When I get a chance to score in front of the net on Sunday, I need to capitalize on that,” he said. “We can’t afford to miss good chances. Hopefully we go in with the same mentality as that Guelph game. Not seeking revenge, but letting them know we’re there to fight. It’s going to be intense.”

Win or lose, Gopaul will have plenty of support at the game – not just on the sidelines, but on the pitch itself. His older brother, Chad, as he has for the last three years, will be playing alongside Ethan as FC London seeks victory.

“It’s so special,” the younger Gopaul said. “He’s been on the team forever, and he works so hard. When you see your brother doing well, or not doing well, it’s just extra motivation for me to work harder. We’ve been so close our whole lives, and it’s such a special feeling sharing the field with your brother.”

During the team’s second-to-last regular season game, a 5-0 win over Sigma FC at Tricar Field, Chad assisted on an Ethan goal, and then five minutes later Ethan crossed the ball to his brother and Chad knocked home a goal of his own.

“Moments like those are so special,” the younger Gopaul said. “It’s definitely one of my favourite parts about playing on this team, having my brother there beside me. It’s not something too many people get to experience, and I don’t take it for granted. Every time we play together, we cherish every moment.”

Win or lose, they’ll cherish their time together Sunday in FC London’s do-or-die game. But a win – and a chance to compete for a League1 championship – would be oh so much sweeter.