Bustos boosts MVP campaign with CPL-record 4-pointer

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This article was published 17/09/2020 (2159 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When Pacific FC made Marco Bustos the highest-paid player in the Canadian Premier League this off-season, they were, obviously, expecting some quality play from the attacking midfielder.

Well, luckily for the Victoria-based soccer club, the Winnipegger delivered.

The eight-team circuit was forced to replace its 28-game season with a single-site tournament in Charlottetown, P.E.I., and Bustos capped off Pacific’s run with arguably one of the best performances in league history. On Wednesday, Bustos set a single-game points record with two goals and two assists in a 5-0 thrashing over HFX Wanderers FC.

Unfortunately, it was a bit too late for Pacific as they dropped their first two games in the second stage of the tournament to Cavalry FC and Forge FC. Only the top two clubs, HFX and Forge FC, advance to the league’s championship game. which goes down this Saturday.

But even though Pacific didn’t make it to the end, the 24-year-old from the Maples turned a lot of heads at the Island Games with five goals and three assists in 10 games. He certainly impressed manager Pa-Modou Kah, as the boss ended his press conference Wednesday night with “Oh, and Marco Bustos for MVP.”

So, does Bustos agree with his manager?

“Obviously I have a biased opinion,” admitted Bustos, who starred for Winnipeg’s Valour FC last year.

“Like I always say, I work hard. You ask anyone that knows me really well and they’ll tell you that they probably don’t know anyone that works as hard as me. I think it’s just a testament to that. It’s nice to hear people’s opinions and what they think of me, but at the end of the day I’m just trying to be the best soccer player that I can be and if I win that trophy, obviously it will be of very much sentimental value to me.”

That piece of hardware could do a lot for Bustos. The rights to last year’s MVP, Forge’s Tristan Borges, were sold to a Belgian club in January for a price estimated between $300,000 and $500,000.

Kah believes his star player is ready to take a similar step forward in his career and he doesn’t plan on holding him back.

“This was a hell of a shift for him. I had a lot of conversations about the growth that he’s made,” Kah, who played for the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps in the MLS before getting into coaching, said on Tuesday.

“We want to promote players, and if a team does come we’ll definitely sit down and see if it suits him. Obviously, we will never be a team that will hold players because I myself have had the pleasure to play at the highest level. That’s why we do what we do. That’s why I’m pushing you to help push players, and this club is about bringing in players, help them further their career, whether it’s here or MLS.”

Bustos believes he’s ready to make the jump. After all, he didn’t train all year just to play 10 matches. He also feels he’s proven in his two CPL seasons that he’s ready for the MLS or Europe.

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For now, it’s in the hands of Pacific, his agent and clubs around the world that are searching Canada for an offensive threat.

“I want to get to where I believe I can get to, which is a higher level than CPL, and we’ll see what happens. The end goal if all goes well, it’s a move to MLS or try to get to Europe, but if not, I’m happy here in Victoria. Pacific has treated me really well and it’s a great organization,” said Bustos.

“I just want to be happy and I’m happy here. You just got to keep going and moving forward. Nobody knew 2020 was going to be like this and you don’t know what 2021 will be like, or even what things will be like in a week, so I just try to live day by day.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31

Taylor Allen
Reporter

Taylor Allen is a sports reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. Taylor was the Vince Leah intern in the Free Press newsroom twice while earning his joint communications degree/diploma at the University of Winnipeg and Red River College Polytechnic. He signed on full-time in 2019 and mainly covers the Blue Bombers, curling, and basketball. Read more about Taylor.

Every piece of reporting Taylor produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.