Vancouver Rise continuing push for playoff spot after firing head coach

Vancouver Rise head coach Anja Heiner-Moller walks on the field after an NSL match against the Calgary Wild in Burnaby, B.C., on May 24, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Iain Darbyshire knows his Vancouver Rise players are in shock after seeing the club’s first-ever head coach fired.

He also knows they can’t wallow if the team wants to defend its Northern Super League title.

“We haven’t got time to sit and wonder what happened,” he said Wednesday. ”What we need to do is solve, fix, and deliver right now. And that’s our mindset.”

Darbyshire was elevated from assistant coach to interim head coach on Monday when the Rise parted ways with Anja Heiner-Moller. The moves followed Saturday’s 1-0 loss to the Halifax Tides.

Assistant coaches Katie Collar and Erin McNulty remain with Vancouver.

Darbyshire came to Vancouver as an assistant coach ahead of the 2026 season following six years as head of women’s and girl’s football at Cardiff City FC in Wales.

“I like the teams that I coach to have personality, to physically be dominant, but also to express themselves on the ball, and I think that’s a reflection of myself,” he said. “Really, like I want to be driven to be the best that I can be, and I want to want to coach a team that reflects that.

Under Heiner-Moller, the Rise went 18-18-8 and hoisted the Diana B. Matheson Cup in November as champions of the NSL’s inaugural season.

But the team has struggled in its junior campaign.

Vancouver (7-10-2) currently sits fifth in the league standings, one point out of the playoff picture with six regular-season games left on the schedule. The club will host the Ottawa Rapid (10-6-3) on Sunday.

The Rise haven’t lived up to internal expectations this year, said chief soccer officer Robyn Gale.

“(Last season) was an incredible year, but it was 2025,” she said. ”And in 2026 we had new measures, and we weren’t tracking in a way that we were content with.”

Gale and Rise sporting director Stephanie Labbe informed the players about Heiner-Moller’s departure before the news was made public on Monday.

“It’s a tough thing. I think no matter what, this is a challenging transition … we can’t negate that," Gale said.

“But I think for the players and for the staff, we all know that where we are right now is not reflective of the team that we are and the team that we want to be. So the sentiment and the feeling in the team is around just looking forward and doing everything we can to secure our spots in the playoffs.”

Inconsistency over the course of a game and between weeks has been an issue, she added — and needs to be solved if the Rise are to make a playoff push.

“Ultimately, we do have the parts,” Gale said. ”We brought in some excellent players … and we do feel that we have a team that can be delivering beyond what we’re seeing in terms of the results and with the consistency in performances.”

There are bright spots in Vancouver’s lineup, including Jessica De Filippo, who has 10 goals across 19 games. She sits second in league scoring behind Elyse Bennett of the Montreal Roses.

The Rise need De Filippo to “put the team on her back at times,” Darbyshire said, and she’s willing to do that.

“She wants to be the best player that she can be,” he said. “She wants to be the most dominant player in this league, and has ambitions to play for national teams and so on. So to do that, she has to deliver every single week, and that’s something we’ll be pushing with her every day in training.”

The 25-year-old forward from Mississauga, Ont., isn’t the only player the interim head coach will be looking to for leadership in the waning days of the season.

“The group need to take responsibility, and the group need to be (able) to show their leadership skills, whether that’s in training or on the pitch,” Darbyshire said. “And that’s something we’re really driving with the group right now. We need everybody to be on it from the start because we haven’t got time to waste.”

This report by Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press, was first published Sept. 9, 2026.