There’s an easy, low-hanging fruit-type answer here for Phillip Dos Santos and Valour FC on the eve of the 2024 Canadian Premier League season.

The goal for a franchise entering its sixth year of existence, after all, is the very same one it has been chasing since Day 1: a playoff spot.

Still, excuse Dos Santos & Co. if they aren’t collectively dreaming bigger than that. Much, much bigger.

“I want more,” began Dos Santos in a chat with valourfootball.club this week “You could say, ‘Let’s get into the play-in game.’ And yet if we just flirt with the playoff line, we’ll be danger of being outside the line. I don’t want to flirt with the line, I want to marry the playoff spot and see what that brings us.

“We want to bring a playoff game to this city and this stadium because I really think if we do that it could be a special night. Those nights can carry teams and after that, who knows. I want to be ambitious. We have to be ambitious.”

Valour enters the ’24 season having undergone an extreme makeover after last year’s disappointment that saw the club contend early in the season and then tumble out of the playoff picture as injuries and goal-scoring woes mounted.

The squad’s current 22-man roster features 14 new faces, including seven with CPL experience in fullback Roberto Alarcón (Cavalry FC), centre back Tass Mourdoukoutas (York United), midfielders Jordan Faria (York United), Zach Sukunda (HFX Wanderers), and Noah Verhoeven (Pacific FC, York United and Atlético Ottawa) and forwards Shaan Hundal (Valour FC in 2020 and Vancouver FC) and Abdul Binate (Pacific FC).

Also among the new faces are fullback Themi Antonoglou, who made 12 appearances in the MLS in 2022-23 with Toronto FC, veteran keeper Jonathan Viscosi, big Greek centre back Haris Chantzopoulos, Australian forward Jordan Swibel and promising youngesters like forward Joe Hanson, defender Frankie Facchineri and midfielder Diogo Dias da Ressureicao.

Returning, meanwhile, are defenders Abdou Samake and Jordan Haynes, midfielders Dante Campbell, Juan-Pablo Sanchez, Marcello Polisi and new captain Raphael Ohin, forward Kian Williams (currently rehabbing from minor offseason surgery) and goalkeeper Darlington Murasiranwa.

And that’s a whole pile of change from last year’s squad.

Still, that also makes Valour FC arguably the CPL’s biggest unknown, or mystery, as the season opens Sunday night in Langley, B.C. against Vancouver FC.

“The general feeling is just pure excitement,” said Sukunda, who made his CPL debut with the Wanderers in 2019 and has spent the last few seasons in Finland. “We’ve had a few games in the preseason and now that it’s so close everyone is just excited to get boots on the ground in Vancouver and get right to the game.

“We have a really good squad. I’ve been part of quite a few teams over the years. This is definitely a good group of guys and one thing we have in similarity is everybody knows it’s time for Valour to make the playoffs. We have that driven in our mentalities now and everyone has been working really hard to see that end goal come to life.

“That working mentality has been the face of our whole preseason. We’ve been pushing that. Every team would like to have that as its core. I’m not sure how it’s been in the past years here, but that’s what we’re building.”

“I’m very excited from what I see,” added Chantzopoulos. “I’m not sure what will come because I haven’t experienced the CPL yet. What’s important is what we do as a team, how comfortable we are with each other. If we can stick together, especially early in the season, I think it’s going to be a good year.

“A team is going to have ups and downs and the team that can endure more and fight through difficult moments is going to be more successful.”

Valour had been one of the stingiest defensive teams for most of last season before the roster became mangled by injury. They finished the year with seven clean sheets – five of them coming in the first 12 matches. The goal scoring woes were a season-long issue, with the club scoring just 25 times in 28 matches.

All those numbers, again, played a massive role in the changes.

“I like the quality and that’s what excites me the most,” said Dos Santos of his new crew. “We have players who are sound and think the game. Every year we have expectations, but when we assembled this group of players, we knew we had a little bit more of that ‘special’ player. I’m looking forward to seeing how they cope with the competitive aspect of what the CPL can be like.

“I look at a guy like Jordan Faria, who played in the CPL four years ago when he was a lot younger and has very good qualities as a plyer. How is he going to cope with the competitive element day in, day out? That’s what I’m looking to see in the long run from all of our guys.

“It’s a long offseason, it’s a long preseason,” Dos Santos. “We wait for this day. It’s a new season full of new opportunities and this team seems to feel that. They like to play with each other.

“We’re as ready as you can be. The guys are motivated, they’re optimistic and they believe in each other. Now, we know it won’t be all perfect, but that’s why you play games – to grow in your model, to adjust things to optimize the team.”