Valour FC has been jolted to life in the last couple of weeks and completely energized by their two most-complete efforts of the Canadian Premier League season.
And their timing, given the mountain still to climb, couldn’t be more perfect.
Winnipeg’s professional soccer side begins a four-match homestand on Sunday against Forge FC and with nine of their final dozen at Princess Auto Stadium has a real chance to get back into the CPL playoff discussion.
Now 4-2-10 after last week’s 3-nil road win over Pacific FC — preceded by a 2-2 draw with first-place Atlético Ottawa — Valour is still stuck in seventh place with 14 points, six points back of the final playoff spot.
Momentum in sports, as everyone knows, can be a powerful thing.
“There’s a good feeling now because there’s a bit more belief amongst the guys,” said Valour midfielder/fullback Dante Campbell. “There’s also a bit more clarity now in what we have to do. It’s positive but we know there’s a lot of work to be done still.
“Everyone in the change room knows what time of year it is now and this is why we love the game. The game can be cruel, but opportunities like these can bring the best out of people. We have to rise to the challenge and the whole team is ready.
“The only thing we can do is take care of what’s right in front of us and even when things don’t work out, stick to the gameplan and not feel pressure — which is easier said than done — and trust in one another and in our gaffer.”
Critical now for Valour FC is to turn Princess Auto Stadium into a impenetrable fortress — something the club has not been able to do over the last two seasons. The club was a solid 7-4-3 at home in 2022, but is just 5-4-10 in south Winnipeg since, including two wins and three losses in five matches this season.
“We still have to play these home games and win them at a time when teams are fighting hard for points — these are going to be difficult games,” said Valour GM and head coach Phillip Dos Santos. “Things can change quickly in the CPL.
“Two games ago (in a 3-1 loss to HFX Wanderers in Nova Scotia in which the team conceded two penalties) it looked like the club was going through challenging times. But we saw then we were bringing more stability in the way we were defending. It was important for us to find a way to lock the opposition more and not concede so many clear scoring chances.
“We know we have the ability to score goals and players who can score in many different ways. What I like is how we found some defensive consistency and have been cohesive in the way we’ve been protecting our goal.”
Dos Santos said in the loss to the Wanderers he felt the team ‘broke emotionally’ and started to chase the game after conceding the first goal. What’s been reinforced since then is managing those moments better and not let them crumble the team’s structure or their fight.
“Mistakes are always going to happen but we’re working to make sure there isn’t a domino effect,” said Campbell. “What’s been big since the Halifax game is for us to remember that no matter what was happening offensively or defensively we were together and not compounding mistakes. We know that we’re going to be a very difficult team to defeat if we have that mentality for the rest of the year.
“In that Halifax game, it didn’t go our way and there was quite a bit of stuff we needed to touch upon and address. There were also a few things throughout that game that was working for us but we deviated from it a few times. Things like that happen throughout the year, it’s just that it gets amplified as we get to this time of year.
“We needed to take a little snapshot of what worked in that Halifax game and extend it into 90-plus minutes.”
And so it’s not just crunch time now for Valour, it’s potentially a glorious time with so much schedule still ahead and three-quarters of it on home soil.
“It’s a mountain to climb but it’s an opportunity for us to prove something to ourselves and to our fans,” Campbell said. “It really has to be a game-by-game process — the only thing we need to focus on now is Forge and our home advantage where we won’t have much more travel and we’re in our own facility training day in and day out. That’s the opportunity.”
THE ROAD AHEAD
Valour’s remaining schedule
Home (9): Aug. 4th vs. Forge FC; Aug. 11th vs. York United FC; Aug. 17th vs. HFX Wanderers; Aug. 25th vs. Vancouver FC; Sept. 9th vs. Atlético Ottawa; Sept. 21st vs. HFX Wanderers; Sept. 30th vs. Pacific FC; Oct. 6th vs. Forge FC; Oct. 19th vs. Cavalry FC
Away (3): Aug. 30th vs. Cavalry FC; Sept. 13th vs. York United FC; Oct. 13th vs. Vancouver FC