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Diogo Dias de Ressurreicao celebrates the match winner from Sunday's 2-1 win over Forge FC -- photos by Cameron Bartlett
Match Report: Valour FC 2 Forge FC 1
August 4, 2024
Ed Tait
by
Ed Tait

There are still hours and hours of hard labour ahead, but Valour FC has diligently placed more bricks into the foundation of building Princess Auto Stadium into a Canadian Premier League fortress.

Winnipeg’s professional soccer side extended its unbeaten streak to three matches with a 2-1 home win over defending CPL champion Forge FC in front of 3,798 in a pristine Sunday afternoon in the south end.

The result improves Valour’s record to 5-2-10 and their 17 points now pulls them within three points of the fifth and final playoff spot, currently shared by Vancouver FC and Pacific FC. FYI, Vancouver FC is in action Monday against Cavalry FC.

Valour has now beaten Forge and Pacific and drawn with Atlético Ottawa in its current run and is next at home next Sunday against York United FC.

Just as important are the possibilities ahead for Valour as it chases the first playoff berth in franchise history — Sunday’s contest was the first of a four-match homestand for the club and they will finish the regular season with eight of their last 11 at Princess Auto Stadium.

“Making this place into a bit of our fortress is our main goal; making it really hard for teams to come here and get results and if they do manage to get a result they’re going to have to fight tooth and nail for it,” said Valour forward Jordi Swibel, who opened the scoring in the 11th minute on a brilliant free kick from 22 yards out that bent inside the left post for his team-leading sixth goal.

“Less travel now and more home games is really playing to our favour.”

Valour was full credit for the victory on Sunday, despite Forge having 64.9 percent possession and the opponents having 11 corners to the home side’s one. Forge also took 22 shots, with seven on goal, but while the visitors did score on a breakdown defensively by Valour, the defending in front of goalkeeper Jonathan Viscosci was again stout.

“The run has been really, really good,” said Swibel of the last three matches since a disappointing 3-1 loss to HFX Wanderers on July 18th. “We changed a few things and drew a line in the sand at the halfway point (of the season). We looked at a few things and we’ve found a new identity, which has been working for us. We’ve been very difficult to break down and teams are finding it frustrating to play against us.

“But we’ve been in this position before where we’ve had a couple of results in a row and, as we know, football changes very quickly so we’ve just got to maintain our effort and the togetherness and keep fighting for one cause. Anything can happen. There’s a lot of football yet to play, a lot of points up for grabs, so we’ll keep working every week and hopefully keep getting the results.”

Valour showed some resiliency after taking the 1-nil lead to the intermission as Forge tied the match in the 52nd minute on a header by Tristan Borges but with the home side countering as Jordan Faria chased down a long through ball from Tass Mourdoukoutas and then fed an absolutely perfect pass across to Diogo Dias de Ressurreicao for his third goal of the season.

“The team worked well together, we defended well and we had to weather many storms throughout the 90 minutes, but we were able to do it,” said Valour FC GM and head coach Phillip Dos Santos. “… Look, good performance overall. Good fight. Not perfect, but at this point in time it’s important to get three points, especially looking at the prowess of the opponent and the fact we’re starting a spell at home that is important to us.”

Valour’s overall game has been significantly better since the loss to Wanderers, a match in they conceded three penalties and, as Dos Santos said previously, were ‘broken emotionally.’

And since then?

“Cohesiveness. The results help. The buy in — players believing in each other and believing that it’s possible,” said Dos Santos. “That’s the biggest factor. Sometimes we as coaches want to give ourselves too much credit thinking that it’s the Xs and Os. That plays a role but, for me, it’s the buy-in of the players. It’s the way they work together, the way they grew together, the way they’ve learned to pay the price for each other. That’s the biggest thing.

“You go back to the simple things and sometimes in football it’s about running, it’s about putting a body on the line, it’s about being there for a teammate when they make a mistake.”

‘V’ NOTES
-Valour fullback Roberto Alarcon returned to the lineup after serving his red-card suspension. Rahael Ohin missed the match due to yellow card accumulation with Mourdoukoutas wearing the captain’s arm band in his place.

Valour forward Shaan Hundal

Valour FC 2 Forge FC 1

Goals

Valour FC
10:26’: Jordi Swibel
56:09′: Diogo Dias Da Ressureicao (assist: Jordan Faria)

Forge FC
52:24′: Tristan Borges (assist: Kyle Bekker)

Card summary

Valour FC
34:05’: Themi Antonoglou (yellow, tactical foul)
51:55′: Jordi Swibel (yellow, tactical foul)
94:34′: Dante Campbell (yellow, tactical foul)
96:16′: Juan-Pablo Sanchez (yellow, tactical foul)

Forge FC
32:43’: Alessandro Hojabrpour (yellow, tactical foul)
37:25′: Tristan Borges (yellow, reckless offence)
56:20′: Bobby Smyrniotis (Forge head coach; yellow, dissent)
63:18′: Kwasi Poku (yellow, reckless offence)

VALOUR STARTING XI (4-2-2-2)
GK – Jonathan Viscosi
D – Roberto Alarcon
D – Frankie Facchineri
D – Tass Mourdoukoutas (C)
D – Themi Antonoglou
MF – Dante Campbell
MF – Safwane Mlah
FW – Diogo Dias Da Ressureicao
FW – Jordan Faria
F – Shaan Hundal
F – Jordi Swibel

Valour substitutions
71:27’: On Juan-Pablo Sanchez; off Safwane Mlah
71:34′: On Noah Verhoeven; off Jordan Faria
82:18′: On Abdul Binate; off Shaan Hundal
87:30′: On Haris Chantzopoulos; off: Jordi Swibel