Opportunity has knocked once for Valour FC with the squad unable to get to the door and answer.
Undaunted, they’ll now attempt to park Sunday’s 1-nil loss to Canadian Premier League side Forge FC in front of 2,297 at Princess Auto Stadium and zero on on their next chance to secure a playoff spot in a critical matchup next week on the west coast against Vancouver FC.
Valour had a glorious chance to move into a playoff spot as a win on Sunday would have leap-frogged them past Pacific FC and Vancouver into the fifth and final postseason berth. Instead, stuck on 27 points with their 7-6-13 record, they trail their two B.C. rivals by one point. HFX Wanderers are also at 27, meaning four teams are chasing the final playoff spot with two matches remaining.
“It’s tough. It sucks,” said Valour centre back Frankie Facchineri after the match. “Forge is a good team and a lot of credit to them. I’m not saying anything that people haven’t said a million times before — they’re a very good team with a lot of very good players and they’ve been doing it for a very long time now.
“The boys, we understand that at this point nothing changes. We knew that regardless of the result today we need to go into Vancouver next weekend and beat them. What happened today, happened. We need to brush it off quickly. We played a good side. We need to demand more from ourselves and we go again in a couple of days.”
There was some celebration at Princess Auto Stadium on Sunday, however, as Forge clinched the CPL Shield as the regular season champions. As a result, they’ll participate in the Concacaf Champions Cup for a third time in the past four seasons.
Valour was on the back foot early in the match as Forge dominated possession and the chances before the home side settled into a comfort zone. Forge opened the scoring in the 36th minute on a defensive lapse that led to a brilliant run and pass by Kule Bekker to Noah Jensen for the match’s only goal.
Valour had a glorious chance to tie it just before half off a corner with Tass Mourdoukoutas’ shot sailing over the crossbar.
BIG CHANCE❗️@ValourFootball almost tied things up vs. Forge on the last kick of the first half, but Tass Mourdoukoutas is unable to keep his shot down from close range
🔴Watch #CanPL on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/fAPeE7pmbc
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) October 6, 2024
They pressed for the equalizer into the second half, too, with Loic Kwemi having two shots inside the box along with chances by Juan-Pablo Sanchez and Safwane Mlah.
“First of all, congrats to Forge on winning the shield,” said Valour GM and head coach Phillip Dos Santos. “It takes a lot to win over and over again and I have to start with that.
“… Now we just need to put our energy on the next game. The thing with this game is the results this weekend (with Wanderers and Vancouver drawing and Pacific losing) would have allowed us to be more aggressive in our behaviours going into this game and try to force in some way for the full three points. We were a bit too cautious.
“It was an opportunity to get ahead of the (playoff) line today, an opportunity to put the pressure on certain teams. Now the pressure is on everyone. I don’t think (the final playoff spot) would have been decided next week, either. It’s going to be to all the way to the end.”
Valour will finish the regular season back at home after next weekend’s trip to Vancouver, with Cavalry FC at Princess Auto Stadium on October 19th.
“We have a strong-willed group of boys,” said Facchineri. “We had a difficult start to the season and we’re picking up at a good time. Truthfully, if we weren’t as mentally strong as we are as a group we wouldn’t have been able to do the things we’ve done in the second half of the year.
“We are going to be able to bounce back from this. Obviously, we’ll take a look at it, learn from it but we go again in a few days and we have to have a short memory.
“… When we go in next weekend we need to be more confident in our own abilities and recognize we have a ton of quality in our locker room, plenty of it, and we need to find a way to show more of that.”
Valour FC 0 Forge FC 1
Goals
Valour FC
None
Forge FC
35:52′: Noah Jensen (assist: Kyle Bekker)
Card summary
Valour FC
None
Forge FC
85:56’: Alessandro Hojabrpour (yellow, tactical foul)
90:34′: Béni Badibanga (yellow, time wasting)
VALOUR STARTING XI (4-4-2)
GK – Jonathan Viscosi
D – Roberto Alarcon
D – Frankie Facchineri
D – Tass Mourdoukoutas (c)
D – Themi Antonoglou
MF – Dante Campbell
MF – Juan-Pablo Sanchez
MF – Diogo Ressurreição
MF – Abdul Binate
F – Shaan Hundal
F – Loic Kwemi
Valour substitutions
57:01’: On Raphael Ohin; off Juan-Pablo Sanchez
57:09′: On Jordi Swibel; off Abdul Binate
70:07′: On Jordan Faria; off Diogo Ressurreição
86:30′: On Safwane Mlah; Off Roberto Alarcon