Valour FC’s mission to land a first-ever Canadian Premier League playoff berth will begin in earnest on the road in just over 2 ½ months.

The CPL unveiled its 2023 regular-season schedule today with all eight teams playing a 28-match campaign running from mid-April through to the first week of October, followed by the playoffs https://canpl.ca/schedule/2023.

Born in 2019 as a founding member of the CPL, Valour will be seeking a franchise-first playoff berth in ’23 after two consecutive fifth-place finishes left them just outside of the playoff line.

The club will open on Sunday, April 16^th in Toronto against York United FC, with the home opener coming six days later at IG Field with a 6 p.m. start vs. Atlético Ottawa. Valour will close the regular season with a visit from HFX Wanderers on Friday, October 6^th, with a 6:30 p.m. match start.

Here are 5 other notes about Valour’s 2023 schedule:

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1. MUCH MORE BALANCE

Valour’s ’22 schedule was a hodgepodge which saw the club both on the road and at home for long stretches. This year’s docket is much more balanced.

Case in point: Valour opened last year with three straight matches on the road (albeit the home opener was postponed due to COVID-19 issues) and finished up the season with three more trips away from home.

Countering that last year was two three-match home stands and a stretch between August 21-September 4 when the team was home for four consecutive dates.

This season the club has four two-match homestands – June 25/July 1; July 23/July 29; August 11/August 18 and September 17/September 20.

Valour’s most-gruelling chunk of road games comes during a stretch from August 26 to September 8 when the team is on the East Coast facing the Wanderers, then travels to the West Coast a week later for a date against Pacific and then to Toronto six days late for a match against York United.

Every team will face each other four times this season.

“It’s good to have that balance, that home-and-away component in a much more balanced way,” said Valour FC GM and head coach Phillip Dos Santos in conversation with @valourfootball.club. “Yes, there are still a few instances where you host twice in a row and then go on the road for a couple but compared to last year it’s a lot more balanced and allows teams to breathe a little bit more.”

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2. THE CANADIAN CHAMPIONSHIP DRAW

Valour FC will again compete for the Voyageurs Cup in 2023 – the club fell in the preliminary round to Vancouver Whitecaps last season – with 14 Canadian clubs competing this year.

There are three different pots of teams in ’23, with Valour grouped with four Western clubs in Pacific FC, Vancouver FC and Cavalry FC of the CPL, TSS Rovers FC of Richmond, B.C., plus one Eastern based club which will be added.

The competition will feature four rounds, with the first round scheduled for April 18-20, followed by the quarterfinals on May 9-11, the semi-finals on May 23-25 and the final in June.

The official draw for the Canadian Championship goes on January 31, with the proceedings broadcast live on OneSoccer at 7 p.m. More details can be found here:https://www.canadasoccer.com/news/canada-soccer-announces-details-for-the-2023-canadian-championship-draw/

“It’s unlikely that we’ll host – a chance, but unlikely – so there’s a good chance we’ll start with two on the road (including the CPL opener),” said Dos Santos. “That’s an opportunity because right from the beginning it’s unlikely (players) will be able to give 90 minutes back-to-back-to-back right away as players might not have built up to that capacity yet. We’ll have to be careful in the load management and this will allow us to see what we have right away and trust what we have. It’s good for the players and it’s good for the team.”

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3. THE ‘OTHER’ VFC

Gone are FC Edmonton this season, with the CPL remaining an eight-team circuit courtesy the addition of the expansion Vancouver FC.

Valour will meet Vancouver for the first time on the road, at the Langley Events Centre, on Sunday, May 28^th with a 7 p.m. CDT start. Vancouver will be in Winnipeg for the first time on Sunday, June 25^th. The other two dates against the CPL’s expansion side go August 6^th in Vancouver and September 20^th back in Winnipeg.

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4. HOLIDAY MEETINGS

Valour will be home on the Victoria Day long weekend hosting Pacific on Saturday, May 20^th, has a Canada Day matchup vs. Calvary on July 1^st while the regular-season finale – the October 6^th meeting with Wanderers – comes on the Friday of Thanksgiving weekend.

Of note: the second-largest crowd in Valour history – after the 9,699 which attended the inaugural match on 2019 – came in a Canada Day matchup with York9 FC in 2019. That match drew 6,678 fans.

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5. YOU ASKED, THEY LISTENED

Valour will play only one mid-week home match all season – the visit from Vancouver FC on September 20^th, a Wednesday – which is a scheduling change the team’s fan base had requested.

Valour’s 14 home dates are now predominantly on weekends, with four matches coming on Friday nights, four afternoon and one night game on Saturdays and four Sunday matinees.

“Friday nights were a request from our fans,” said Dos Santos. “We tried to make sure we put ourselves in good position, also, where we could make our home a place where we’re very difficult to play against.

“The fans are big contributors to that, and we wanted to make sure, as much as possible, we could have our stands as loud as possible as they were in the last three games last season (including a crowd of 5,227 – sixth largest in franchise history — at the finale). That number was closer to what we need to be as an organization.”