The Canadian Premier League’s Island Games are into the second stage in Charlottetown – albeit minus the crew from Valour FC.

Valour returned home to Winnipeg on the weekend following a tournament in which they finished with a 2-2-3 mark in seven matches, good for sixth in the First Stage, from which the Top 4 squads advanced.

Still, while the already-abbreviated 2020 season came to a sudden full stop, there were some encouraging developments for the second-year squad in the second-year league.

Here are 10 numbers that jumped out for Valour FC…

1,532

Minutes played by Valour’s under-21 Canadians.

That significant for a couple of reasons. First, the CPL’s very foundation is built upon developing Canadian talent and Valour did its share by getting its young core of Julian Dunn, Federico Pena, Shaan Hundal, Dante Campbell, Yohan Le Bourhis and Raphael Garcia a lot of work.

Second, that number led the CPL in the opening round and might have been even higher if Garcia and Le Bourhis hadn’t been hampered by injuries to open the event.

630

Minutes played by Julian Dunn, loaned to Valour FC from Toronto FC II.

Related to the above, but Dunn’s minutes tied him with Atlético Ottawa’s Malyk Hamilton for most amongst the under-21 Canadians in the First Stage.

8

Goals scored by Valour FC in seven matches.

Forge FC led the First Stage with 13 goals, followed by HFX Wanderers (12), Cavalry FC and Pacific FC (10) and then Valour and York9 FC (eight), Atlético (seven) and FC Edmonton (5).

Half of those goals came in a 4-nil win over Ottawa and Valour was also held off the scoresheet in four of seven matches.

0

Valour players with more than one goal in the tournament.

Valour got goals from eight different players: Fraser Aird, Dylan Carreiro, Moses Dyer, Daryl Fordyce, Andrew Jean-Baptiste, Masta Kacher, Yohan Le Bourhis and Jose Galán.

They were the only team in the First Stage not to have a player score more than once. Forge FC, by comparison, had four players score at least two goals.

36

Shots on target by Valour FC, most by any club in the First Stage.

Interestingly, Valour’s 55 per cent shooting accuracy was second to Ottawa’s 58 per cent. Shots are one thing, quite obviously finish is another.

2

Clean sheets by Valour FC and goalkeeper James Pantemis.

Cavalry led the First Stage with three clean sheets.

1.29

Valour FC’s 1.29 goals conceded per match represents a significant improvement over 2019, when it surrendered a league high 52 goals, for a 1.86 GCM.

16/1

Yellow cards/red cards issued to Valour FC in the opening round, most of any CPL team. By comparison, Cavalry was nailed for just seven yellow cards.

1.5

Expected goals by Dylan Carreiro, highest on Valour FC.

Expected goals is a metric which assesses the chance of any particular shot becoming a goal. Carreiro took 10 shots in the First Stage, had five on goal and scored once.

70

Minutes played by Arnold Bouka Moutou at the Island Games.

Valour FC had brought in the veteran defender, who had spent the last three seasons in France’s Ligue 1, to help solidify its back line.

But Bouka Moutou was injured in the opening match and then played less than five minutes before injuring himself again in the last match of the tournament