It is a simple and straightforward notion in theory, but not as clear-cut and easy to put into practice.
And so as Valour FC prepares for Saturday’s home opener at IG Field against Atlético Ottawa, a key question – perhaps the key question — is this: how quickly can the collective flush Wednesday’s humbling loss to TSS Rovers in the Canadian Championship and get back to chasing down a Canadian Premier League playoff spot?
“Whatever happened Wednesday is in the past,” said midfielder and captain Diego Gutiérrez. “Of course, it’s sad because it was the (Canadian) Championship and we wanted to last, but we need to put it behind us and keep going forward. It’s not easy to put that game in the past, but we need to refocus now because it’s done.
“We still have the belief. I talk to every guy every morning, asking them how they’re doing. They all say, ‘Good. I’m happy.’ That’s important because when you feel happy everyone feels that.”
The Canadian Championship dream having faded, Valour will now work to prove Wednesday’s loss to Rovers — dubbed ‘The Miracle of Burnaby’ by One Soccer – was a one-off with a solid effort against Ottawa, a club which lost in the CPL final a year ago.
“We have to hold ourselves accountable,” said GM and head coach Phillip Dos Santos after an indoor training session on Friday. “It was far from what we had been about since I took this group in preseason. For me, it was an uncharacteristic game. I think there was an element of excessive confidence. But it’s past and we have to look ahead now.
“Focussing on it is not going to bring us anything. Without taking any credit away from TSS Rovers, the conditions better suited the team that isn’t taking initiative in the game and is happy to defend very hard and be pragmatic. That was the game. They defended very well and capitalized very well on one or two situations we didn’t deal well with.
“We need to look at it as an odd game and I prefer to build on what we did in the first game of the season which is a lot more of what we’re going to encounter throughout the season than the game on Wednesday.”
Valour is coming off a 2022 season in which the club posted a 7-4-3 (win-draw-loss) record at IG Field – the best home mark in the franchise’s young history. The goal in ’23 remains the same: continue work establishing the stadium to be a nasty place for opponents.
“Every year you have that goal of making home a fortress,” Gutiérrez said. “We want to keep that going. I hope a lot of fans are coming. It’s good when we have a lot of supporters and when you hear those fans and see them in The Trench and other places in the stadium.”
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CPL HOME RECORDS SINCE LEAGUE INCEPTION IN 2019
Win-Draw-Loss, Win %
(ranked by winning percentage)
- Cavalry FC – 26-6-6 – 76.3%
- Forge FC – 24-5-9 – 68.1%
- Pacific FC – 19-10-9 – 63.1%
- HFX Wanderers – 15-10-10 – 57.1%
- Atlético Ottawa – 8-10-6 – 54.2%
- Valour FC – 14-9-15 –48.7%
- York United FC – 12-11-15 – 46.1%
FC Edmonton – 12-11-15 –46.1%
Notes:
-Regular-season matches only
-Totals do not include 2020 Island Games, with matches all played at UPEI
-Totals do not include home matches during the 2021 Kickoff Event, where all games were held at IG Field from June 26-July 24th and with limited capacity – including four ‘home’ matches for each club.
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“It’s always good to come back home,” Dos Santos added. “We spoke a lot about the schedule in the first week and managing that. Well, coming home allows you to breathe a little bit. It’s our turf. We know it’s a place where we need to take care of business. The guys like to play here because there’s familiarity and we need to take advantage of that.
“We need to take advantage of our home field. It’s a big field and when you have a team that’s dynamic like ours, that likes to run, likes to cover and attack spaces it’s an advantage for us. We build team around that because we know 14 of our games will be at home. We want to make sure our players understand the responsibility that comes with being at home.”
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‘V’ NOTES
-No update on the status of Raphael Ohin on Friday. In case you missed it, the bulldozing midfielder left Wednesday’s loss with about 20 minutes remaining with a still-to-be determined leg injury. Ohin did leave the pitch under his own steam but was visibly upset.
Both Ohin and centre back Andrew Jean-Baptiste were not at training Friday at the WSF South Soccer Complex.