Brett Levis and his Valour FC teammates know full well what the Canadian Premier League standings read and the details of the shrinking schedule in front of them.
And so, the formula for Valour FC & Co. as they prepare for Sunday’s home match against Pacific FC at IG Field is rather straightforward:
A fifth place standing with eight games remaining in a league in which the top four qualify for the playoffs = crunch time.
“We have eight games left and we see the table,” said Levis, Valour’s veteran fullback. “It’s super close right now, but we’re that team that really can’t afford to drop any more points, especially at home.
“We see our objective and so it’s about having tunnel vision right now. Overall, I think we’ve been playing better as a team this year and our work ethic is always there. We have to continue to do what we’re doing and if we commit, if we have that high work ethic, then at the end of eight games we’ll see where we are.”
Valour is 7-6-7 — seven wins, six draws, seven defeats – for 27 points through 20 matches. That leaves them seven back of fourth-place Cavalry FC and eight back of Forge FC and Pacific FC, both tied for second with 35. Atlético Ottawa tops the standings with 38 points.
The math here is simple: with each win worth three points, Valour certainly needs to go on a run here ASAP – especially with four of their next five matches at IG Field – to have any shot at chasing down a playoff spot.
“When you get to this point and you are a little bit against the wall there’s two ways to go about it – either you drop and you let the moment get to you, or you see it as an opportunity,” said Valour GM and head coach Phillip Dos Santos after Friday’s training session at Ralph Cantafio Soccer Complex.
“The way we’re approaching it is we have eight games where out of the top five teams, we need to be the best one. It’s simple for us: if we’re the best team over the next eight games we’ll make up the ground at least over one or two teams. We see it now as being a short-shot competition. Forget the past, forget what has been and just focus on the next eight games.
“If we start looking at the big picture, what the season has been so far and what was, we could lose ourselves.”
Valour was without centre back Andrew Jean-Baptiste in last Sunday’s 1-1 draw with FC Edmonton and he was not on training on Friday. Dos Santos said he is ‘day-to-day’, with the likelihood being Jean-Baptiste would return to action for Wednesday’s game against Forge FC – the original home opener from May 1st that was rescheduled due to the league’s COVID-19 protocols.
The club will get centre back Nassim Mekideche back after his served a one-game suspension after picking up a red card in the recent loss to HFX Wanderers.
Valour is 2-1-2 for seven points in the last five matches but hasn’t been able to yet hunt down any of the teams above them. Only Cavalry, 2-0-3 for six points, has had fewer points over that stretch with Pacific (4-0-1) having grabbed 12 points and with Forge and Ottawa both 3-0-2 for nine points over that same span.
“The problem is we’ve been in fourth gear for too long,” Dos Santos said. “We need to find that fifth gear. We’re a team that is averaging 1-1-1 over three-game stretches. That would have been OK in previous years for the playoffs, but this year it’s not happening like that. This year the team that makes the playoffs in fourth place won’t be with the same 36 points as last year, it’s going to be higher. So, we need to find that fifth gear. What’s going to put us into that fifth gear? It could be a very good performance against Pacific.
“But this is a very big week for us – three games against two of the top teams – and if we’re able to maximize points at home it would be a massive boost for us. We’re not looking at anything beyond finding a way to win the next game. We have to be all-in for right now. It’s all or nothing for us.”
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‘V’ NOTES:
-A reminder that Sunday is Valour’s first ‘Pups at the Pitch’ match in support of The Winnipeg Humane Society. Supports can bring their dog to the game, with gates opening at 1 p.m. Tickets are $35 (including taxes and fees), with $5 from each ticket purchased being donated to the Humane Society.