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Valour forward Jordi Swibel leads the team in scoring with seven goals
Match Preview | Valour FC vs. HFX Wanderers FC
September 19, 2024
Ed Tait
by
Ed Tait

Match #24

VALOUR FC (6-5-12) vs. HFX WANDERERS (6-6-11)

When: Saturday, September 21st, 2 p.m. CDT
Where: Princess Auto Stadium
Tickets: Info can be found here.
Match theme: Punjabi Night

MATCH PREVIEW:

Valour FC may be staring up at the rest of the teams in the Canadian Premier League standings but that doesn’t negate this very real fact: with five matches remaining in the regular season their goals — reaching the playoffs for the first time in franchise history and then chasing glory after that — are still right there to hunted and grabbed.

That said, the clock is ticking loudly now with the schedule shrinking.

Valour enters Saturday’s crucial home match against HFX Wanderers in eighth place in the CPL standings with a 6-5-12 record and 23 points, yet is just four points out of a playoff spot. Just as important is this: four of the club’s last five matches will be played at home at Princess Auto Stadium.

So, a question to Valour GM and head coach Phillip Dos Santos: is he preaching to the team to control what they control or keeping an eye on the CPL tables?

“Both,” Dos Santos said in a chat with valourfootball.club. “It would be a lie if I said I don’t look at it because you need to know where you are and you need to know what the challenge is and what’s ahead. We also understand that if you don’t take care of what you have to take care of, it doesn’t matter. Our eyes are there but we also understand it’s going to be about us. We know the responsibility that we have.”

Valour will be facing a Wanderers side that is coming off a 2-2 home draw with Pacific FC that saw them take 1-nil and 2-1 leads — all while a man down — before conceding the equalizer in the 97th minute. That draw helped Valour in its pursuit of the playoffs, with Pacific inching to now just four points ahead. Of note: three of Valour’s final five matches come against the teams directly ahead of them in Wanderers on Saturday and Pacific FC at home on September 30th and a road date in Vancouver on October 13th.

The other two matches will both come at home against Forge FC on October 6th and Cavalry FC in the regular-season finale on October 19th.

All that is significant given where the club started the season with seven straight road matches as the new turf was installed at Princess Auto Stadium and a stretch that saw the club dig a hole with one win and one draw against five losses.

“I always said that when we got to not only this run of home games but this point of the season where things are decided that it was important to see the line,” Dos Santos said. “We know the challenges we had. Nobody starts the season saying, ‘We want to be fifth or fighting for a playoff spot.’ My ambition was always to bring a home playoff game. But then sometimes you have to adjust those plans and you need to make sure you set goals that are realistic for where the team is at.

“Our challenges set us back a bit and once we did it was then making sure we had a chance at making that playoff objective not only in our grasp but one where we would be in control of our destiny. The truth is this: it’s four points (separating them from a playoff spot), but we play the three opponents ahead of us coming up so those four points could become a lot, or very little if we do our job.”

There have been encouraging signs of late with Valour playing its best football over the last eight matches which have produced three wins and three draws against two losses. Now the team needs more.

“I live the moment. I’m encouraged by it and don’t want us to under-estimate what we’ve done recently.” Dos Santos said. “But I always want us to be very vigilant and realize there’s the motivation we have in the moment we’re living and the fact we are where we are by right at this point in time. It’s the process, it’s what we’re going to do in the next game that matters the most.

“We’re at a place where we’re confident and we feel we could step into any game and win but only if we do the little things right and stick to the things that have brought us to this point, knowing there is always another gear, another layer, to our game that we could progress to.”

Forward Jordi Swibel leads Valour with seven goals. Fullback Themi Antongolou leads the CPL with seven assists while goalkeeper Jonathan Viscosi is second in the CPL with 63 saves.

THE OTHER GUYS:

3 Facts about HFX Wanderers FC:

  • Wanderers are coming off that 2-2 draw on Wednesday and are 2-2-1 in their last five.
  • Wanderers have been bolstered by the recent additions of two former Valour players in midfielder Sean Rea and defender Nassim Mekideche, who scored in the draw with Pacific.
  • They will be without their leading goal scorer in Daniel Nimick, who returned from a red-card suspension for the Wanderers game but was red-carded again after picking up two yellows in the first 31 minutes. He has eight goals this season, including seven from the penalty spot.

VALOUR FC SPOTLIGHT:

#13, Tass Mourdoukoutas, centre back: He’s been so steady since an early-season injury kept him from the lineup and Valour will especially need his veteran presence along its back line for this final push for a playoff spot.

Mourdoukoutas went through the exact same scenario a year ago while with York United, helping that squad rally to earn a place in the playoffs and would like to help author the same script this fall.

CRITICAL NUMBER

6

Valour forward Shaan Hundal has boosted his goals total to six this season, scoring three times in the club’s last four matches.

All-Time: Valour FC vs. HFX Wanderers

Overall: (win-draw-loss): 7-3-12

Last meeting: August 17, 2024, Princes Auto Stadium, Winnipeg — Valour FC 2 HFX Wanderers 1