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Valour centre back Tass Mourdoukoutas in Sunday's 3-nil win
Match Report: Pacific FC 0 Valour FC 3
July 28, 2024
Ed Tait
by
Ed Tait

Valour FC found some magic Sunday afternoon in what had long been a burial ground for the hopes and dreams of Winnipeg’s Canadian Premier League club.

Playing some of their most-spirited football of the 2024 CPL campaign, Valour FC blanked Pacific FC 3-nil at Starlight Stadium in Victoria — some 1,915 days since their last win on Vancouver Island back on May 1, 2019 in the franchise’s inaugural season.

“We know this is a tough place to come,” said fullback Themi Antonoglou, who scored Valour’s first goal. “But our group is resilient, we like to compete and that’s what we did.”

Joked Valour GM and head coach Phillip Dos Santos when asked about that long drought ending:

“Hey, I never won here and I got sacked here (while with Vancouver Whitecaps after a Canadian Championship loss to Pacific). So, I had that ghost that I had to get rid of and now it’s done. I don’t have to think about that any more.”

The win is the second consecutive solid outing for Valour following a 2-2 draw last weekend against Atlético Ottawa and ends a three-match road swing. Most importantly, it helps breathe life into the team’s postseason quest, with Valour now moving to within five points of Pacific and six out of a playoff spot.

Valour improves to 4-2-10 on the season for 14 points, with Pacific now 5-4-6 and stuck on 19 points.

Critical now is an upcoming four-match homestand that begins next Sunday at Princess Auto Stadium against Forge FC as part of a stretch that will see Valour play nine of its final 12 at home.

Antonoglou opened the scoring in the 43rd minute, deftly picking a corner behind Pacific goalkeeper Emil Gazdov after some spirited work by Shaan Hundal for his first goal for Valour.

Valour went ahead 2-nil in the 76th minute on a penalty by Hundal after Thomas Meilleur-Giguere was called for a handball and then Abdul Binate came off the bench to truly seal the deal in the 92nd minute with a brilliant strike.

Valour goalkeeper Jonathan Viscosi stopped three shots to earn the clean sheet, the club’s third in 16 matches as the back line in front of him featuring Dante Campbell and Antonoglou at fullback and centre backs Tass Mourdoukoutas and Frankie Facchineri, along with midfielder Raphael Ohin, continued to make their defensive presence known.

That total team commitment to defending will be massive if Valour is to inch closer to the clubs ahead of them.

“I look at defending as a collective action and the team has been more compact, defending more together and the guys have understood a bit better the references when we decide to press the opposition,” said Dos Santos. “It has been good for us.

“The last two games were probably the two best defensive performances of the team.”

Those two performances — the draw with Ottawa and the win today — came after a disappointing effort in Nova Scotia in which the club fell 3-1 to HFX Wanderers while conceding three penalties, two of which resulted in goals.

Dos Santos said the team ’emotionally broke’ after the Wanderers result, but has since rebounded.

“Our message has been one where there good players,” said Dos Santos. “They have to believe in their ability to go out and execute throughout 90 minutes.

“If there’s a shift it’s maybe the guys having a bit more belief in themselves and their teammates and working together.”

“Ottawa is top of the table so getting a result there was big for us and it gave us a lot of confidence coming into this game,” added Antonoglou. “We worked really hard this week on the game plan and we executed it to perfection.

“We have four home games coming up and I think we could take advantage of that.”

‘V’ NOTES
-Valour fullback Roberto Alarcon served the last of his three-game suspension after picking up a red-card. Ohin picked up fifth yellow and Noah Verhoeven his sixth and both will miss next week’s match against Forge.
-Hundal’s penalty was Valour’s first opportunity from the spot this season. It was his third goal of the year.


Pacific FC Valour FC 0
Goals
Valour FC
42:23’: Themi Antonoglou (assist: Shaan Hundal)
75:59′: Shaan Hundal (penalty)
91:22′: Abdul Binate (assist: Themi Antonoglou)

Pacific FC
None

Card summary

Valour FC
51:24’: Safwane Mlah (yellow, tactical foul)
64:03′: Raphael Ohin (yellow, tactical foul)
83:41′: Noah Verhoeven (yellow, time wasting)
89:15′: Jonathan Viscosi (yellow, time wasting)

Pacific FC
20:40’: Steffen Yeates (yellow, time wasting)
91:35′: Emil Gazdov (yellow, dissent)
95:43′: Cedric Toussaint (yellow, reckless offence)

VALOUR STARTING XI (4-2-2-2)
GK – Jonathan Viscosi
D – Dante Campbell
D – Frankie Facchineri
D – Tass Mourdoukoutas
D – Themi Antonoglou
MF – Raphael Ohin ©
MF – Safwane Mlah
FW – Diogo Dias Da Ressureicao
FW – Jordan Faria
F – Shaan Hundal
F – Jordi Swibel
—
Valour substitutions
63:10’: On Abdul Binate; off Jordi Swibel
63:20′: On Noah Verhoeven; off Jordan Faria
91:50′: On Zach Sukunda; off Safwane Mlah
92:49′: On Loic Kwemi: off Di0go Dias Da Ressureicao