It’s not a statistic that appears anywhere in the Canadian Premier League’s detailed match report analyses, like possession time, expected goals or passing accuracy.
Yet, momentum is a very real thing in sports and Valour FC has it in spades right now.
Unbeaten in three matches with two straight wins over Pacific FC and Forge FC following a draw with Atlético Ottawa, Valour FC enters this Sunday’s home match against York United FC just three points below the playoff line and only eight points out of third place as the CPL table has tightened up considerably.
And it turns out the best Valour player to describe the power of momentum and how that feeds confidence and overall team play is goalkeeper Jonathan Viscosi, who not only is the club’s last line of defence but also has a master’s degree in Sports Psychology from Mid Sweden University in Ostersund.
“Momentum is a very a real thing,” began Viscosi in a chat with valourfootball.club. “In fact, I’ve got a tattoo that represents that on my side. It’s a wave. They say when you speak about momentum to think of the ocean and how a wave has the strength and the current to take an object to the top and drive it forward. The current starts from the bottom of the ocean.
“If you think of the pitch, it has an energy to it and there’s momentum in it. And so it’s about how you harness it and direct it in the direction of your intent, of your focus, of your gameplan and in executing all those actions together that’s how you gain momentum and that weight that shoots you forward when you need something.”
Viscosi said he got the tattoo during his time Swedish club Dalkurd and in a promotion season of 2021, earned by beating GAIS of Gothenburg. That squad learned to live in the moment and win each moment and that simple approach helped in their push.
“Our mindset has changed from playing for the results to playing for the moments,” he said. “We’re playing each moment as it comes and it’s become more calmer, more fluid. There’s a lot more clarity in our game right now. It’s a lot more calm, more composed, more collaborative — that’s the big one, we’re collaborating really well and working together and finally understanding how to split the work and support each other in the right areas. We’re not stressed about it. Before we were maybe putting too much into the outcomes and stressing in those tense moments around the box. Now we have a lot more trust in each other’s abilities and we’re getting good results.
“Hopefully we can keep that going and there will be another tattoo,” added Viscosi with a grin. “Still, the important thing to remember about momentum is the pitch doesn’t remember, so the momentum we built last Sunday isn’t automatically going to be there for us this Sunday. We’ve got to built it again.”
Sunday’s match against York United will be the second of a four-match homestand Valour hopes can continue to breathe new life into their 2024 season and the push for the franchise’s first-ever playoff spot. Valour will host HFX Wanderers on August 17th and Vancouver FC on August 25th as part of a stretch that will see the club play eight of its final 11 at Princess Auto Stadium.
Critical now, of course, is to think small picture — specifically this Sunday — rather than the potential benefits of a long spell at home. Potential points don’t mean anything until they are actually earned, after all.
“It sounds so simple, but playing simple football and thinking simple thoughts is probably the hardest thing to do in this game,” said forward Jordi Swibel, who leads the squad with six goals. “You can get caught up in the results and the table and next week’s game or last week’s game where you maybe didn’t get a result and if you do that you lose the present moment which is all we have.
“Yes, we’re very happy with the result we got on the weekend against Forge but this is a new day and we have a new week coming up against York which is a very good team in good form.”
Valour will get veteran midfielder Raphael Ohin back for the weekend after he missed last week’s win over Forge due to yellow-card accumulation. Also returning last week was midfielder Juan-Pablo Sanchez, giving GM and head coach Phillip Dos Santos the healthiest squad he’s had in weeks.
“I look at things in a cautious way,” said Dos Santos. “Our message to the guys has been, ‘Yes, things are better. Yes, the team is in a good place and in a good moment, but this forces us to increase our vigilance because we know how fast momentum changes in this game and especially in the CPL.’ We like the place we’re in, we’re enjoying the moment we’re in and that’s one more reason to make sure we do whatever it takes to keep things going.
“That’s the key — that’s the best way to go about it, focus on the next opponent, but more than that focus on the next day, the next training session. We can’t look at things too far ahead and it’s important to have an approach where we’re very grounded. The small actions, the every day things, are so important for us to be successful. When you look too far ahead you can lose yourself.”