They were productive and prolific during their days in Valour FC colours. And until a ball is kicked in anger this season – the curtain rises on Canadian Premier League campaign this weekend – the shadows cast with the exits of both Moses Dyer and Sean Rea over Winnipeg’s pro soccer franchise will remain massive.
A question, then: why is no one in the Valour camp really sweating the departure of Dyer, the club’s all-time leading scorer, and Rea, the CPL’s U-21 Player of the Year?
“We were a team that scored an average of 1.29 goals per game last season,” began Valour GM and head coach after a training session at IG Field this week. “The truth is this: you can’t be scoring only a goal per game, because to win that means you always need a clean sheet.
“So, the way we look at it, it’s not about replacing who left, it’s about even getting more.”
Dyer had nine goals in 21 CPL matches to lead Valour a year ago, and 19 from 2020-22 for Valour FC – the most in franchise history. Seeking a change, he has since landed with FC Tulsa. Rea set a CPL record with nine assists while scoring five goals of his own en route to now earning regular minutes with CF Montreal of the MLS.
That’s a whole lot of offence having vamoosed.
“We look at it in this sense: where the goals will come from as a collective,” said Dos Santos. “Yes, we had two-three main contributors last year with Sean (Rea), (Moses) Dyer, with (Alex) Riggi, who had three goals. But we’re not looking to compare. We’re looking for what the next level is for us and what we can collectively reach.
“It’s about when our depth is tested who can step up and contribute offensively with an assist or a goal. It’s having players getting into dangerous positions who weren’t maybe doing so previously – like Guti (Diego Gutiérrez) like Raph Ohin, like Kevin (Rendón) into higher positions to contribute as well.
“I look at the depth guys we brought in… we lost Dyer at the end of last year and it really affected us. Now we want to be in the position where you can play the player that’s in the best form on any given day and not have the team performance impacted.”
Valour returns Walter Poncé up front, but with Matteo de Brienne now playing left back, the club’s attackers have undergone a significant overhaul. Among the newcomers are wingers Pacifique Niyongabire, a member of the Burundi national team who played last season with Perth Glory in Australia, Englishman Kian Williams, who had 11 goals in 52 matches for Keflavik in Iceland and Jared Ulloa, the Peruvian-Canadian who was with the club in 2021 before spending last year with Cusco FC in Peru’s Liga 1.
Up front the team has added former Colorado Rapids draft pick Jaime Siaj, who played last year for Finn Harps in the First Division of League of Ireland and CPL veteran Anthony Novak, who had 12 goals for Forge FC and Cavalry FC before suffering a knee injury last spring.
“We’ve got a good dynamic – players who can score goals and players who can create goals,” Novak said this week. “I think we’re going to surprise some people with what we’ve got up front. It’s pacey, it’s dynamic, it’s strong and it will be hard to deal with.
“People don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors and they don’t see what’s gone in preseason. Not everyone is familiar with the players we’ve brought in yet, Obviously, Moses is a great player and Sean brought a lot to this team. But I think we’ve managed to replace them, and we’ll be just fine.”
Dos Santos has yet to settle on his starting XI for Valour’s 2023 season opener Sunday in Toronto against York United FC, but Novak – a product of Pickering, Ont. – will have supporters in house.
“This a very big moment for me personally,” he said. “Whether I’m in the XI or coming off the bench, it’s something I’ve looked forward to for a long time. I don’t want it to be something I’ll be crying about, but it is something I’ve dreamed about for the past year.
“I’ve learned not to take this game for granted.”
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THE FORWARDS/ATTACKERS
Pacifique Niyongabire
Ht: 5-7; Born: 3/15/2000
Nationality: Burundi
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Anthony Novak
Ht: 5-10; Born: 3/27/1994
Nationality: Canada
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Walter Poncé
Ht: 6-0; Born: 3/4/1998
Nationality: Chile
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Jaime Siaj
Ht: 6-1; Born: 12/16/1995
Nationality: Jordan
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Jared Ulloa
Ht: 5-7; Born: 6/8/2002
Nationality: Peru
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Kian Williams
Ht: 5-11; Born: 7/1/2000
Nationality: England
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NOTABLE VALOUR FC ATTACKER NUMBERS
77.8%
Valour found the back of the net 36 times last season, tied for third most in the CPL. But players no longer with the team accounted for 28 of those 36 goals – a whopping 77.8%.
That list includes Dyer (9), Rea (5) and Riggi (3), mentioned above, along with Willy Akio, Stefan Cebara, Brett Levis, Rocco Romeo and Billy Forbes (2, each) and Daryl Fordyce (1).
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8
Valour managed just eight goals in its final 10 matches last season and four in their final five, a stretch that saw them go 0-1-4 and drop out of the playoff picture.
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NEXT: Main season preview
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PREVIOUS:
–The Midfielders: https://valourfc.canpl.ca/article/valour-2023-preview-the-midfielder
-The Defenders: https://valourfc.canpl.ca/article/valour-2023-preview-the-defenders
-The Keepers: https://valourfc.canpl.ca/article/valour-2023-preview-the-keepers