They were, admittedly, in a bad mental state – an unhealthy combination of frustration and anger that can be a dangerous concoction for any soccer team.

But it was what Valour FC GM and head coach Phillip Dos Santos saw after that – a 2-0 victory over Cavalry FC on Wednesday coming immediately after the potentially boiling point that was a 2-1 loss to Pacific FC – that told him a lot about his team’s mental resilience.

Just as critical, was how they channelled all that negativity into something positive in a massive rebound win that has the club right back in the Canadian Premier League’s playoff discussion.

“I rewatched the Cavalry game on (Thursday) and I thought there were a lot of things wrong with our game while watching it live that I wasn’t happy about, because we’re hard on ourselves,” began Dos Santos win a conversation with valourfootball.club following training on Friday. “But in rewatching it now I think it was a very mature performance and I think it happens because we have a lot of maturity on the field. We have guys who have seen a lot and played a lot and they’re starting to come together as a team. I like that.

“Teams that have a bit of maturity in their game are the teams that have succeeded the most in our league. It’s good to see it come together and good to see us have healthy bodies and guys capable of repeating games – especially after what we had to experience on the weekend in a game we were so dominant in, but weren’t able to win it. A lot of guys could have taken a few days to recover from it, but we went right back at it, and they responded very well.”

Valour FC will enter Sunday afternoon’s matinee at IG Field against York United FC six points out of the fourth and final playoff position, with the team they are chasing – Atlético Ottawa – in action earlier that same day.

The club has been a decent run of late with four wins, a draw and two losses – the second in the Pacific match that saw a controversial decision leave the club down a man for the final 30 minutes in a contest they were dominating and leading 1-0 before falling 2-1.

“You have to move on and go to the next one right away and we did that,” Dos Santos said. “If not, you’re going to miss out on an opportunity. It helped that it was a very good opponent where the guys were eager to get back it and show they were able to put another good performance back-to-back and they did that.

“That was the message and they responded.”

Valour got a solid effort from goalkeeper Rayane Yesli in earning his first career CPL win with Moses Dyer scoring his eighth and ninth goals to pace the squad.

Dyer’s growth – both on the pitch and in the leadership department – was a topic Dos Santos discussed Friday.

“He’s a strong presence in the locker room,” he said of Valour’s all-time leading scorer. “I think it’s his upbringing and where he came from — how he had to grind to get where he is (https://valourfc.canpl.ca/article/beyond-the-pitch-moses-dyer– and his ambition to go further makes him very eager to succeed. He has this desire to win and be the best he can be which can become contagious. “You see it in the way he plays. He brings it all the time… some games are better than others, but you never question his effort. He’s someone who voices himself and I like that. I don’t want to be coaching a team of angels. I want guys who are able to hold themselves and each other accountable when it needs to be done because it can’t always come from the coach.

“Dyer has that voice and he’s used when and how to use it. He also knows I’m OK with it.”

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‘V’ NOTES

-Valour will be without fullback Andy Baquero on Sunday as he serves a suspension for yellow-card accumulation. Left back Brett Levis is also listed as day-to-day with a knock.

Midfielder Daniel Ascanio will return from suspension, giving the club more attacking options.

“Aside from that, everyone else is ready to go,” said Dos Santos. “I was pencilling in my lineup here with a potential list of 18 and bench and I was excited more about what our bench could look like than the lineup itself because we have options now, we have guys that can come in and sustain the performance or change the game. That’s exciting for a coach.”