Valour FC reaches the midway point of the Canadian Premier League season this week with a collective belief they can still qualify for the playoffs fuelled by an urgency to start piling up results ASAP.
Winnipeg’s professional soccer side is in Halifax to face the Wanderers Thursday night, followed by a visit to the capital on Sunday to meet Atlético Ottawa. Currently tied for seventh place in the CPL tables, Valour is currently seven points back of sixth place Cavalry FC and nine behind both Vancouver and Pacific FC, which hold down the fourth and fifth spots.
Valour has three wins and a draw against nine losses, and needs results now to stay within the pack when they finish the regular season with nine of their final 12 games at Princess Auto Stadium.
“The team knows we need results. It’s a results-driven league,” said Valour veteran centre back Tass Mourdoukoutas. “Good performances are well and good but if you don’t get three points and see games out and get wins on the board then it becomes very difficult.
“We need wins to move into the playoff race. At the same time, the team believes we’re not far off and much improved since the start of the season where some other teams seem to be falling off and looking inconsistent. We really feel we have a good base.”
Valour FC’s remaining games:
Road (6): at Wanderers, July 18th; at Atlético Ottawa, July 21st; at Pacific, July 28th; at Cavalry, August 30th; at York United, September 13th; at Vancouver, October 13th
Home (9): vs. Forge, August 4th; vs. York United, August 11th; vs. Wanderers, August 17th; vs. Vancouver, August 25th; vs. Atlético Ottawa, September 9th; vs. Wanderers, September 21st; vs. Pacific, September 30th; vs. Forge; October 6th; vs. Cavalry, October 19th
Valour’s last match — a 1-nil home loss to Cavalry FC — served as a microcosm of their 2024 season. They had chances, but didn’t bury them and had a momentary break down that resulted in fishing the ball out of the back of their net. Valour is averaging a league-low .92 goals per match and has conceded 1.77 goals per match against, second worst in the league.
Still, the squad is as healthy as it’s been all year — although fullback Roberto Alarcon will next the next three matches due to suspension — and the recent additions of attacker Loic Kwemi and midfielder Safwane Mlah have bolstered the depth.
“We’re on the path to becoming more consistent,” said Valour GM and head coach Phillip Dos Santos. “Our last game could have gone either way and it’s the key moments we need to take better care of to get results. There are elements and moments of games we need to manage better. There’s been some good moments but we’ve really lacked consistency. That’s going to be the most important if we’re going to reach our objectives — we need to be good throughout the 90 minutes.
“There were a lot of changes and we started the season where, yes, being on the road can be good for a group. But that was also in theory — it’s good if the team is winning; if not, the staff is working to find the best possible combinations within the team. That’s something through adversity we’ve managed to find and that stability now is helping.
“There’s still many areas in our game where we can grow, but we need to grow now while getting results. At this level you need to be all in all the time and this is something we’re challenging the guys to be better at and play with a bit more urgency and responsibility.”
Through all this the group remains convinced it can piece together a run to first inch closer to the playoff picture and then secure the first postseason berth in franchise history. Again, though, the clock isn’t just ticking now, it’s clanging loudly.
“We have a stability within the group in terms of the formation and the guys we’re putting out and that gives us a platform structurally to build off individually and what we can do better as a team,” Mourdoukoutas said. “We’re creating chances — even the game we lost at home to Cavalry — but that wasn’t a game, in my opinion, we should have lost. We’re looking more solid as a unit and working on the defensive side. Now it’s about finding the right final ball in order to give us more clean-cut chances on goal.
“We’re really not that far out that a few good performances could get us back into the discussion. We’ve got Halifax, who is with us in the standings, and we won there earlier before this season. This is an opportunity to kick start a good run for the team. We’re all really motivated. There’s a huge belief within the group. It’s positive.”