Euro veteran key piece for Winnipeg

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This article was published 07/03/2019 (2720 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The weather may be unseasonably frigid, but that hasn’t stopped members of the fledgling Valour FC, Winnipeg’s shiny new pro soccer team, from turning up the temperature at their indoor training camp.

The Canadian Premier League club, which begins its inaugural campaign on May 1 in Victoria, B.C., completed its third day of camp Wednesday with some spirited sessions on the pitch.

While Winnipeg comes with climate shock for some of the team’s international talent, GM and head coach Rob Gale loves what he’s seen so far. And veteran midfielder Josip Golubar, who has played for teams in Austria, Slovenia and most recently the Croatian club Varazdin, is expected to be a big piece of what management hopes to accomplish in 2019.

“It’s a tough introduction,” said Gale, who also has Canadian, Colombian, Uruguayan, Chilean and English players on his roster. “One of the things we try to make sure of is they are going to get out and about in the community. We’re going to do a couple of things over the weekend and make sure we show them some of the areas.

“The Croatian community has reached out to Josip, he’s going to go out to mass on Sunday. It’s very important for these lads to assimilate themselves and be out there for us in the community.”

The 34-year-old Golubar, who is at least six years older than all of his teammates, has a skill set and maturity Gale covets.

“I think if you watch him play, you can just see that he’s an out-and-out footballer,” Gale said. “He’s very smooth in his directions. Apart from that quality on the field, it’s showing the guys off the field what it takes to have a 16-, 17-year career in the game. Because it’s not easy. He knows what it means to rest at the right times, he’s there in the treatment room… doing the ice baths, doing what he needs to do.

“So, the young lads can learn a ton from him in that sense and hopefully take those lessons to extend their careers.”

Golubar views himself as a soccer expeditionary, eager for new challenges.

“I want to try something new,” Golubar said. “This is for me a new experience and I’m happy to be here from the start. I wanted to come here for the first day and meet the guys and coach.”

Fellow midfielder Dylan Carreiro believes it’s up to Winnipeggers like himself to help ease the transition.

“Not only on the pitch but off, we try to connect and see what we like about each other,” Carreiro said. “When you come on the pitch, the ball’s round, we all know that’s how we play and we just find each other. That’s why we have the eight weeks of pre-season, to get adjusted to each other.”

Carreiro said he relies on his Portuguese heritage to help him communicate with his new Spanish-speaking teammates. But does he speak any Croatian?

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“No, but I have a few Serbian friends so I know a few words,” Carreiro said. “So it’s OK. It’s a slow adjustment for a player like Josip, but you can already tell with a player of his experience, what type of player he is. It’s excellent.”

Carreiro, 24, has known Gale since he was 11 years old and playing at the National Training Centre and following that as a member of the national under-17 and U20 programs. It was an easy decision, Carreiro said, to join Valour after he was chosen second overall in the CPL’s U Sports draft.

“What I love is that final third quality, he sees that little reverse ball,” Gale said of Carreiro. “He can pick the lock, which sometimes, if you’ve got teams that maybe are in a low or medium block, hard to break down and they’re forcing you — he’s a player who can come on and give you that extra edge. He’s shown some great quality in his vision and awareness.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14