Waiting game: Valour FC waiting for league to set schedule

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This article was published 13/04/2021 (1696 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While teams around the Canadian Premier League have already begun training for a 2021 season, Valour FC defender Andrew Jean-Baptiste is stuck dribbling a ball around furniture in his 600 square foot apartment in Winnipeg.

FC Edmonton kicked off its preseason training on Monday inside the Edmonton Soccer Dome. Over in Calgary, Cavalry FC had a group of players hit the pitch on Tuesday. The Halifax Wanderers got an early jump on things as they’ve been practising since March 22. A couple days later, Pacific FC played the Vancouver Whitecaps of the MLS in a friendly behind closed doors. York United FC and Forge FC had started activities but those have been halted due to Ontario entering another lockdown. The other Ontario club, Atlético Ottawa, which is owned by La Liga’s Atlético de Madrid, dodged lockdown and travelled to Spain to continue working on their craft.

And then there’s Winnipeg’s Valour FC.

Players such as Jean-Baptiste are beginning to make their way to the Manitoba capital, but there’s still no confirmation when they’ll begin training or what it’ll look like. Jean-Baptiste, a 28-year-old who has experience playing in the MLS and overseas, got his negative COVID-19 test result Saturday morning, hopped in the car, and made the nearly 24-hour drive to Winnipeg from New York before finally arriving Sunday evening. He has to quarantine for 14 days, but it’s not like he’s missing out on anything anyway.

“They’re fortunate. Not many people would acknowledge this or the league wouldn’t acknowledge this, but they have an upper hand on the rest of the teams and the rest of the league,” said Jean-Baptiste on the other clubs who are currently training.

“They have that in their advantage. But the province of Manitoba, they take maximum precautions… and I’m all or it. The last thing we need is any more setbacks before the season gets started. If Manitoba becomes conflicted with these cases, it only makes the league starting less likely. It’s a little frustrating, but patience is key at this point.”

As for Valour bench boss and general manager Rob Gale, he’s not pulling his hair out over his team’s current situation. Sure, a trip to Spain would be nice, but he’s not so sure it’s going to be all that beneficial considering how Atlético Ottawa will have to quarantine once they get back.

“It is what it is. It’s up to everyone’s ownership and groups to work through their own realities and situations… Honestly, I can’t worry about anybody else. I can only worry about my own group,” Gale said.

“A typical preseason in football would be six weeks maximum typically anyway. Depending on when that greenlight to start is, we (should) still have six weeks and I think that’s more than enough time… We can remain patient and expect that we’ll still get those six weeks, and then that might be an advantage. Sometimes it’s a detriment, like last year when the preseason lasted forever. Then there was a break and then we continued not knowing (when the season would start). I’d rather have a clear date and a clear objective in mind and work back from that.”

But that’s the problem: there is no clear start date. In a normal year, CPL teams would kick off on a 28-game season in late April. As of today, the league still hasn’t released a 2021 match schedule. Rumours have circulated that instead of a traditional full season, the eight clubs could be split into two bubbles — east and west — with the winners meeting in a final. Or the league might go down a similar path to what they did last summer where they held a single-site tournament in Charlottetown, P.E.I. The Free Press reached out to the CPL and asked to chat with commissioner David Clanachan but didn’t receive a response by press deadline. Clanachan told the Free Press back January they were targetting a May 22 start date in 2021, but that seems unlikely at this point.

“It is frustrating. Ultimately, for a lack of a better expression, this is the biggest (loss) I’ve taken in my career with this long off-season and the uncertainty as to when this league may start,” said Jean-Baptise, who’s heading into his second season with Valour.

“But, undoubtedly, I have full faith that the people who are running this league and the presidents of each club are coming to a solution with the government to find a reasonable outcome for us to get our season going. As frustrating as it may be, we just got to be patient.”

Jean-Baptiste is one of seven players who have arrived in Winnipeg and one of three who are currently isolating. The goal is to get as many players here this month as possible so they can get their 14-day quarantine out of the way. In Gale’s mind, this Valour squad is the most talented one yet. It just remains to be seen when they’ll get that chance to prove it.

“It’s the reality. We’re in the same boat as we were last year,” said Gale.

“What we do know is there’s an overwhelming desire to get a full season in this year… I know there’s a ton of work being done from everybody in the league, the ownership, the management, to make this as close to a full season — a real season — as possible. We still have time on our side to do that.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31