Valour FC no one-hit wonders

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This article was published 30/06/2021 (1562 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It took 37 games, but Valour FC has finally won back-to-back matches for the first time in franchise history.

Winnipeg’s professional soccer club opened the season with an impressive 2-0 victory Sunday against the two-time Canadian Premier League champion Forge FC. Valour proved on Wednesday they’re no one-hit wonder as they secured another three points by beating last year’s second-place team, HFX Wanderers FC, by a score of 2-0 at IG Field.

It’s only two matches into a 28-game season, but so far, this Valour team looks nothing like the group from the past two seasons.

“Last year we had a good team and this year we improved in a lot of places. These two wins are meaningful. They mean a lot and I’m sure they’ve probably set a message to the rest of the league. However, it’s naive to sit here and think we’re on top of the world just after two matches,” said Valour centre-back Andrew Jean-Baptiste, who’s in his second year with the team.

“It’s best that we stay level-headed, stay composed, and continue to work harder and fix any of the discrepancies that we may have and the little mistakes going forward.”

Jean-Baptiste was brilliant on the defensive end all match, blocking numerous shots and heading several dangerous crossing passes out of the box. But his noggin also got it done on offence as he scored on a header off a corner kick in the 20th minute to open the scoring. Less than a minute later, Halifax forward Alex Marshall drilled a shot off the crossbar that bounced down and over the goal line, but Valour caught a break as officials didn’t rule it a goal. In the end, the history books will show Valour keeper Jonathan Sirois made eight saves to earn his second straight clean sheet.

The missed goal wasn’t the only unlucky thing to happen to Halifax, now 0-2 after losing their season opener to Pacific FC on Saturday, as they also lost German centre-back Peter Schaale to injury early in the match.

“We haven’t played nearly to the capabilities that we want to or the quality of football that I demand of my football team so we’ve got a long way to go… I’m not gonna pretend we didn’t need our goalkeeper today to stand tall and stand big,” said Valour head coach Rob Gale.

“Maybe we got a bounce here and there. If you want to know the difference from The Island Games (where the Wanderers beat Valour 2-0), their centre-back gets injured, not ours. They got a bounce last year, we got a bounce this year.”

Sirois was tested throughout the second half with one of the best chances coming in the 53rd minute when attacker João Morelli Neto had a free kick rattle off the crossbar.

Valour put the match away for good in the 89th minute. Winger Jared Ulloa, a 19-year old on loan from Peru, took the ball into the corner of the box and squeezed a pass between two defenders to find rookie forward William Akio, who buried a shot into the back of the net for his first career professional goal. More impressive than the goal was Akio’s celebration — a backflip.

“I’ve got to give a shout out to young Jared as well. Damian (Rocke) was shouting at him to take it to the corner and I was shouting at him to take it to the goal. It’s a good thing he doesn’t understand a word of English because he did what he likes,” said Gale with a laugh.

“He popped it back to Willie and I’m delighted for William… I’ve started calling him Willie-Peg. It’s Willie-Peg tonight and we’re delighted for both of those young guys.”

Valour was underestimated by a lot of people coming into the 2021 campaign. But after 180 minutes of football, critics might have to start changing their tune.

“A lot of us on this team have been written off by a lot of people and you know, that’s fine, because every day we get to go on to the field and shut them up,” Jean-Baptiste said.

“The feeling of doing that with results and performances is the best way of going about it. People keep on coming up with these mock drafts for who’s gonna win the league and who’s the top players at each position and stuff. For us it’s like ‘Hmm, none of us are in there? That’s fine.’ That just motivates the guys on our team to go out there and shut them up.”

Valour’s next match in The Kickoff — the name of the Winnipeg bubble that sees all eight CPL clubs play their first eight matches at IG Field — is Saturday at 9 p.m. against Atlético Ottawa.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31