Valour FC building on success

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This article was published 02/07/2021 (1561 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Valour FC are looking to maintain their momentum with a third straight victory to begin the season as they gear up for Atlético Ottawa Saturday night.

“Consistency and performance, every team is a unique challenge,” said Valour head coach Robert Gale.

“I think the uniqueness of this challenge for us is we’re the only team that’s had two days rest between the first and second game and then the second and the third so we’re up against it on the physical side.”

Gale says working with a short bench continues to be a challenge as the team works on getting more guys rested and recovered. All of this factors in to being able to execute another game plan for 90 minutes. Going up against Ottawa, Gale acknowledged there are no easy games in this league.

“We know that they are well drilled and well prepared,” said Gale.

“I think they spent more money in their preseason than my entire staff budget. They’re well organized and more prepared from last year for sure with the quality of their individuals and collective. It’s going to be a very difficult test.”

Valour defender Andrew Jean-Baptiste was recently named CPL player of the week. Recognition that was a nice surprise for the coaching staff.

“Is he? Well done Andrew, well done CPL, that’s a good choice, he’s been excellent,” said Gale.

“If you keep two clean sheets you must be doing something right. The desire from the boys, the character has been spot on.”

Coach Gale noted how the team has shown a lot of character through the first two games notching wins against the top two teams of last season and having fun while on the pitch.

“It’s been nice and bubbly behind the scenes here, I’m honoured to lead this group of men,” said Gale.

In terms of what to expect against Ottawa, Gale says it is necessary to maintain that consistent effort at both ends of the pitch.

“The desire to defend as a team and attack as a team, the camaraderie between teammates should be the standard at this level of football,” said Gale.

“The boys have been excellent at that so far.”

Through two games, Valour remains the only team in the CPL yet to surrender a goal. Gale acknowledged the strong performance behind his young goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois.

“The sign of a good goalkeeper is just doing the simple things well, the more anonymous your goalkeeper is the better,” said Gale.

“The second game, we had seven shots on target, Halifax had seven shots on target. It was his twentieth birthday when he made his professional debut, and I think even himself he’d say two games into his professional career if you can keep two clean sheets you can’t do much better than that.”

Atlético Ottawa sits with one win and one loss through two games, having lost to Cavalry FC 4-1 Wednesday night. Despite Valour’s success, Gale says overall team possession of the ball needs to improve.

“Our ability to change between positional attacks and counter attacks, we need to possess the ball better as a group,” said Gale.

Kristian Jack, Vice-President of Media and Content for the CPL has followed both Valour games closely as their new analyst and broadcaster. Jack says the underdog team has fed off the support from fans both outside during their first game on June 27, and soon to be inside the stadium on July 7.

“Just their presence, the amount of noise they made, made a difference to the whole broadcast,” said Jack.

“You could just feel the energy in the stadium, it wasn’t stale, you could hear it. Now with the opening of sports, 2,000 fans will make a big difference. The players are aching to play in front of fans and they crave those moments.”

Saturday’s matchup is set for 9 p.m. due to the extreme heat conditions in the province.

jbernacki@freepress.mb.ca

@JosephBernacki