Sirois stars in Valour home opener

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/05/2022 (1576 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Not that anyone needed it, but Saturday afternoon at IG Field was a reminder that Valour FC’s Jonathan Sirois is the best goalkeeper in the Canadian Premier League.

Besides that, Valour’s home opener featuring visiting Halifax Wanderers FC was rather forgettable, ending in a 0-0 draw. Valour, who was originally supposed to play their first home game last weekend before it got postponed owing to roster concerns, is now 1-2-1 on the year while Halifax moves to 2-1-2.

Sirois made five big saves to earn the clean sheet.

“Today I was tested a lot, and it feels kind of good to get a good performance in,” said Sirois.

“… I try to help my team as much as possible. If you can weather the storm like we did in the first half and keep that zero up there and go into the second half with that same score, I tell myself that we’re always in a good position to go ahead in the second half and put one in and probably win the game.”

It was a much different story from Valour’s last contest back on April 24 when they smacked Atlético Ottawa 6-1. Valour had 15 shots, six coming from leading scorer Moses Dyer, on Saturday, but only three were on target.

“I felt we were very individual in the final third. I don’t know if it was the emotions of coming back home and guys wanting to (impress),” said Dos Santos.

“(There) were moments where you were able to get in good spots but we tried to do too much alone… There’s positives that we take, for sure, but today, if there was a team that deserved a little bit more, it was Halifax.”

Sirois made the play of the game with an incredible save in the 55th minute. Halifax attacking midfielder Pierre Lamothe hammered a shot from the top of the box and Sirois came up clutch with a diving, one-handed stop.

Sirois, a 20-year-old on loan from CF Montreal and the CPL’s Goalkeeper of the Year in 2021, was especially busy in the first half as Halifax outshot the Winnipeg side 12-3. The script flipped in the final 45 minutes as the Wanderers finished the match with 17.

Valour won the possession battle at 53.7 per cent.

“I think everybody’s still a little bit disappointed. Defensively you can see we got the job done, cause we didn’t concede any goals, but if you look overall in the game, I think we can be kinda disappointed with our performance. It wasn’t to our level,” said Sirois.

“It wasn’t what we want to do as a collective. Usually, we’re a team that wants to control a bit more of the ball, control the tempo of the game. Today, it was a lot of transitions, up and down, and if we don’t stay with our identity and how we like to play, it doesn’t give us the best chances to win. We’re kind of lucky to get out of there with a point. But it was a well-fought one point that we’ll take and we’ve just got to focus on the next game.”

Valour will have to quickly put this one behind them and find their A-game as they have a tough test coming on Wednesday. For the first time in franchise history, Valour will square off against an MLS club when they head to BC Place to play the Vancouver Whitecaps in the preliminary round of the Canadian Championship. The winner will advance to the quarter-final to play Cavalry FC or FC Edmonton.

Dos Santos was an assistant coach for the Whitecaps for nearly three years before he was let go last August.

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

The Warm-Up

Winnipeg Jets Game Days

On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop.

Sign up for The Warm-Up

Sign Up

I consent to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies.

I consent to CASL agreement.

“If I (didn’t think we could win), then we might as well not travel. We could stay home and call the league and say ‘Give them the match.’ Of course, we believe it’s capable,” said Dos Santos.

“We’re aware of the challenge, but we believe it’s capable and the proof is that there’s been upsets… We have to go with the confidence that it’s possible to get something and the belief that it’s a good game to play.”

Valour’s next CPL match is May 15 at IG Field against York United.

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31

Taylor Allen
Reporter

Taylor Allen is a sports reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. Taylor was the Vince Leah intern in the Free Press newsroom twice while earning his joint communications degree/diploma at the University of Winnipeg and Red River College Polytechnic. He signed on full-time in 2019 and mainly covers the Blue Bombers, curling, and basketball. Read more about Taylor.

Every piece of reporting Taylor produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.