Valour season ends on scoreless, sour note

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This article was published 06/10/2023 (1047 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On one hand, Valour FC could breathe a sigh of relief knowing their nightmare season finally ended. On the other, the final chapter left them with an empty feeling that became all too familiar this season.

Winnipeg’s Canadian Premier League side closed the door on a disappointing campaign with a 1-0 defeat at the feet of the visiting Halifax Wanderers at IG Field on Friday.

Massimo Ferrin was the lone goalscorer on the night, notching the difference-maker in the 54th minute with a booming kick.

Valour finished at the bottom of the CPL table at 6-8-14, its worst record since the club’s inaugural season in 2019. The Wanderers (11-9-8) will enter the playoffs somewhere between the No. 2 and No. 4 seed, depending on how Forge FC and Pacific FC wrap up their regular seasons this weekend.

“A lot of moments where you feel you control the game,” said head coach Phillip Dos Santos. “Football is about moments, I said it many times this year. It’s about quality moments or being able to manage elements of the game.

“I think this year was either offensively not taking chances or not dealing well with plays that need to be dealt with. And when it’s like that, you end up where you are. That’s as simple as that.”

For what it’s worth, Valour gave maximum effort until the bitter end and threatened to score several times in the final 10 minutes. Their persisting issues in the final third proved to be their downfall one last time.

The first half was owned by hosts to the tune of four-to-one in shots, three-to-zero in corners won and 55.9 per cent of possession, but the club had no goals to show for it.

Valour’s Juan Pablo Sanchez rang a point-blank opportunity off the crossbar in the 32nd minute, then, in the 35th minute, the assistant referee deemed Matteo de Brienne touched the ball out of bounds before setting up Walter Ponce in the box, where he buried it into the open net.

De Brienne had stripped the ball from Wanderers keeper Yann-Alexandre Fillion along the end line and made a heady play to get the ball back into dangerous territory but, like so many times this season, they failed to capitalize on the chance.

“It’s kind of how the season has been for us. We had a good game for the most part and we just couldn’t finish our chances, unfortunately,” Sanchez said.

“It was a difficult season for us. We started off well but it was difficult overall. We had a few good spells at the beginning, we started to win, and as the season went by we didn’t get the results that we wanted. But we continued to fight till the end, that’s most important.”

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The difference in the match started from the foot of Jake Ruby, who fed a hard cross to Ferrin in front of Valour’s penalty box, where there was a gaping hole in the Valour defence. Ferrin then put on a slight hesitation to the closing Valour defence before smashing the ball to the top right corner to give the Wanderers the deciding advantage.

Valour made a late push in their season’s fading moments, creating several chances that forced those in attendance to hold their breath, but never put on the finishing touches.

Valour finished the year with a league-worst 25 goals. It’s also the fewest goals the club has scored in a season since 2019.

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

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Joshua Frey-Sam
Reporter

Josh Frey-Sam reports on sports and business at the Free Press. Josh got his start at the paper in 2022, just weeks after graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College. He reports primarily on amateur teams and athletes in sports. Read more about Josh.

Every piece of reporting Josh 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.