Valour FC defeats HFX Wanderers FC 1-0

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This article was published 11/05/2019 (2656 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Calum Ferguson played a big part in making a little bit of history Saturday afternoon,

The 24-year-old Scottish-born Canadian, making his first start of the season, scored the only goal of the match in Valour FC’s 1-0 triumph over visiting HFX Wanderers FC in Canadian Premier League soccer action before 5,819 fans at IGF.

The triumph, a first on home turf for the Winnipeg squad, capped a frantic 11-day opening stretch to the season in which the local side played four games and covered 7,426 kilometres on the road.

“Huge relief, yeah,” said Ferguson, who gathered Ali Musse’s nimble setup and chipped the ball past Wanderers goalkeeper Jan Michael Williams in the 48th minute. “On your first start, to get a goal as a striker, it takes a monkey off your back, it takes the pressure off you a wee bit and it sets you up for the season. I was lucky enough to get the goal. Ali’s done brilliantly down the wing there, he’s made it easy for me.”

The win improved Valour’s record to 2-2-0. The Halifax-based Wanderers dropped to 1-2-0.

Ferguson, one of six changes to the lineup made by head coach Rob Gale to start the match, contended his club deserved better after losing 2-1 at home to Edmonton FC and following that with a bruising 1-0 loss to Cavalry FC in Calgary Wednesday.

“Obviously a tough result here last week and a tough result during the week as well but to get those three points and to get the first win at home, more importantly,” said Ferguson. “You saw the fans our there today, I thought they were outstanding again. Their support has been incredible and to get the three points in front of them was huge for us.”

Valour’s next action comes Thursday against visiting Forge FC of Hamilton. The club’s energetic fans, spurred on by the raucous Red River Rising supporters group that occupies Section 144, renamed The Trench, played an inspirational role.

“I’ll tell you what, the fans, the last 20 minutes I sat there on the bench and I’m in my home town of Winnipeg here, and those fans were amazing,” said Gale. “They were bouncing, they kept us going. They kept me energized on the bench and I was looking at the team and we needed the legs and they were brilliant today. The Trench — full shoutout to everyone in there — and hopefully all the mums were in there, bouncing up and down, downing pints, having a good Mother’s Day.”

Winnipegger Marco Bustos, who made his Valour debut only days after signing with the club from the USL’s OKC Energy, practised only once with his new team before getting his first start. He was thrilled with the outcome. Bustos estimated he had 30-plus family members in the stands to witness his homecoming.

“It was great,” said Bustos, one of five Manitobans to see action in the game. “The fans showed up and that’s what we need as a professional football club. When fans comes out, it’s about them and I’m glad we came here and I got to be part of the first win here.”

Ferguson’s goal was a prime example of the finish that had been missing from the Valour attack recently and Gale plotted to relieve some tension the missed opportunities created.

“We worked on it in training yesterday, just trying to get those diagonal runs down the side and get crosses in. I felt we wanted to play too much underneath, which when you’ve got players like Dylan (Sacramento), Dylan (Carreiro), Marco (Bustos), Ali (Musse) — they’re all similar types of players and you get congested a little bit,” explained Gale.

“So we said at halftime we’ve just got to be a little bit cleverer… Luckily, Ali got down the line and Calum does what he does best. He puts himself in good places, knows he might take a hit but he got the reward today.”

Valour picked up the pace offensively but it was the fine play of goaltender Mathias Janssens that kept them in the game early.

Janssens, making his first professional start, made an excellent stop on Wanderers midfielder Kodai Iida in the 11th minute and a diving save on Zachary Sukunda in the 35th. In the second half, he denied Iida again in the 67th minute. He was rock solid in registering Valour’s first clean sheet.

Janssens had watched from the sidelines as Winnipegger Tyson Farago played Valour’s opening three games in goal.

“Yeah, really pleased for him,” said Gale. “We know he’s a good goalie, he’s here to push Tyson and Tyson to push him and like I said, Tyson’s had three games in seven days, and just that mental side for a goalie is different to anybody else. They’re they last line and they take it hard if we’ ve had defeats and conceded goals.”

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Waiting to play wasn’t easy for the 21-year-old Belgian.

“Sometimes it’s hard but when you know the coach staff is trusting you, then it makes it easy and you wait patiently and you continue to do your job,” said Janssens.

NOTEWORTHY: Canadian midfielder Michael Petrasso (hamstring) was given the day off while Croatian import Josip Golubar, who suffered a knee injury in Wednesday’s loss in Calgary, will be reevaluated. His injury could be long term. Central defender Adam Mitter left the game in the 41st minute with a dislocated shoulder and was replaced by Uruguayan defender Martin Arguinarena… Valour had a 50.4 percent to 49.6 per cent possession advantage.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14