Valour strip Murrell of captaincy

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This article was published 07/08/2019 (2345 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

He’s played every single minute for his team this season.

While doing so, Jordan Murrell wore the captain’s armband as Valour FC’s fearless leader.

But the 26-year-old defender from Markham, Ont., has had to hand in his armband and will soon see his playing streak come to an end due to an incident earlier this week.

It happened in Monday’s 1-0 loss in Halifax against HFX Wanderers FC. To say Murrell lost his cool at the end of the match would be an understatement.

In the 90th minute, with Valour pressing to tie the game, Murrell was tackled in a challenge for the ball. There was no call on the play, and when Murrell stood up, he let his frustration get the best of him as he pushed referee Filip Dujic in the chest with one hand. Murrell was immediately given a red card for “violent conduct.” Murrell headed to the locker room, but before he got there, he kicked a scorer’s table on the sideline. The objects on the table went flying everywhere and clearly startled the scorekeeper. But it didn’t end there. Murrell also walked directly into a security guard before heading into the tunnel.

Murrell spoke to the media before Wednesday morning’s training session at Grant Park High School and confirmed he won’t be the team’s captain for the remainder of the season — no matter how long his suspension ends up being.

“Yeah, we spoke to the coaching staff and the teammates and we decided it would be best for me not to be captain the rest of the year,” Murrell said. “And I completely understand the actions I portrayed on the weekend aren’t captain-worthy and it’s about me regaining the trust of my teammates and my coaches and my fans.”

Murrell was asked how long afterwards did it take for him to realize he made a mistake.

“Right after,” said Murrell, who posted an apology on Twitter after the match and called the scorekeeper to apologize to him personally. “As soon as I sat down in the dressing room (I realized) obviously I made a mistake and just sat there and was like, ‘Wow. I’m not sure how I’m going to have to deal with this.’ And obviously, my reactions aren’t accepted in the league and at our club and it’s just gonna have to be like that.”

Murrell is guaranteed to miss at least three games due to the red card, but Canada Soccer is expected to hand down a longer suspension. Canada Soccer could ultimately take a week to decide, and when they do, Valour will have seven days to appeal if they choose to do so. The club is hopeful Murrell’s suspension won’t be for the remainder of the Canadian Premier League’s fall season.

But whatever gets decided, defender Skylar Thomas will take over as the club’s captain. Thomas, who played four years alongside Murrell at Syracuse University, was previously Valour’s co-captain. Thomas and Murrell were voted captains by the players prior to the season.

“My role doesn’t really change too much,” Thomas told the Free Press. “I feel like I’m going to continue to lead. I was a leader before and I’m a leader now. I think that’s the same for Jordan. He’s a natural leader, and just because he isn’t wearing the armband doesn’t mean he’s not a leader on the team. I’m sure regardless of what happens, we need some guys to step up now. We have the rest of the season ahead of us and we need our leaders to really show themselves right now.”

Valour head coach and general manager Rob Gale was asked about the Murrell incident after Wednesday’s practice.

“It’s not acceptable. He’s apologized and rightly so,” the coach said. “He knows he’s let, first and foremost, himself down because that’s not how he wants to conduct himself. It’s not his character within the community here and everything else. He’s let all the staff, the players and the club down and it’s disappointing. We obviously had to take action against that and remove the captaincy from him, which he fully accepted and realized it’s not acceptable for anybody at our football club. It’s not the image we want to portray.”

Despite the poor example of leadership on Monday, Gale would not rule out Murrell returning as the club’s captain in 2020.

“We’ll for sure remove him from the captaincy now, and who’s going to be here next year and how many leaders do we have and everything, you know, we can address that in the future,” Gale said. “But I don’t think you can punish someone for the rest of their life for making a mistake. Or if you do, you better be very virtuous and saintly in your own life and take that into consideration.”

There were several fans on Twitter calling for the club to release Murrell. But Gale said that would’ve been a reach.

“Well, thank goodness I’m not on social media anymore, because they’ve obviously done nothing wrong in their life, never made a mistake,” Gale said. “They’ve clearly never played sports or had any frustrations as a supporter or a player. Look, it’s human error.”

The loss of Murrell is a big one, as Valour lacks depth on defence outside of Thomas and English-born defender Adam Mitter. It also comes at a terrible time as the team hasn’t won a match in its past 11 contests, sits in the bottom of the fall standings with a 0-2-3 record and closes out the month with five matches in 19 days.

The club has been in discussions with several defenders and hopes to bring one in, but the transfer window closed on Wednesday and, as of press time, Valour hadn’t announced the signing of a new player.

“We’ll have to have a look at what options are available to us,” Gale said. “Someone who’s obviously sharp enough and ready enough to come in and play at this level.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31