Valour FC blows second-half lead, falls on free kick

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This article was published 25/08/2019 (2548 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Marcus Haber didn’t start the match, but he sure did finish it.

The Pacific FC attacker came off the bench in the 61st minute in Saturday afternoon’s match against Valour FC in Victoria with the home team trailing 1-0.

As soon as Haber stepped on the pitch, he made his presence felt. Pacific had a free kick, and the 30-year-old from Vancouver finished the play with a header to tie the match at 1-1 — seconds after entering the game.

The goal came two minutes after Valour midfielder Michael Petrasso opened the scoring on a nice setup from Raphael Garcia. Petrasso now has goals in four straight games.

But Haber, who has 27 caps for the Canadian senior men’s national team, wasn’t done. Later in the second half, Haber was hauled down in the box by Valour midfielder Raphael Ohin to earn Pacific a penalty. Moments before Ohin’s penalty, Valour defender Adam Mitter went down on a hard challenge, but there was no call. Haber stepped up to the penalty spot and beat goalie Mathias Janssens to score the game-winning goal in the 81st minute.

With the 2-1 victory, Pacific improves to 3-1-4 in the Canadian Premier League’s fall campaign. It’s also the first time Pacific has won two straight contests, as they were coming off a 2-0 win over York9 FC. Valour FC, who also entered the game coming off of a victory and was looking to win a second straight game for the first time in franchise history, falls to 2-3-4 in fall action.

“Unfortunately, we got ahead and we didn’t defend well enough off the free kick,” said Valour FC coach Rob Gale.

“I think the keeper maybe was out of position as well, we’ll have to watch it back. You know, (Haber is) a big guy, and they haven’t been able to compete with our football for 60 minutes, so it’s going to go direct and physical, which played into their hands, really.”

Blowing a second-half lead is bad enough, but Valour was inches away from finding the back of the net on more than one occasion.

In the 36th minute, Petrasso set up attacker Michele Paolucci with a nice lead pass into the box and the Valour striker was tackled before he could make a play on the ball. But the official didn’t call for a penalty. In the second half, the iron bailed out Pacific on two separate occasions. Valour attacking midfielder Marco Bustos drilled a shot from outside the box in the 54th minute that banged off of the post. And just over 10 minutes later, Petrasso had a shot ring off the crossbar.

“And we had our chances, but we didn’t get the bounces. We should’ve put them away at 1-0. And if we get the penalty, who knows. You have to try to put it into perspective, but we’re bitterly disappointed and we’re frustrated because we were by far the better football team on the day. There’s no question about that.”– Valour FC coach Rob Gale

“It’s been the story (of our season),” Gale said of not getting a lucky bounce on either shot. “We should’ve had a stone-cold penalty in the first half. Their coaches apologized to me after, because he said it should’ve been a penalty and their penalty shouldn’t have been given. It’s frustrating, but we have to reflect internally on our emotions in these games when they’re getting out of hand and there’s a huge amount of foul counts and injuries are piling up for us. We have to be able to deal with that physical side of the game and continue to play our football, and I thought our football was excellent, but it felt like the game was taken away from us today.”

Valour had 21 total shots compared to Pacific’s 14 and controlled possession for 56.2 per cent of the match.

“We feel the game was taken from us today, and we deserved a lot more. But you have to find a way to win when you’re that dominant,” Gale said.

“And we had our chances, but we didn’t get the bounces. We should’ve put them away at 1-0. And if we get the penalty, who knows. You have to try to put it into perspective, but we’re bitterly disappointed and we’re frustrated because we were by far the better football team on the day. There’s no question about that.”

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To rub salt into the wound, Valour will be coming home with quite a few bumps and bruises. Valour defender Yohan Le Bourhis went down before the game, and Mitter, Ohin and Louis Beland-Goyette all got nicked up in the loss. There won’t be much time for Valour to heal up and shake off the defeat, as they host HFX Wanderers FC on Wednesday at IG Field.

Valour has already lost to the Wanderers in the fall season, as the Winnipeg club fell 1-0 on the road on Aug. 5. Valour’s fall home record is 1-1-2. Halifax is in last place in the fall at 2-1-5.

“We’ll have to regroup, count our lumps and try to get a fresh team and enough bodies out for Wednesday at home and hopefully build off of our home momentum,” Gale said.

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.