Bustos busts loose for home side

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This article was published 28/08/2019 (2546 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Marco Bustos had seen enough of Valour FC’s struggles against HFX Wanderers FC.

Prior to Wednesday night’s meeting at IG Field between the two sides, the Halifax-based club was 4-1 against Valour this year and hadn’t allowed a goal in their previous three matches against Winnipeg’s professional soccer team.

Bustos, a 23-year-old Winnipeg native, said at Tuesday’s media conference that Valour deserved better results against Halifax and he was extra motivated to turn the tide.

That’s exactly what Bustos did Wednesday night in front of 4,346 fans, as Valour’s star attacking midfielder scored two goals in three minutes early in the second half to give his team a 2-0 victory over the Wanderers.

With the win, Valour climbs up two spots to fourth place in the Canadian Premier League’s fall season table and improve their record to 3-4-3. The Wanderers are in last place at 2-6-1.

“I came in (at halftime) and I was quite quiet,” said Bustos, who became the first Valour player to score more than once in a match. “I was thinking to myself, ‘Man, if I get a chance, I got to score.’ So I went out there with that mentality that the first chance I get I’m going to score and I did. I’m positive for that. You don’t win without getting a clean sheet. So, we had a really good game. Probably our best defensively as a team.”

It looked like Bustos was going to get Valour on the board early with a glorious opportunity in the eighth minute. Midfielder Michael Petrasso had a pass squeeze through a couple of defenders to find Bustos in front of the net, but the Winnipegger couldn’t get a proper shot off with his right foot and the ball went wide of the goal.

But in the second half, Bustos made no mistake on his scoring chances. His first one came in the 47th minute when he took a pass from attacker Michele Paolucci and chipped the ball over Halifax goalie Jan-Michael Williams. Three minutes later, Bustos made a move around Williams before drilling a shoot between a defender’s legs. Bustos has five goals in 17 CPL contests between the spring and fall seasons.

“Every time you score, no matter where it is, home or away, even at the park, you get a little bit of confidence and it helps with the rest of the team, the rest of the play,” said Bustos.

“I’m just happy that we won. We got the three points and (I) probably could have got a third, but (I’m) good with two and good with the win.”

It was equally as impressive of a performance from Valour on defence, with 21-year-old Belgian keeper Mathias Janssens picked up his fourth clean sheet of the year after making three saves on the night. Valour was playing short-handed on defence, as veteran Uruguayan defender Martin Arguiñarena is out for the season with an ACL injury, former captain Jordan Murrell is suspended and Skylar Thomas wasn’t given the start. Valour usually has four defenders at the back, but on Wednesday they went with three — Adam Mitter, Raphael Ohin and Yohan Le Bourhis.

“That’s one thing we said in the build-up to the game is we’ve kinda leaked goals to this team,” said Mitter. Halifax scored seven times in the previous four games versus Valour. “It was imperative today we kept a clean sheet and I thought the two guys next to me, the goalkeeper and the lads in front of me were absolutely fantastic today.”

Wednesday’s game was Valour’s sixth match in 25 days, which is something the Wanderers couldn’t relate to. They had more than two weeks off leading up to the game, with their previous game being a 0-0 draw against Cavalry FC on Aug. 10. But you’d never be able to tell Valour wasn’t a fresh squad as they outplayed the visitors for the majority of the game. Valour won the possession battle at 53.5 per cent and had four shots on target compared to Halifax’s three.

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Valour will need a similar performance on Monday if the team is going to win their third straight match at home when they host Cavalry FC — the CPL’s spring season champs — at IG Field at 2:30 p.m. The team from Calgary is currently in second in the fall season with a 4-1-4 record.

“We just came out here with the mentality that we weren’t going to lose. And you know it’s one game, but we need to bring it every single game,” said Bustos. “And now looking forward to Monday’s game (against) Calgary, you know, why can’t we do that to them?”

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.