Scoring still a problem for Valour FC

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/08/2020 (2193 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

New year, new team, same scoring woes.

Despite the fact there are only seven players remaining from last year, Valour FC has carried over their scoring problems from 2019. Last season’s group finished with the third-lowest goal total in the Canadian Premier League and the 2020 edition of the team is heading in a similar direction.

Valour was held off the scoresheet for a third time at the Island Games — a single-site tournament in Charlottetown, P.E.I., to determine the 2020 CPL champion — as the Winnipeg professional soccer club fell 2-0 to Pacific FC (1-2-1) on Tuesday night. Valour, now 1-1-2, has yet to find the back of the net when both teams are at full strength as their four goals this tournament all came in a match against a short-handed Atlético Ottawa team who had a player sent off in the second half.

After the match, Valour head coach and general manager Rob Gale was asked three times by the Free Press to address the club’s offensive struggles, but he claimed the lack of goals is a “misleading statistic.” Gale said they’ve generated a lot of chances throughout the tournament and it’s just a matter of capitalizing on them more efficiently.

“I thought the longer the game went on, I felt more and more positive that we were going to score, get back in it and try to take over the game,” Gale told reporters in a Zoom call.

“That’s what the subs were for, to do that. But you got to take your chances when you get them in football and if you don’t, you get punished and that’s what happened tonight.”

Valour dug themselves a hole early when defender Julian Dunn, who was solid in the team’s first three matches, mistimed a sliding tackle to allow a pass to get by him in the box and land at the feet of Pacific attacker Alejandro Díaz. Díaz made no mistake and blasted a shot past Valour goalkeeper James Pantemis at the four-minute mark to give Pacific an early 1-0 edge.

Valour failed to generate any offence in the first half, registering just one shot on goal. Their play improved in the second half, but Valour ended up with nothing to show for it. Pacific’s Victor Blasco snuck past Valour’s defence and scored in the 83rd minute.

But less than two minutes later, the window was open for Valour to make things interesting as Austin Ricci was taken down in the box to give the captain, Dylan Carreiro, a penalty shot. Carreiro misfired and his attempt was stopped by Pacific ‘keeper Callum Irving. To add salt to the wound, Carreiro jumped on the rebound and had a wide-open net but his shot sailed over the crossbar. Valour finished with seven shots on target and lost the possession battle at 45.6 per cent.

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Valour was without a pair of key veterans Tuesday night, with attacker Brett Levis and defender Arnold Bouka Moutou out with injuries. After the game, Gale said he wasn’t sure what their status would be moving forward. Valour will have some time to lick their wounds as they will have three days off before they return to the pitch on Saturday for a tilt with FC Edmonton (0-1-2). It will be the first time this tournament Gale’s squad will have three days off before a match.

“We’re the only team that’s gone two, two, two in the days off (between matches) in the first four games,” Gale said. “So now Edmonton has to do it, Pacific has to do it, other teams will only get two days rest at times. We’ve got two games coming up where we’re going to be on three days rest. That gives you an extra day of training after recovery.”

A win would’ve put Valour in prime position to qualify for the second stage of the tournament. All eight CPL clubs play each other once with the top four teams advancing to the next round. With the loss, Valour sits in fourth place, although the four teams behind them have played just three games apiece, with three matches left on the schedule.

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.