Valour falls as fans return

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/07/2021 (1557 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s starting to feel a little “normal” inside IG Field again.

For the first time in 630 days, Valour FC played in front of their supporters as a maximum of 2,000 fans were welcome on Wednesday night to watch the Winnipeg side take on York United FC. 

While the Valour faithful were given something to cheer about early on as star defender Andrew Jean-Baptiste opened the scoring in the fifth minute, it wasn’t enough to keep their perfect record intact as York United prevailed 2-1. 

Valour falls to 3-0-1 in The Kickoff — the name of the Canadian Premier League bubble in Winnipeg that sees all eight clubs open the season with eight matches at IG Field before returning to their home fields. The win was York’s first on the year as they improved to 1-2-1. As of last night, fans are now permitted to attend The Kickoff matches.

IG Field wasn’t at the full 2,000 capacity on Wednesday, with the fact it was a 9 p.m. start likely playing a big factor, but there was a decent turnout. The Trench was out in full force in Section 138 with their flags, drums and songs for the full 90 minutes.

“Yeah, it was a bit different. Obviously a little more emotion, that atmosphere was a bit different today. It’s just disappointing we couldn’t get the three points in front of the home crowd, but yeah, it was definitely a good feeling,” said Valour right-back Stefan Cebara.

Valour head coach Rob Gale opted to give his sensational rookie goaltender Jonathan Sirois, who hasn’t allowed a goal in three starts, the night off and rolled with 30-year-old Matt Silva. Silva’s in his third year in the CPL, second with Valour, but entered the night with only one career start which came back in 2019 with his old club York. Silva had a chance to show York they should’ve retained him, but the Mississauga, Ont., native dropped the ball, both literally and figuratively, as both goals he allowed were preventable.

The first came in the 14th minute as Lowell Wright drilled a header towards Silva. The keeper got both hands on the ball but wasn’t able to keep it in front of him. Then in the 48th minute, Silva made a huge error on a crossing pass off a free kick that left the net wide open for Dominick Zator’s game-winning goal.

“Matt’s a great goalie. He could easily be a first-choice keeper in this league like Johnny,” Gale said postgame.

“We’re blessed with talent in that position. I’ll have to watch the goals (back), I was just disappointed with the whole set piece in general, to be honest… I’ll have to watch it back, but overall I thought he was solid and moved the ball well.” 

Valour’s closest shot at tying the match came in the 83rd minute when Brazilian midfielder Rafael Galhardo, who came off the bench in the second half, scored on a free kick outside of the box. However, it was immediately waved off as Jean-Baptiste was called for a violation for standing too close to York’s protective wall. 

Gale was asked how he interpreted the official’s decision to disallow Galhardo’s goal and the coach kept his answer brief.

“It’s not up (to) me to interpret refereeing decisions,” he said.

Valour won the possession battle at 55 per cent, but only had one shot on target compared to York’s seven. 

York winger Michael Petrasso, one of Valour’s top players in 2019, admitted it felt extra sweet to take three points from his former team.

“Obviously it was nice to get our first win. I have a lot of respect for Valour from playing here in my first season. I really enjoyed my time here, but yeah, it’s really nice to win against your old club and just good to get us going with our first result this season,” said Petrasso.

The night began at 6 p.m. with Pacific FC (2-1-1) defeating Atlético Ottawa 1-0 (1-0-3).

Valour’s next match is Sunday at 12:30 p.m. against Hamilton’s Forge FC (1-0-2).

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31