Pressure is on Valour FC

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/04/2022 (1611 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It’s time to give the Valour Army something to cheer about.

After three lacklustre seasons, the pressure is on Winnipeg’s professional soccer club to crack the Canadian Premier League post-season in 2022. The first step to getting there starts Sunday as Valour opens the season on the road against FC Edmonton at 3 p.m. CT.

“The pressure is there from ourselves. I don’t think it’s an external pressure,” Valour head coach and general manager Phillip Dos Santos told the Free Press after Friday’s training session at WSF Soccer South.

“I think we owe it to our fans. You know, looking at what has happened with the Bombers, we’re due to be up there. We feel that.”

To be fair, Valour’s previous woes can’t be put on Dos Santos’s shoulders. After a monumental slide in 2021, Rob Gale was replaced by Dos Santos — a former assistant with the Vancouver Whitecaps of the MLS — in September. Dos Santos has earned the patience of the club, but the same can’t be said for the players as most of them are back for a second or third season in maroon and gold.

“Myself and (Winnipeg Football Club president and CEO) Wade Miller have talked and there’s a clear desire to see this team up there fighting with the best teams in the league. That’s the goal, but a timeline was never brought to me,” said Dos Santos.

“Wade is someone who understands sports. He never said I have one year to do it. He said ‘Look, do what you have to do.’”

Valour was one spot away from the playoffs last year as their 10-5-13 record was good for fifth place in the eight-team league. They’re going to have to try to improve on that without fan favourite Raphael Ohin as the 27-year-old midfielder tore his ACL on the first day of training camp. Ohin and defender Federico Pena are the only Winnipeggers and players from Year 1 left on the team.

“Raph’s a good guy. Obviously, it’s a big loss to the team, but knowing Raph, he’ll come back stronger,” said Pena.

“He brings a lot to the table, but we have lots of talent on the team. It’s going to be tough for sure, but we have lots of quality on the squad and I trust my teammates (to step up).”

Valour will also be without their star defender Andrew Jean-Baptiste, at least to start the year. Jean-Baptiste, a 29-year-old from New York with MLS experience, led Valour to a 6-0-1 start last season before a torn ACL sidelined him. Jean-Baptiste looked like an early favourite for league MVP before the injury.

“We don’t need to risk AJB right away. Andrew is still not comfortable without his brace. He still needs to get through that mental barrier,” said Dos Santos. “… We’re not talking five weeks here. If I was to put a timeline on it, I could tell you that if I have him ready to go for our home opener, I’d be extremely happy and that’s a reasonable timeline for him.”

After three away matches, Valour will host Forge FC on May 1 at IG Field. The Valour faithful can expect to see the reigning CPL Goalkeeper of the Year in net for the home side as Jonathan Sirois has returned to Winnipeg on loan from MLS side CF Montreal for a second straight year. Sirois came into last season as an unknown, but this time around the expectations will be high for the 20-year-old keeper. Sirois looked sharp in camp after coming off the preseason in Montreal.

“Players hear what people say about them. He’s been praised a lot coming off of an individual award that he won last year. But the challenge that I put in front of him is that he has to repeat,” Dos Santos said. “In sports, people quickly forget.”

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

The Warm-Up

Winnipeg Jets Game Days

On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop.

Sign up for The Warm-Up

Sign Up

I consent to the Terms and Conditions, Cookie and Privacy Policies.

I consent to CASL agreement.

To turn the ship around, Dos Santos will also need attackers Moses Dyer and William Akio to have repeat performances. Dyer, a 25-year-old from New Zealand, scored nine goals in 2021 to give him Valour’s single-season scoring record. Akio was right behind him with eight markers, putting him in a tie with Marco Bustos (2019) for second place on the list. The 23-year-old Akio, a Calgary native, got his first taste of pro action last year and he quickly proved he belonged. The duo of Dyer and Akio did most of their damage down the stretch when the team was pushing for the playoffs.

Valour signed Colombian Daniel Ascanio and Chilean Walter Ponce in the offseason, but the import forwards haven’t reported to the club yet.

“I challenge them to show it wasn’t just luck. They need to show that it was in fact performances they can repeat season after season, game after game because that’s what’s going to seperate them from everyone else,” said Dos Santos. “I think this is an important year for them. Do I think they can consistently good and mirror what they did in the last 10 games last year? I do and they’ve shown very good signs of that in training.”

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.