Valour have little room for error

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This article was published 30/08/2022 (1452 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If Valour FC is going to clinch a playoff spot for the first time in team history, they need to hit their stride.

Wednesday night’s meeting with Forge FC at 7 p.m. at IG Field would be a good start.

The top four clubs in the Canadian Premier League standings make the post-season and Winnipeg’s professional soccer team currently reside in fifth place with an 8-6-7 record and 30 points.

Forge has played one fewer game, but is in third with 36 points. Pacific FC has the last playoff spot with 35 points in 21 games played.

Valour and Forge will also play in Winnipeg on Sunday afternoon.

Valour secured four points at home last week with a 1-1 draw against FC Edmonton and a 1-0 victory over Pacific.

“We need to get a win out of these two games. We can’t create any drama if we don’t get the three points (tonight),” Valour head coach and general manager Phillip Dos Santos told the Free Press on Tuesday. “… I think (tonight) becomes a very important game for us. We’re going one at a time and it starts with the one tomorrow. That’s the one that’s next and most important.”

Valour found themselves in a similar position last year. It all came down to the final game, a road match in Edmonton, and all Valour needed was three points to crack the final four. Valour ended up coughing up three goals in the opening 50 minutes before rallying back to earn a 3-3 draw. The late surge was too little too late.

“I was actually talking about that with some of the guys a couple weeks ago and we were laughing about it saying, ‘Let’s secure our playoff spot before then so we don’t have to rely on the last two games again,’” said defender Rocco Romeo.

“The team character and unity are very, very tight. The guys have a good relationship with one another and right now, I think we’re in a good spell. But these two games coming up will be the separation of where we need to be or where we fall short.”

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With only seven matches left, Valour barely has any room for error. It’s what makes the decision to sit star goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois so surprising. Sirois, last season’s CPL Goalkeeper of the Year, is healthy, but has been benched for the past five contests in favour of Rayane Yesli. But Yesli, a 22-year-old from Montreal, is making the most of the opportunity as he’s surrendered just two goals in the five-game stretch.

“I said it at the beginning of the year that we have one of, if not the best pairing of goalkeepers in the league. It can’t just be words,” said Dos Santos.

“Rayane had his chance and he’s stepped up and the team has played well in front of him. That’s helped him, but he’s done a good job… We don’t look at it individually. We look at it in a team context and the team has been well so we’re not moving much and making many changes.”

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.