Valour FC out of playoffs after home loss to another cellar dweller

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This article was published 20/09/2023 (1111 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Valour FC’s razor-thin playoff hopes were officially wiped out Wednesday night.

Winnipeg’s professional soccer club needed to win their final four matches to have any shot at cracking the post-season for the first time in franchise history.

But thanks to a 1-0 loss to Vancouver FC in front of 3,033 fans at IG Field, Valour’s last three games are now meaningless.

The result drops Valour to 5-8-12 which puts them in a tie with expansion Vancouver (6-5-14) at 23 points for last place in the eight-team Canadian Premier League. They’re also the two lowest scoring teams in the CPL with just 23 goals in 25 games.

Valour’s worst season was their inaugural campaign in 2019 (8-4-16, 28 points) and if the current group doesn’t earn some results down the stretch, the 2023 edition will hit a new low.

Even if the home team won Wednesday night, they needed York United and Atletico Ottawa to tie their meeting on Oct. 1 and both lose their other two games in order to steal the fifth and final playoff spot.

“It’s disappointing because we felt our team showed glimpses, especially in the first stretch of the season, that made us believe we could reach something more. But that’s where teams get separated,” said Valour head coach Phillip Dos Santos.

“It’s a professional sport and you need to have the motivation, the ability, and the consistency to bring it out every single day and that’s where some players are phenomenal and they’re able to do it with no resistance whatsoever. And then there’s some who ride the wave a little bit more and when it gets tough, they play the motivation card and I felt that we had quite a few of those and we need to assess that.”

Midfielder T.J. Tahid, a 16-year-old who was recently called up by the Canadian under-17 team, came off the bench in the second half to score the lone goal in the 78th minute.

It’s the first goal Vancouver has scored against the Winnipeg side in four meetings this year. The two basement-dwellers are 1-2-1 against each other.

Valour controlled possession for 66.8 per cent of the match and outshot Vancouver 16-8.

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“It’s tough. I mean, today we kind of feel like it was a prime example of our season. There’s so much potential in this team and we feel like we could’ve done a lot more. Including myself,” said Valour midfielder Dante Campbell.

“I think I could’ve done more and there’s others that feel like they could’ve done more. But it’s important we look at the positives and use it for next year and also have some takeaways from the negatives. It’s important we find that balance. We got three games left to prove to ourselves, prove to our coaches, and prove to our fans that we deserved more this year. Being eliminated from playoffs, there’s still always something to play for. That’s the message within the group.”

Valour hits the road to play Ottawa on Sunday. They then head to Calgary to play Cavalry FC Sept. 29 before closing out the season at IG Field on Oct. 6 vs. HFX Wanderers FC.

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.