Valour on upswing heading into home opener

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This article was published 29/05/2024 (846 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While the last six weeks have been gruelling and, at times, disheartening, Valour FC is finally home and has some momentum going.

Winnipeg’s pro soccer team took the pitch for Wednesday’s training session to prepare for its long-awaited home opener against Vancouver FC at Princess Auto Stadium on Sunday. Game time is 4 p.m.

The club played its first seven matches on the road as new turf was installed at the stadium.

The long road trip proved to be a tall task for a team with 16 new faces, as Valour opened the season with five consecutive losses to Vancouver, Pacific FC, Forge FC, Atlético Ottawa and York United.

Valour scored just three goals during the stretch.

“It’s one where the guys felt that these were the cards they were dealt, with seven games on the road plus the (Canadian Championship) game on the road,” said assistant coach Jay Bhindi. “Travelling, planes, and hotels, and not being able to have proper training sessions because (the process was) travel, recover the guys, then do a match-preparation session then play right away.

“The guys right away from the beginning accepted that these are the cards they’re dealt with and let’s go into it fighting and try to put ourselves in the best position to come back at home.”

Valour has done a much better job of that recently as it found the back of the net three times in the last two contests, resulting in a 2-1 triumph over the (Halifax) Wanderers and a 1-1 draw with Cavalry FC.

Finishing the road trip with promising performances has re-instilled a sense of hope for players as they return to friendlier confines.

“Football is all about confidence, all about momentum, whether that’s in a game itself or in a full season. That is something that we will take into the next home games… that’ll be really good,” said attacker Jordan Swibel, who leads Valour with two goals this season.

“We know there’s room for improvement, even after two decent results” he continued. “But, we want more. We know we have points to make up on from the first five games so we’ll be looking to do that and keep gelling, keep pushing forward and working hard on the pitch, and those will in turn give us good results when we play on the pitch.”

Positive results have come as the squads gets multiple players back from injury.

Perhaps Sunday’s match will mean more to captain Raphael Ohin than anyone else on the pitch. It’s been more than two years since the longest-serving member of Valour last played in front a Winnipeg crowd.

Ohin, 29, has worked back from his second serious knee injury in as many years. He missed all of 2022 and appeared in two contests last year before suffering another devastating injury, which ended his comeback season before it ever got going.

The midfielder is fresh off his first appearance of 2024 — appearing in the 76th minute against Cavalry — and ready to play in front of the only fans he’s known as a professional.

“Finally, it’s a good feeling,” he said. “You miss home, we’ve been playing on the road and it can be difficult. It hasn’t been easy, from different hotel to another hotel, training at this facility, the bus rides, taking the ferry — all of that… it felt so long.

“I’m so excited that that long stretch of the season is over. Now we’re back to a normal travel schedule so right now we’re looking forward to this home opener.”

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Valour’s reward for enduring the tough stretch will be playing five of its next six matches at home. That’s made the upcoming stretch of matches even more important, as the team looks to capitalize on its good mojo.

“It’s a league where, if you look at the trends, teams do fairly well at home, teams look for those home results to get them points, to get them in the playoffs,” Bhindi said. “So, I think us getting seven games out of the way, that leaves only seven left and a lot of home games, and there’s a very good team spirit in terms of looking forward to still having 14 home games.

“If you take care of business at home, you put yourself in a good spot in the table.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jfreysam

Joshua Frey-Sam
Reporter

Josh Frey-Sam reports on sports and business at the Free Press. Josh got his start at the paper in 2022, just weeks after graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College. He reports primarily on amateur teams and athletes in sports. Read more about Josh.

Every piece of reporting Josh 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.