Valour edge York to snap skid

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This article was published 27/06/2024 (753 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Valour FC has found land after floundering for close to a month.

It was clunky, chaotic, filled with fortunate breaks and anything but perfect, but a win on Thursday was exactly what the doctor ordered for Winnipeg’s pro soccer club, which survived an onslaught of pressure in the second half to earn a 1-0 clean sheet over York United FC before 2,750 fans at Princess Auto Stadium.

Valour snapped a three-match losing streak to improve to 3-1-8 and stay in the Canadian Premier League’s playoff conversation. York fell to 5-2-5 and remains in second place.

“We suffered, but it’s good to suffer sometimes. You learn about your team,” said head coach Phillip Dos Santos.

“The second half, we probably had to hold on a little bit more than we would’ve wanted to but it’s a long season and these are three points that, at the end of the day, how we got them and circumstances don’t matter. It’s the game, and that’s the most important part is that we were able to hold on.”

Indeed, it’s three points any way you shake it, and these ones were critical for a club that has suffered some heartbreaking defeats in recent weeks.

A lot has been made of Valour’s struggles in the first half of matches during the club’s losing skid. The team had been outscored 4-1 in the opening 45 minutes of its previous three matches, while Dos Santos felt his players lacked humility and urgency until they were trailing.

Some encouraging results prevailed on this night, as the hosts created multiple opportunities and even capitalized on one chance.

For the first time in four matches, Valour struck first. This one was off the left foot of Diogo Ressurreciao, who sent a low-lining knuckler past a frozen Thomas Vincensini in the 29th minute for his second goal of the season.

“This is something we spoke about during the week, we knew we needed to improve on,” said defender Tass Mourdoukoutas.

“I’m really proud of the group for coming out the way they did, with the mentality they had, and that’s for us now what we need to keep building on — start real strong because then it puts a hint of doubt into the other team’s mind.”

York dominated the ball with 61.7 per cent of the possession time and put a whopping 16 shots toward Valour’s goal but only registered one shot on target in the match, while the hosts sent eight shots toward the goal and hit the mark on four occasions.

Valour keeper Jonathan Viscosi came up big again for his second clean sheet of the season, including making one momentous save in the match’s dying moments to preserve the win.

The story for York was a series of missed opportunities, which began at the outset of the match.

The visitors came closest in the 63rd minute as Wright headed the ball into the net but bowled over Viscosi in the process. The official immediately waved the goal off. While a commentator on the CPL broadcast said it was the wrong call and that Viscosi needed to show more intent to catch the ball by jumping in the air, rather than waiting for the ball to land in his hands, Dos Santos said it was the right call from his vantage point.

In extra time, the ball found the back of the Valour net again but was again waved off immediately, due to the official deeming a York player pushed off one of the Valour players.

It was a fortunate stretch certainly, but one Valour needed.

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“(The first one) I saw, clearly it was a foul on Jonathan and he’s in his six-yard box, so, for me, there’s no interpretation there,” Dos Santos said. “I didn’t see enough from the second one, but I felt the referee was very fast blowing it, and the amount of these micro calls that didn’t go in our favour already this season, it has to balance out somewhere, sometime.”

Valour will play 10 of its remaining 16 contests at home, where they hope will feature some more fortunate moments in the club’s push for one of five playoff spots.

The club will look to close the distance on the chase pack when it plays Calvary FC (2-8-1) at home on July 7.

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

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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.