Valour looks to begin season on right foot

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/04/2025 (502 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There’s still a chill in the air, but Valour FC has designs on heating up on the pitch in a hurry.

Winnipeg’s pro soccer club will look to begin the Canadian Premier League campaign on a strong note after finishing the pre-season unbeaten while conceding just one goal across seven road contests against sides in the CPL, League1 B.C. and League1 Ontario.

Beyond the inconsequential results, a returning core that finished 2024 as strong as any club in the eight-club loop has offered up some promise for head coach Phillip Dos Santos and his team.

“The mentality of the guys, their desire to achieve something as a group,” Dos Santos said of what he’s liked most about this squad since training camp opened six weeks ago.

“Look, you’re not playing for points, but you go through seven matches where you concede one goal only, so the defensive cohesion that we were able to acquire at the end of last year, see it transferred to the beginning of the season right away and see that the team could go through a spell of games without conceding many chances to the opposition… this is all good indicators, but they need to come to life when there’s added pressure and there’s three points on the line.”

A strong start would be welcomed by players and fans of Winnipeg’s side, which played catch-up all last summer after going winless in its first five contests and 1-1-5 overall during a gruelling seven-match road trip to begin the season while a new turf was installed at Princess Auto Stadium.

The slow start, combined with several missed opportunities down the stretch, ultimately cost Valour its first playoff berth in franchise history.

With that in mind, there will be a heightened sense of urgency when the club opens its season on Saturday in Victoria against Pacific FC (7 p.m. CT).

“We have to keep doing the little things we’ve done, so far, well. We need to play with urgency, with passion, with ambition. For us, it was very important to make sure that our output would be a lot higher when it came to the willingness for guys to pay the price and run more than the opposition, and run smart,” Dos Santos said.

A week off will follow the season-opener before Valour hits the road again for a match in Hamilton against Forge FC on April 19. Then the club will play two in a row at home, beginning with the Halifax Wanderers on April 25.

“For me, that’s the recipe,” Dos Santos added. “It’s keep taking care of the small things on a daily basis, know that you’re going to hit adversity, but the beauty of this is that the team has been hitting adversity. You look at last year, it was a year where we learned to deal with a lot of things, so we feel that we’re maybe in a place now that we could deal with these things a lot better and be more prepared and be stronger in those moments.”

Dos Santos changed his approach to the pre-season schedule, which seems to already be paying dividends. A year ago, the team travelled to Portugal for a series of matches before the regular season. But playing against sides of a different continent didn’t prepare the team like it hoped it would, and that was reflected in their start.

A higher volume of matches against clubs from the same league has given the team a much better sense of where they stack up heading into the regular season.

“A lot of guys didn’t know what to expect when we got there, and when we did get there, a lot of guys weren’t happy with the hotels, the food, the diet — guys got sick on the trip, so that pushes us back a couple of days,” said forward Shaan Hundal, who broke out last season with seven goals.

“I think this pre-season compared to last year, especially, playing against opposition that’s in our league and in our country, shows us a good part of where we’re at as a team, and the results we got on the trips, I think gives a lot of confidence with the team, as well.”

Last year’s team had a lot of young players without CPL experience. Like it showed down the stretch, the roster had the potential to hit home runs but wound up striking out. This year, Dos Santos searched for singles and doubles — talent that would raise the floor for the club — by blending players that have bright futures with those who can provide veteran leadership.

There’s now depth that the club has lacked in past years.

“I have no doubt in my head that today, this is the most competitive roster that we’ve had. For me, it’s not even a question,” said Dos Santos.

That included bringing back centre-back Rocco Romeo, who spent the last two seasons with Vancouver FC, and adding another proven defender in Zach Fernandez. The two newcomers join a back line that is already solid with Roberto Alarcon, Frankie Facchineri and Themi Antonoglou, who was nominated for the league’s defender of the year award in 2024.

The back line, punctuated by goalkeeper Jonathan Viscosi, who returns for his second season with Valour, could be the strength of this club.

“We built some good rapport, and now it’s just going to be about doing it on the field. And every time we do it, we’re going to be that much more confident and grow as a core and trying to do that over and over again and just become solid and resolute,” said Viscosi, who finished second among all keepers in saves last summer.

Valour allowed 42 goals last season, 20 of which came in the first 10 matches of the season during a dreadful stretch. The club hunkered down over the last 18 contests, conceding just 20 goals, or 1.22 goals per match. The defence hopes to take another step after adding assistant coach Jean Baptiste Pierazzi, a defensive mind who has already made his mark by improving the structure on the backend.

“We’re going to concede goals,” Viscosi added. “We’re not going to be perfect, but what it takes is really a group to be able to learn from the experiences and apply those learnings. And then over the course of a season, you’re going to see how strong a resolute we’re going to be.”

Winnipeg Free Press | Newsletter

Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Thursdays

Keep up to date on sports with Mike McIntyre's weekly newsletter.

Sign up for Mike McIntyre | On Sports

Sign Up

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

I consent to CASL agreement.

Meanwhile, there’s equal reason for optimism in the final third, an area where Valour was one of the worst teams in the CPL last year, as it scored 31 goals in 28 matches, which ranked sixth.

The club has welcomed back attacker Kian Williams, who was regarded as one of the best young boots in the CPL after scoring four goals in 2023 but suffered a knee injury that forced him to miss all of last year. Williams is expected to bolster an intriguing offensive attack that is headlined by Hundal and newcomer Kris Twardek, who, like Romeo and Fernandez, is one of the best at his position.

“This year, even the pre-season games, we generated a lot of chances. I’m going into games this year thinking I’m gonna get two or three chances per game. And, honestly, there might be games where I’m not as involved, but I know I’m gonna get those one to three chances, and I just gotta be mentally prepared and sharp to get those chances in the back of the net,” said an optimistic Hundal.

“I think a lot of guys have something to prove, and it’s going to show this year. I’m excited. I’m honestly excited, because I think there’s goals everywhere, and I think the more we can spread out the goals, the more of a chance we have of (going) far in the league.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

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.