Bubble bountiful for Valour FC

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This article was published 29/07/2021 (1705 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The race to chase Canadian Premier League glory is on following a successful bubble tournament in Winnipeg.

After a few days of rest, each CPL players had a chance to reunite with their families and friends following the stress of living a hotel-to-soccer pitch life for weeks where the focus for many remained solely on soccer.

At the top of the table, Valour FC stands alone with six victories and two losses resulting in a hard-earned 18 points. Valour head coach Robert Gale reflected on his big takeaway from the bubble format as he was reunited with his family.

“It’s nice to spend time as a dad, spending time with the kids, it’s been busy getting all the chores done and other things you haven’t been able to do for the last few months,” said Gale. “It feels a little bit tarnished because of the last performance and that lack of a cutting edge in the final third, but overall I’ve been pleased with the guys and the quality of football that they’ve played. Their behaviour in the bubble and the way they conducted themselves was first class.”

The Winnipeg club dropped its final game at home 1-0 to HFX Wanderers. Despite the disappointing result, Valour continues to have a strong presence in net with Jonathan Sirois as lead goalkeeper. Siroist a CPL record with 11 saves in the loss, and leads the league this season with six clean sheets. Austin Ricci leads the league with four goals and the team continues to play a structured defensive scheme every game. Gale continues to emphasize the difference a full roster makes going into each individual matchup.

“I can’t fault the effort or character of the boys, now with the addition of Arnold Bouka Moutou and Brett Levis coming back, the squad is rounding out nicely. It’ll give me some selection problems in the next week which will be great,” Gale said.

Valour FC is gearing up to play FC Edmonton for the first time this season Saturday as the club hits the road for two weeks, which Gale noted will be a challenge. Based on the scheduling format in the bubble, teams will now be returned to the West and East divisions. Alongside Valour in the West division will be FC Edmonton, Pacific FC and Cavalry FC. Over the coming road trip, Gale is looking forward to seeing how his club stacks up against the rest of the league as the western teams have not faced each other yet this season.

“All of the teams have shown flashes of what they are capable of, it’s finding the consistency that’s the hardest part for all of us,” said Gale.

“I think Cavalry has the most depth especially through their attacking core. They’ve had a very strong defensive unit and that’s changed up this year. Pacific is probably the most similar to the team they were last year I think of all the squads. They’ve added a couple of good depth pieces as well. Cavalry will be a different look then we’ve seen and Edmonton too.”

At four points behind Valour, Pacific FC has scored the most goals in the leaguer and carries a record of four wins, two draws and two losses. Pacific head coach Pa-Modou Kah is all smiles with his team’s performance and is eager to have his Victoria club host Cavalry at Starlight Stadium for the first time in two years.

“It’s been great to be out of the bubble and smell the west coast air which is fantastic,” said Kah.

“I’d say thank you to Winnipeg for hosting us also to the league to make sure we could get the kickoff going to get our fans hyped for the season. I’ve been looking at the field for two years from my office and dreaming about what it would be like.”

The Pacific coach explained how he couldn’t be happier with the collectiveness of his club.

“The character of the team is based on commitment, their resilience and unity,” said Kah.

“The unity has been superb, the commitment of what we want to achieve as a club has been fantastic and they are resilient.”

The island club is receiving a leadership boost from Winnipeg’s own Marco Bustos who is having an MVP-like season with three goals and three assists in eight games. Tied with their opponent, the foothills of Alberta are feeding off the success of Cavalry FC which has also earned 14 points with the same record as Pacific.

Cavalry head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. says the bubble was a surreal experience and brought out the camaraderie of his club that hadn’t been seen since 2019.

“It hasn’t set in yet as we are still relatively road warriors and we’re ready to kick on to the next part of the season,” said Wheeldon.

Wheeldon acknowledged the difficulty in managing 11 veterans and 12 new players for the Calgary club.

“I think probably the biggest complement I can give them, after the four-game stretch where we didn’t score and questions were being asked, we responded,” said Wheeldon. “I think sometimes to be a successful team you have to suffer together at some point and I think the boys did that and then came out strong.”

The Cavalry coach says the leadership of veterans in Nik Ledgerwood, Mason Trafford, Marco Carducci, and Elijah Adekugbe continue to bridge the gap between the old and new players. Wheeldon is celebrating his defender Daan Klomp being named CPL player of the week and is eager to take on Valour next week.

“The league table never lies, Valour has had a fantastic start to the season and I think they’ve got a great chemistry going on,” said Wheeldon.

“Rob’s a coach I know well and he’s put together a very strong team and it’s the strongest they’ve had. We look forward to those matchups because iron sharpens iron. You want to be playing against the best if you want to be the best.”

Out east, defending champions Forge FC have a mixed bag of results leaving Winnipeg. Upon their return to Hamilton, the team sits with four wins and four losses but remains at the top of the East division with Atletico Ottawa, York United and the Halifax Wanderers on their heels. Forge head coach Bobby Smyrniotis says he felt his club should’ve earned an additional victory in the bubble, but recognized the difficulty of working with several injuries in the lineup.

“They are a resilient group, we asked certain players to play, and they played a lot,” said Smyrniotis. “You look at a guy like Kwame Awuah and he played every minute of every match coming out of there.”

Forge continues to dominate at midfield with the leadership presence of Captain Kyle Edward Bekker and Mo Babouli up front. Bekker and Babouli each have three goals on the year.

“Mo’s work rate has been second to none, and Kyle is just a machine for us at midfield,” said Smyrniotis.

The biggest challenge these teams face going on the road and returning to their home markets will be the number of games played over the next three months. Each club is looking at a minimum of 21 games between the 20 remaining CPL regular season games, the Canadian Championship series and in Forge’s case, a trip down to El Salvador to play a home and away matchup in the CONCACAF tournament.

“If you want to be at the top and be a champion, you have to be able to withstand playing in multiple competitions,” said Smyrniotis.

“It’s so tough, it’s four bubbles really,” said Gale. “The purpose of that is having a game every three or four days but now there is travel which makes it harder. There’s going to be at least 21 games, seven games a month, two games a week. It’s very demanding on the players, leaving little time to train.”

Despite the demanding schedule, every club is delighted to have been able to play in Winnipeg and the Kickoff has setup a long marathon of games that will see a victor crowned in November testing the resilience of players and coaches alike.

jbernacki@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @JosephBernacki