Valour FC shoots blanks in Halifax

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/06/2019 (2608 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

If there’s a team that needs a fresh start, it’s Valour FC.

Luckily, they can press the reset button soon as they only have one more game left in the inaugural Canadian Premier League spring season after their latest frustrating loss. Valour fell 2-0 in Halifax on Wednesday night against HFX Wanderers FC to drop to 3-6-0 in league play. The Wanderers improved to 3-4-2 to jump ahead of the Winnipeg club in the spring standings. Valour will begin the 18-game fall season on July 17 on the road against FC Edmonton.

Valour was the better team in the first half, but they threw it away in the 44th minute with an unnecessary slide tackle in the box by defender Martin Arguinarena to award Halifax a penalty kick. Halifax attacker Mohamed Kourouma stepped up and drilled a shot into the bottom left corner to beat Valour keeper Tyson Farago to open up the scoring. Minutes later in extra time, Valour had a great opportunity to redeem their mistake. Valour had a free kick and the ball landed at the feet of attacker Calum Ferguson in front of the net, but he was robbed by Halifax goalie Christian Oxner seconds before the first-half whistle.

Kourouma got the best of Valour again in the final minutes of the game, as he set up teammate Akeem García, who danced around Farago and managed to squeeze the ball through defender Jordan Murrell to make it a 2-0 score in the 85th minute.

The Wanderers clearly have Valour’s number, as they have now won three of four meetings between the two sides. Earlier in the month, Halifax won both legs against Valour in the second qualifying round of the Canadian Championship to advance to the third round with a 4-1 aggregate score. Valour’s lone win against the Wanderers came in CPL action on May 11 at IG Field, a 1-0 victory.

Including the Canadian Championship losses, Valour has now dropped five straight. Valour still hasn’t managed to score more than one goal in a game since their season opening 2-1 victory on May 1 against Pacific FC. Winnipeg’s newest professional soccer team is also the only club in the seven-team league without a player with more than one goal in CPL play. Wednesday night was the fourth time this year Valour has been held off the scoreboard.

In the losing effort, Valour outshot the Wanderers 15-10 and had four shots hit the target compared to Halifax’s three. Valour also won the possession battle at 56.5 per cent.

Valour entered the game missing several key pieces, as star midfielder Michael Petrasso was ruled out for a third straight game with a groin injury. Valour head coach Rob Gale expected Petrasso to be ready for Wednesday night, but the former Montreal Impact player had a setback in practice on Monday. The team was also missing attacker Ali Musse and defender Diego Gutiérrez. Gutiérrez, who’s been one of the team’s most consistent players, went down in Valour’s 2-1 loss at home to Pacific FC last Thursday.

Valour will wrap up their 10-game spring season on July 1 as they welcome York9 FC (1-3-5) to IG Field with a noon kickoff.

Cavalry FC clinched the CPL spring season title on Wednesday night with a 2-0 win over York9 to improve to 8-1-0. They will play the winner of the fall season in a two-legged, home-and-away series on aggregate for the inaugural CPL championship. If Cavalry finishes atop the standings in both the spring and fall schedules, they’ll play the team with the next most cumulative points.

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.