Valour up against CPL’s top club

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This article was published 26/07/2019 (2578 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Their stories couldn’t be any more different.

Cavalry FC has dominated the Canadian Premier League. They showed they were the cream of the crop with an 8-2-0 record to open the year and claimed the spring league title. And as the inaugural champs, the team from Calgary simply could’ve put things on cruise control as they are already guaranteed a spot in the CPL championship, which takes place after the 18-game fall season ends.

But Cavalry has kept their foot on the gas. Their impressive play has carried into the fall season — they’re currently 3-0-0 — and the Canadian Championship tournament, where they pulled off a gigantic 2-1 victory on Wednesday over the Vancouver Whitecaps of the MLS. The win pushes them through to the semifinal to face the Montreal Impact.

As for Valour, you’ve likely heard by now there hasn’t been much to celebrate for Winnipeg’s newest professional soccer club. It finished the spring season dead last in the CPL at 3-7-0. Valour were also a major disappointment in the Canadian Championship, as they lost 4-1 on aggregate to the HFX Wanderers in the second round.

And today at noon at IG Field, Valour will somehow try to win their first game since June 2, when they welcome a heavily favoured Cavalry club to town.

“Probably outside of our room, not many people do,” Valour head coach Rob Gale said when asked why people should believe his team is capable of winning today.

“But what a perfect time for us to step up to the plate. I know the group and the boys and how hard we’ve been working. We’re getting closer each time as I said to a full squad. We’re still missing a few pieces. But the work on the training field has been excellent. The togetherness of the squad is getting more and more as they face adversity, because they know no one is going to give us anything. They get criticized a lot, I’m sure, outside of our walls, but not internally. People don’t think that they’ve shown the quality that they have and maybe they’re right, but you get there with hard work, continuing to believe and sticking together through these times.”

The last time these two clubs met feels like forever ago, as it was a 1-0 Cavalry victory on May 8 at Spruce Meadows. Attacking midfielder Marco Bustos, who is one of Valour’s biggest weapons on offence, had just signed with the team and he didn’t play in the game. But veteran midfielders Josip Golubar and Michael Petrasso did, although neither one was able to play the full 90 minutes. Golubar went down with a torn ACL, and Petrasso suffered a groin injury that kept him on the sidelines for two games. Petrasso came back, but was re-injured again on June 12 against Halifax and has been out of the lineup ever since. The injuries, plus the release of ineffective English-born striker Stephen Hoyle, led to Valour signing a pair of 33-year-olds last week who’ve played soccer all over the world — Italian attacker Michele Paolucci and Spanish midfielder Jose Galan. One advantage Valour may have today is the fact Cavalry will be unfamiliar with some of the players on the pitch. It also might be a trap game for Cavalry, as they’re coming off of a monumental win and now have to play a Valour team that currently sits at the bottom of the fall-season table with an 0-1-1 record.

“At the end of the day, it’s gonna have to be a collective effort,” Bustos told the Free Press earlier in the week.

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“We all have to go there believing that we’re going to win. It’s going to come, I know it. It’s a fresh start to the season, with one loss and one tie. But that’s nothing. It’s literally two games into the season and you have one loss. To me, that’s the way I look at it. Everyone’s going to have to come out individually at their best, especially against a team like Calgary, and just go out and have fun. I think that’s kind of where we’re lacking right now, just kind of going out and enjoying the moment.”

Today will also be Valour’s first home game of the fall season, as they haven’t played in front of their fans at IG Field since a 3-1 loss to York9 FC on July 1 to close out the spring campaign. It’s been a long time since Valour has sent their crowd home happy, as their last win at IG Field was a 1-0 victory against HFX Wanderers on May 11. Seventeen-year-old Winnipegger Tyler Attardo, who leads Valour with three goals this season, said the club is eager to get back out there in front of the Valour faithful.

“We’re super excited, myself especially. Those fans are just unbelievable and they support us so much,” he said. “So to be able to come here and play in front of them again and hopefully get them this win is exciting.”

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.