Valour FC packing for long haul

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This article was published 07/08/2020 (2200 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

How do you pack for life in a bubble when you’re not sure how long you’ll be there?

It’s a question MLS, NBA and NHL players have had to try to figure out lately. And the next contestant is the Canadian Premier League. The eight clubs have been making last-minute preparations this week as they’re getting set to spend the coming weeks based out of a Charlottetown, P.E.I. hotel. Winnipeg’s Valour FC hops on a charter plane to Charlottetown on Saturday.

The season, which will actually be a World Cup-style tournament, kicks off on Aug. 13 with Cavalry FC battling Forge FC.

This is all new for Valour centre-back Andrew Jean-Baptiste, and everyone else for that matter, but he’s already got his packing strategy figured out.

“I mean, the finals are 44 days away so I’m packing for the next 45 days,” Jean-Baptiste said after Thursday’s training session at IG Field.

Valour going on a run and making it to the final probably sounds wacky to many. After all, Valour did finish the 2019 campaign, the league’s inaugural season, in a tie with HFX Wanderers FC for dead last.

Considering there are only seven players returning from last year’s nightmare, past results are irrelevant. Jean-Baptiste, 28, is new to Valour and he said the squad is eager to prove this is a much different group. Valour’s first match hasn’t been announced yet, but they do know they’ll be playing a round robin where each team plays each other once. The top four clubs will advance to a second-round group phase and the top two from there will play a single game to determine a champion.

“The experts don’t know us and our opponents won’t either. So, they won’t know what to expect when they get on the pitch,” said Jean-Baptiste, who has 41 MLS appearances on his resumé and has spent several years playing overseas.

“I know for sure it won’t be the team they saw last year. So, for the people that want to write us off or our opponents that want to write us off, so be it. It’s just gonna be a hard smack in the face when they see the results at the end of the match.”

While it’s probably a good thing Valour opted to bring in a bunch of fresh faces for this season, it could also potentially hurt them in this format. This isn’t a 28-game season where you have time to work out the kinks and build chemistry. You need everyone on the same page from the opening match or else you could be at risk of heading home early. It seems like a fair concern, but Jean-Baptiste isn’t losing any sleep over it.

“It’s funny that you say that because I was actually talking with one of my (teammates) in the back and we were just going back and forth about how well we’ve adapted to each one of us… We’ve been able to learn the tendencies of every guy that plays next to us and the midfield that’s in front of us. Despite not having any full-on matches, just the non-contact training we’ve been in, I would say we’ve adapted pretty well to all our strengths and weaknesses,” said Jean-Baptiste, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y.

“For me, I find it quite astonishing considering the fact we haven’t even played a game. Some of the teams kept their whole teams, some of the teams revamped just like we did. I just doubt they were able to bond like we have.”

Valour hopes to turn heads in P.E.I., although, there won’t exactly be a lot of heads at the matches. There will be no fans inside the University of Prince Edward Island stadium to take in the action.

Soccer is known for its high-energy crowds, so it’ll be strange, but Valour keeper James Pantemis has played in front of empty seats before. This January In Los Angeles, Pantemis, a 23-year-old from Montreal, was with the Canadian national team that played games against Barbados and Iceland behind closed doors. Pantemis was loaned to Valour this season from the Montreal Impact of the MLS.

“At the end of the day, we grew up in a situation like that. Even though we had our parents there and maybe a couple of friends, when we were playing for our local teams growing up, for me, it brought me back to my roots when I was younger playing at a local soccer field with not really any stands,” said Pantemis.

“Obviously, it took five to 10 minutes to adjust, but I think it’s better for us. There are less distractions around us. You won’t necessarily hear the hecklers in the back of your net if you’re away… There’s just no excuses for any team right now. Everyone is on a level playing field. There’s no home advantage.”

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Pantemis admits the new normal for pro sports is obviously less than ideal. Nobody wants their salaries to be cut or to have to go more than a month without seeing family, but that’s the hand that’s been dealt and players such as Pantemis have accepted it.

“We’re just anxious to get on that plane on Saturday. Once we get on, it’s time for business and we’re ready for that,” Pantemis said.

“I know it’s going to be something no one has been exposed to before and it’s going to be a challenge, but it’s going to be a challenge for everybody. It’s going to be the teams who don’t make any excuses and fight through the adversity in these crazy times (that succeed). For us personally, we’re ready for that challenge. We’re ready to play and we’re ready to prove everybody wrong.”

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.