Valour FC boots golden opportunity

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This article was published 02/09/2020 (2161 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was a golden opportunity squandered by Valour FC Wednesday afternoon.

The Winnipeg side was in position to make a firm claim on a berth in the second stage of the Canadian Premier League’s Island Games Wednesday afternoon but those hopes were foiled in a 2-0 loss to HFX Wanderers FC in Charlottetown, P.E.I.

The loss dropped Valour (2-1-3) from fifth to sixth place in tournament standings with one game remaining in the stage. Only the top four teams advance.

Valour, plagued with injuries to its back line throughout the tournament, lost three more defensive players Wednesday.

Star defender Andrew Jean-Baptiste left the game in the opening half while his replacement Chakib Hocine, seeing his first action since a pre-tournament injury, also departed in the 78th minute due to an apparent hamstring ailment. Hocine’s replacement, Federico Pena, was issued a red card after a foul late in the game.

In addition, just before halftime, Stefan Cebara was also subbed out due to injury.

It was all too much to overcome, said Valour head coach Rob Gale.

“It was an element of bad luck today, obviously, because you have to make three defensive substitutions, so that’s unfortunate,” said Gale in a post-match conference call.

“You can’t write for that script. Other than that, just a little bit of quality in the final third to put a chance away. You know, we had a couple of bounces. Again, what did they do to score?”

Wanderers’ goals came from Alex De Carolis, on a free kick in the 36th minute that deflected off of Valour’s Raphael Ohin and past goalkeeper James Pantemis, and four minutes after that from last year’s No. 1 overall CPL-U Sports Draft choice Cory Bent, who capitalized on a defensive error.

The Halifax side, now 2-3-1, would have been eliminated from second stage contention with a loss. Instead, they vaulted into fourth place pending the result of Wednesday’s late game between seventh-place Atletico Ottawa and No. 5 Pacific FC.

Gale, whose club finished the match with 64 per cent possession, said his players deserved a better fate.

“We had about 66 per cent possession, more than that probably before the goal, seven shots to their three and to come in 2-nil down (at halftime) we were just scratching our heads,” said Gale.

“We were the better footballing team throughout the match but that evolution from possession to chances on goal and that just didn’t come.

“A soft foul and deflection, and a mistake at the back by Stefan (Cebara) that was probably caused by a hamstring issue. We needed a break. What did they get? A deflection on a breakaway on a defensive mistake.”

The result puts Valour into an unenviable situation, needing a victory over first-place Forge FC (3-2-1) in its final game to have any chance of a top-four finish.

“We’ll welcome all prayers, the football gods were not on our sides today,” said Gale. “… If I look at the bigger picture and the squad we’ve put together and the level of football we played today, there’s a lot to move forward with into this next game and beyond. We’ve been desperately unlucky with defensive injuries.

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“There’s no getting around that. Because once our core is there and we’re strong, we’ve looked very very good. The best defensive record in the tournament up until today.”

How confident is Gale that Valour can beat Forge, winner of the CPL’s inaugural championship in 2019?

“No team in this tournament is miles better than anyone else,” said Gale. “You see that. It’s small margins in every single game.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @sawa14