Season-opening draw puts Valour FC in a vengeful mood

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This article was published 16/04/2022 (1590 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Valour FC squandered a lead in extra time to draw 1-1 with FC Edmonton in last Sunday’s Canadian Premier League opener.

While the sting of that result lingered, the attitude emerging from the Winnipeg side struck the right chord for Valour general manager and head coach Phillip Dos Santos, who is beginning her first full season at the helm.

“I’m happy that everyone seems to be pissed — excuse the language — about the fact that we draw on the road because of the nature of how the draw came,” said Dos Santos Friday. “I liked that.

“I liked the feeling that even including players, everyone’s disappointed and when they go back and watch the game, the only thing I think we lacked was a bit of urgency and a bit of objectivity when we were on the ball and getting into the final third of the opposition.”

Valour dominated Edmonton for much of the game and surrendered the equalizer on a spectacular bicycle kick from the boot of German forward Tobias Warschewski.

Dos Santos would have preferred a bigger cushion.

“I want a team that’s more objective, more clinical in getting in behind the opposition and not always looking for the perfect play, that perfect action,” said Dos Santos. “So when you’re just up 1-0 in a game that you dominated the ball and you dominate also the territory, you’re always disappointed not to win a game like that.”

The Eddies were able to hold Valour’s Moses Dyer and William Akio off the scoresheet.

“They were quite aggressive defending but really it was our game to lose,” said Akio, coming off a spectacular second half of his rookie pro season in which he scored eight times in 28 games. “We had good possession, we executed but it was just our final third movements (and) putting the ball back in the back of the net. They scored a very late goal to tie it up and that’s where it felt like a bad game. But if we close down that last goal, we walk away with three points.”

The Winnipeggers were hoping to fine-tune their efforts for Sunday’s upcoming road game against Pacific FC in Langford, B.C., but efforts to hold practice sessions were stymied by storm conditions that closed the club’s indoor practice facility on the University of Manitoba campus.

Valour was finally able to return to the indoor practice pitch Friday.

Going out on the road against Edmonton and Pacific brings a unique challenge.

“When you play in Edmonton and Pacific, for example, those pitches are small, they don’t suit the characteristics of players like Willie, players even like Sean Rea,” said Dos Santos. “They’re attacking pieces we brought in with care because we look at where we get to play the majority of our games — at home. So we build a team around that we like to play in open space.”

The vast expanse of the pitch at IG Field has dimensions that are at limits of FIFA regulations. Dos Santos estimated the measurements at Pacific’s Starlight Stadium are up 15 metres shorter and 10 metres narrower.

The fleeted-footed Akio said he is very aware of the differences.

“It’s more like after the game we’ll go back and we’ll review (the video) and we’re pointing out that if we had bigger space like at IG Field, we could have we could have been more dangerous,” said Akio. “Obviously, it’s something that we’ve got to learn if we want to move forward.”

Akio expects the goals to come.

“I just want to repeat the same thing and help the team,” said Akio. “Last year was a good first year for me and I feel like now I just have to step up. I have to be there for my team. I’m taking it day by day. Obviously the opener wasn’t a good start personally… But for me, it’s nothing to be negative about, nothing to be down about. It’s part of the game.”

Dos Santos prefers a diversified attack with less pressure on his young stars to produce.

“I look back and when I arrived here and Moses and Willie weren’t starting all the time and they got 10 excellent games at the end of last season where they scored and they produced a lot of results,” said Dos Santos.

“And suddenly there’s a very big hype created around them and every time people talk about our offence, they talk about Willie and Moses. And what I tell the guys is they cannot play with that pressure. They need to go back to what gave them success last year.”

CORNER KICKS: Defender Andy Baquero and midfielder Brett Levis are both nursing hamstring injuries and will not play Sunday. Meanwhile, defender Andrew Jean-Baptiste is close to returning to action after a lengthy rehab from surgery to repair a torn ACL in his left knee. He could be on the bench Sunday…. Dos Santos is still awaiting visa clearance for Chilean attacker Walter Ponce and Colombian midfielder Daniel Ascanio.

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14