Valour face ex-keeper with Ottawa visit

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This article was published 07/06/2024 (823 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Rayane Yesli might hesitate to call it a revenge match, but there’s no doubt a win this weekend would be a little sweeter than normal for Atlético Ottawa’s goalkeeper.

Yesli, 24, will make his return to Princess Auto Stadium when Valour FC hosts Ottawa on Sunday. Match time is 12:30 p.m.

The standout keeper was traded to the nation’s capital in February for a one-year loan on midfielder Noah Verhoeven, in a surprising move by Valour head coach Phillip Dos Santos at the time.

Yesli was selected third overall by Winnipeg’s pro soccer club in the 2021 Canadian Premier League U Sports draft and appeared in 35 contests for Valour over the last two seasons.

After splitting time in net with Jonathan Sirois during his de facto rookie campaign in 2022, the Algeria-born shotstopper broke out last year with seven clean sheets (third-most) and 81 saves (second-most) while appearing in 26 of 28 contests.

Yesli was nominated for the league’s Goalkeeper of the Year award and was, in many cases, the best player on the pitch for Valour during a season in which he was asked to be near-perfect as the club struggled to generate offence, scoring 25 goals in 28 matches.

Life has been a bit easier in Ottawa thus far for Yesli, who has appeared five times for the CPL’s best squad, posting two clean sheets while needing to make just 13 saves for the defensively stout club.

Dos Santos doesn’t want to make this week’s matchup about his former keeper.

“Look, I don’t know what’s happening there in Ottawa right now,” Dos Santos said recently. “I think that he’s had a good season so far for them, but again, Rayane, it was never a question of quality. We know his qualities, we know he’s a good goalkeeper, but this is sports… there’s things we need to take into account and for me, being here and speaking about Rayane doesn’t bring anything.

“I have to focus on my team and the fact that our goalkeeper just had a strong performance. I think if he has another game like that, it gives us another chance to win.”

Jonathan Viscosi, the player brought in to replace Yesli, will be in Valour’s crease after recording his first clean sheet of the season against Vancouver FC last weekend.

Valour (2-1-5) is fresh off its most complete outing of the year — blanking Vancouver 2-0 — and beginning to strut while owning a 2-1-0 record since losing five straight to begin the season. The upstart club will look to hand Ottawa (5-3-0) its first loss of the year.

“I think that we are coming from three results that are positive, so, of course, mentally the team is in a good place right now” said Dos Santos. “I think that the confidence levels are high and we always knew that this team had potential. We always knew that we had players that were that quality, but for us it was about bringing things together.

“Even as a coach, you have an idea about how you’re going to maximize the potential of the individuals in the collective, but you need to see it and sometimes going through a patch of adversity allows you to juggle things around and not just coast into what the best levels of this team could be.”

Valour and Ottawa have matched up twice in the early goings, the former winning both contests by a combined score of 9-0.

First was a 7-0 embarrassment in the Canadian Championship on May 1, a match in which Yesli started. The teams rematched in CPL action just four days later, this time ending in a 2-0 difference with Yesli on the bench.

“For us,” Dos Santos said, “it got us out of our comfort zone and I think we found a place where the team is still not perfect… but we have a base and that’s the most important thing.”

The offence has been better, spurred by Australian Jordan Swibel, who has four goals on the year, and the defence has tightened significantly. After allowing 13 goals in its first five outings, Valour has held the opposition to three goals combined in the last three contests.

Fullback Themi Antonoglou is seeing a more cohesive group on the backend, which has helped spring more offensive opportunities.

“I think a big part of it was we switched to a back four (defenders),” said Antonoglou, who leads the league with 18 interceptions.

“I think an extra guy in the midfield was key and I think we’re all trying to compete against the best teams in this league, and what we take away from the best teams is everybody is together — collective. I think if we keep that going, we’ll hopefully get more clean sheets, but also from being compact, trying to exploit teams to go forward and score more goals.”

Sunday is the second in a challenging three-match home stand for Valour, which began the year on the road for seven contests as a new turf was installed at its home pitch.

After run-ins with No. 2 Vancouver and No. 1 Ottawa, the club will host No. 4 Pacific FC on June 14, making this a critical stretch for a team looking to maintain some much-needed momentum.

“The fans that came out last game were really important to us,” said Antonoglou. “A team like Ottawa, top of the table, they don’t like to concede goals so I think if we get the first goal, it’s really important for us and our fans to get behind us to (help) us push forward.

“Pacific, and then Forge after (on the road), so it’s like this stretch of games is not easy but, like I said, take it day by day, train well and then go play well.”

SANCHEZ INJURED IN PRACTICE

Juan Pablo Sanchez went down in a heap during Wednesday’s training session after suffering what appeared to be a right ankle injury.

The talented midfielder is one of several young players that Valour hopes can make a jump this season.

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Sanchez, 21, scored his first Canadian Premier League goal in the 31st minute against Calvary on May 26.

His status for Sunday’s match is undetermined.

“We’ll see what it is,” said Dos Santos. “The fact that he’s putting weight on it and walking by himself is a good sign.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca

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Joshua Frey-Sam
Reporter

Josh Frey-Sam reports on sports and business at the Free Press. Josh got his start at the paper in 2022, just weeks after graduating from the Creative Communications program at Red River College. He reports primarily on amateur teams and athletes in sports. Read more about Josh.

Every piece of reporting Josh 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.