Own goal costly against Pacific FC

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This article was published 15/06/2024 (836 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Moral victories will only go so far for Valour FC.

Sure, Winnipeg’s pro soccer club could hang its hat on giving one of the Canadian Premier League’s top squads all it could handle for 90 minutes on Friday, but that didn’t hold much weight when they ended the hotly contested match with a 3-2 loss to Pacific FC before 3,032 fans at Princess Auto Stadium.

Valour found itself down a pair of goals in the opening 33 minutes before clawing back to even in the second half. Despite all the momentum being in the favour of the home side, an own goal off a free kick in the 75th minute would seal the club’s fate, dropping it to 2-1-7 on the campaign — near the bottom of the CPL table.

Meanwhile, Pacific improved to 4-4-2, good for second place.

“We played a good second half,” said head coach Phillip Dos Santos. “We looked more like a team who understood the importance of being urgent in our actions. For me, that (needs to come) even when the score is 0-0. Football is played with intensity… so, I think that until we have the humility to understand that we don’t play like that just when we’re down in the score, you can put yourself in the position that you put yourself in today.”

The high-scoring affair was atypical for Pacific. The coastal squad has now scored more than one goal on just three occasions this season. Two of those instances have come against Valour.

Pacific has also been hit hard by the injury bug in the early going and were without its top two goalkeepers, paving the way for Daniel Zadravec to make his first start.

The young shot-stopper received some early help from his goal scorers. The first coming on a penalty kick from Sean Young in the 19th minute — the third allowed this season and second in as many matches by Valour — and the other from Andrei Costin Tîrcoveanu on a nifty spin around kick to the far side of the net in the 33rd minute.

With two goals in their pocket, Pacific was in a comfortable position despite owing the worst lead in soccer. Defence is the club’s specialty — it knows how to bleed a clock and suffocate its opposition, entering the match having allowed just four goals on the season.

Valour pushed hard as the first half drew on, however.

First came a chance from Jordan Swibel, whose head-on attempt in the 43rd was stoned by Zadravec. A few minutes later, in extra time, moments before the whistle blew for halftime, Diogo Ressurreicao delivered a perfect ball into the visitors box, where Shaan Hundal narrowly slid a shot under the arm of Zadravec to give Valour a chance heading into the second act.

Despite the late goal in the first half, Dos Santos went into the locker room at halftime with a message.

“I’m not a screamer, I’m not a guy that’s gonna throw things — I try to be constructive. But there’s moments where you need to shake them a little bit and for me, it’s this. If you’re playing against 11 and it looks like the opposition has three or four more players than you, it’s because you’re giving them way too much space.”

Hundal added: “Coach stressed (before the game) a young keeper that’s making a debut. We were told to test him and Phil mentioned at halftime that we didn’t test him until the 36th minute. As a group, we need to do better in listening to what the coach tells us and putting it on display.”

Message received.

Valour came out of halftime looking like it was shot out of a cannon, dominating the ball and putting a full-court press on the visitors.

In the 63rd minute, the club was finally rewarded as Swibel led an odd-man rush before delivering a strike off the right boot to the top right corner to knot the game with his fifth goal of the campaign.

The hosts continued to press but were left stunned in the 75th minute when a free kick from just above the left side of the box ricocheted off Hundal’s head and into the net.

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“It was a good strike,” Hundal said. “I don’t know what was behind me… so I just tried jumping and getting my head under the ball. I feel like it’s unpredictable, it hits the top of my hair — maybe because of my haircut — and it ends up in the back of the net.”

“It doesn’t feel the greatest. I know how hard the team works all week, and especially coming back from 2-0 down, it doesn’t feel good at all.”

Valour will lick its wounds and prepare for a road tilt against Forge FC (4-1-3) on June 23.

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.