Playoff hopes hanging by thread
Valour FC needs a minor miracle to qualify for CPL post-season
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/10/2021 (1608 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Phillip Dos Santos is just over a month into his tenure as general manager and head coach of Valour FC and finds himself in the pressure-cooker of a playoff race.
But his Canadian Premier League club’s post-season aspirations couldn’t be much more precarious.
Sixth-place Valour is six points back of the fourth-place HFX Wanderers with three regular-season games remaining.
The Wanderers, who hold down the final playoff spot, visit IG Field Tuesday night. The Winnipeggers close out their schedule with road games in Calgary and Edmonton on Oct. 30 and Nov. 6, respectively.
“We still have a chance,” said Dos Santos Monday. “And that’s the message that we have to pass (on). I want to get to the last game of the season playing for something. We don’t have our fate completely in our hands. I think (Tuesday’s game) is a very important game because if we win, we’re back (within) one game reach of Halifax, so it’s an important game for us.”
While Dos Santos wants to reach the post-season, he’s also looking to the future with two more years on his current contract in which to build a winning program. The team recently re-signed centre back Andrew Jean-Baptiste, the club’s best player before a torn ACL in his right knee ended his season in late July.
“I don’t mind because I’ve experienced coming into new environments,” said Dos Santos. “This is my first in the middle of the season and it’s always about clarity. I wasn’t asked to make a miracle right now so I don’t have that pressure. The pressure that I have is the one I put on myself and the one that we put on ourselves as a team to try and reach the initial objective, which have always been the playoffs.”
Building a winning program over the long term is Dos Santos’ priority.
With that in mind, he embraced his new job by immediately purchasing a house in Winnipeg once he was named as Rob Gale’s replacement Sept. 23 and will be moving his family — he and his wife Alexandra Eskenazi have a six-year-old son and two-year-old daughter — to Winnipeg when the season is over. Dos Santos was fired in August along with his brother, Marc Dos Santos, by the MLS Vancouver Whitecaps.
Phillip was an assistant coach with the Whitecaps with Marc as the club’s head coach. They spent the first five months of the MLS season in Salt Lake City because the team was unable to play at home due to pandemic restrictions before moving back to their home base in Vancouver.
“It was a rock ‘n roll year for me and for my family but these things are going to happen in the sport,” said Dos Santos. “Once you’re a coach you know that this is going to happen. So you need to stay positive and you need to know it’s a season of your life where things are gonna end up settling down and even though I’m excited about the end of this season, I’m also excited about having a chance to build things and progress the team in the off-season.”
Players such as rookie winger William Akio are expected to be a major part of the team going forward. Valour holds an option on extending his current contract for 2021 and Dos Santos likes what he’s seen so far.
The 23-year-old from Calgary has scored five times, including perhaps the goal of the year on a brilliant 70-metre solo run through the Forge FC defence in a 3-1 win Oct. 11.
“I’m mainly so focused on pushing hard these last three games,” said Akio. “But, you know, the thought of coming back next year has definitely been there and I’m happy to know that I’ve been doing enough to the point where they want me to come back.”
Akio, used as a striker in the Gale regime, has moved to the wing and blossomed in the five games under the direction of Dos Santos. The club is 1-2-2 in that stretch.
“He has me somewhere where I can really use my strengths, my speed and my runs… and he’s really using me in that sense and I’m also learning a lot,” said Akio of the switch. “I’m learning that I have weaknesses that I need to work on.”
Captain Daryl Fordyce is a big fan of Akio, who was born in South Sudan and moved to Canada as a three-year-old.
“The thing is he’s such a humble guy — that’s what I really like. (It’s) not just because of his football ability,” said Fordyce of Akio. “He’s a gentleman and you can’t ask for any more.”
mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @sawa14