Valour FC ready for rematch

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This article was published 09/07/2021 (1556 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Valour FC look to manage the pitch in their favour as they gear up for action in a rematch against the defending champions in Forge FC on Sunday. Valour head coach Robert Gale studied the tape of Forge’s victory over Cavalry FC on Thursday night.

“I was reading Tommy’s interview, they (Cavalry) didn’t stick to their game plan last night,” said Gale.

“One game at a time is an old adage, but it’s so true. You have to keep calling on the collective of the group to step up and execute the game plans which we probably didn’t do well enough Wednesday night ourselves.”

Following Valour’s 2-1 defeat to York United, Gale expects Forge to come in with a different lineup and a different approach to beat the hometown club.

“It’ll be different personnel, I expect Bobby will rotate some numbers as he’s had some injury concerns,” said Gale.

“I think the pair of us were the two teams that haven’t been able to field a full bench right. We’re not in a position where we’re both going toe to toe with 22 players available to us. I thought we did some things really well against Forge that we’ll look to do more of from that first game.”

Valour defeated Forge by a comfortable 2-0 margin to open their season, making the most of their chances on net. Despite having the majority of possession in the second half on Wednesday night, Gale says simple possession for his team won’t be enough if they want to get the win.

“It’s got to be possession with a purpose right, and more end product,” said Gale.

“We got it into some decent areas, obviously we were a little unfortunate there was an offside call, the free kick and also the last play of the game. Some things didn’t go in our favour. It’s to take the ball and hurt the opposition more with those chances.”

Going into Sunday’s game, veteran attacker Daryl Fordyce, is using this full season as an opportunity to mentor the younger players on the squad. Fordyce, now 34, is playing in his second season with Valour, after many years of experience playing in Ireland and England.

“I’ve been through quite a bit in my career, I’m teaching the younger players to try to see things before certain things happen and getting them to understand if you do certain things in certain ways, this will happen,” said Fordyce.

“For me, I’ve made hundreds of mistakes myself, and that’s how you learn from it. That’s why we do it this way.”

On the other side of the pitch, Forge FC is looking to carry their strong momentum following victories over Cavalry FC and Pacific FC earlier in the week. After scoring five goals and keeping two clean sheets, head coach Bobby Smyrniotis is impressed by his club’s offence.

“I think the biggest thing is we’re getting into the spots that we need to be,” said Smyrniotis.

“I think in these games we’ve made good runs, we’ve shown that in the last two games.”

Forge Captain Kyle Edward Bekker, notched his first two goals of the season from the victory over Cavalry and says the focus for this upcoming matchup needs to remain the same.

“We know we have to be a little bit more patient, think about the big picture but obviously we still need that urgency to go out and put in a shift every single game,” said Bekker.

The teams are going into their fifth game of the season, a matchup Smyrniotis looks forward to as he acknowledged what his opponent has been doing right.

“Valour has shown to be a resilient team in their games and making the best of the opportunities that they get,” said Smyrniotis.

“Fatigue is starting to kick in, there’s a lot of players who have logged a lot of minutes for every team. They’ve been resilient in the way they’ve defended, with the low blocks and on the counterattack.”

Gale is impressed by the humble leadership he sees in the spirit of his team that he wants to continue throughout the lengthy season.

“After the first win, there wasn’t any hooting and hollering, there was just a quiet calm about them and on to the next game,” said Gale.

“They shook off that defeat, after breakfast the next day the spirit was good in the room. It’s a marathon not a sprint right, so it’s unusual to face a team twice this early in the season.”

Sunday’s match is set for 12:30 p.m

jbernacki@freepress.mb.ca

@JosephBernacki