Myles Morgan hat-trick pushes Valour past Vancouver  | MATCH ANALYSIS

Match in a minute or less

Valour FC have kicked off the month of September on a high note, as they defeated Vancouver FC 5-2 at Willoughby Community Park on Friday, led by a first-ever club hat trick from Myles Morgan.

Despite watching Vancouver open the scoring through Terran Campbell in the first minute, Valour did well to respond with goals from Morgan in the 16th and 44th minute of the first half, before Jordan Faria made it 3-1 on the other side of half time with a goal in the 47th minute.

From there, Valour made it 4-1 in the 61st minute as Morgan sealed his hat trick with a header, and while Vancouver made things interesting with a Hugo Mbongue goal in the 65th minute, Bruno Figueiredo sealed the victory with a late marker in second-half stoppage time after Vancouver missed several chances to cut the deficit to just one goal before that.

With that, Valour has kept the gap between them and fifth-place York United to 13 points - Vancouver, meanwhile, has officially been eliminated from playoff contention after this matchday.

Three Observations

Morgan and Froese pace Valour's offensive outburst with special hat tricks:

It was a night to remember for Valour's attack, who, after scoring just 21 goals in their first 21 CPL games this year, had nearly a quarter of that output in this game with this five-goal showing.

Granted, that's been the theme of this fixture for Valour, however - 12 of their 26 goals in CPL play this season have now come in their four matches against Vancouver.

To be fair, Vancouver's not exactly been a defensive powerhouse, conceding a league-high 51 goals through 22 games, keeping just one clean sheet all year long, but Valour won't mind.

Certainly, it's hard to nitpick an offensive performance like this one from them, because it just appeared to be one of those games where everything was going right for Valour.

Not only were all four goals the result of great individual actions, but Valour even benefited from a bit of fortune on their fifth, too, as Bruno Figueiredo capitalized on a rare error from Vancouver goalkeeper Callum Irving on his shot from distance.

Returning to the other goals, though, the key factor behind those them? The individual brilliance of Jordan Faria, Kianz Froese and Myles Morgan, who will be quite pleased with how this game went from their perspective.

To begin, there was Faria, who was a sparkplug all game for Valour down the wing, capping his night with a well-taken goal. On a play where a lot of attackers would've forced a shot from a tight angle, he did well to take an extra touch to shed a Vancouver defender, and it allowed him to open up the space required to slot the ball into the bottom corner.

Of course, on most nights, a goal like Faria's would've stolen all of the headlines, but Froese and Morgan's performances naturally will be what most people will remember, however - for different seasons.

On one end, there's Froese, who quietly put together an all-time CPL performance, nabbing a hat trick of assists. For context, he became just the second-ever CPL player to have three assists in a match, with Marco Bustos being the other (doing so against Valour in 2022, funnily enough), showing how rare his feat is.

Not only that, but all assists were of the highest quality, too, as it's not as if he got an assist just for passing the ball to a teammate who went on to score a worldie - on all three goals, he took players on with a dribble before setting up a teammate for the marker. Because of that, it seems to add even more allure to this accomplishment, not that it needed it.

Meanwhile, though, there's Morgan's performance, as he continued what will now be dubbed "the year of the hat trick" in the CPL.

Already the league's sixth hat trick of the season, as Sam Salter, Shaan Hundal, Tiago Coimbra, Brian Wright, and Yann Toualy have all scored triples, that means that nearly half of the league's all-time hat tricks (13) have come in 2025 alone - and there's still over a month to add to that total.

As for Morgan's hat trick itself, there's a lot to like with his three goals, as they were all well-taken finishes - two with his right foot, and one with his head.

Yet, this has been building for Morgan, who now leads Valour with five goals, as he's been slowly finding form over the past few months.

In his first full season with Valour, he was slowly eased into action, which is understandable given his age - he is just 20, after all.

Recently, though, he's been given the trust to lead Valour's attacking line, and he's put in some good performances, making it fitting that he's now added his first career hat trick.

For a Valour team that hasn't had a regular source of offence up front - Morgan now leads the team with five goals, with the next name on the list sitting at three goals - this comes at a good time for them, too.

Now, the challenge for Morgan will be to build on this, but perhaps the best way to do that will be for him, Froese and Faria to build off their strong individual performances as a collective, as they showed signs of being able to do more damage as a unit going forward.

Defensive woes continue as Vancouver gets eliminated from playoff contention:

It's unfortunately become a familiar story for Vancouver this season - despite a good performance, they've been left wanting more after suffering a frustrating defeat.

This one might've been one of the toughest losses they suffered, too, as they conceded five goals for the second time in the past four games, against a team that entered this match with the lowest offensive tally in the league.

Yet, this has been the story of the season for Vancouver, who have continued to struggle defensively all year long.

In a sense, though, it makes it fitting that on the night that they were officially eliminated from playoff contention with six games to go, it'd be their defence that once again let them down.

As has been the case lately since the arrival of interim head coach Martin Nash, Vancouver have turned a corner offensively - they've now scored 15 goals in eight games across all competitions since his arrival, finding the net in seven out of those matches.

Once again, this was another strong offensive performance, too - not only did they score twice, but they had 13 shots, including 10 inside Valour's box, creating four big chances on the day. They only turned that into 1.47 xG, unfortunately, but they got into the right areas, taking 30 touches in Valour's box - Valour, by comparison, just had 29 in theirs.

Because of that, scoring just two goals sells Vancouver's offensive performance short, as they certainly had their chances to add more goals to their haul.

On the flipside, though, Vancouver's defensive numbers don't make for great reading - despite having those 29 touches in Vancouver's box, Valour had 2.36 xG from 16 shots, taking nine of them in the box but generating a whopping six big chances.

What that shows is that even if Valour didn't get to the dangerous areas as much as Vancouver, they made the hosts pay when they got into those spaces, and that's reflected in the scoreline.

Now, though, that leaves Vancouver in an interesting position. Of course, their elimination from playoff contention will sting, even if it's felt like an eventuality for a while now.

At the same time, it doesn't change what their big goal is right now - their main goal is to beat Atlético Ottawa in the semi-finals of the Canadian Championship, as they carry a 3-1 lead into leg two of that matchup.

While most would suggest that's a comfortable lead, with how Vancouver's been defending, it's hard to say that's the case, so their big short-term goal will be to figure out how to shore things up at the back.

Perhaps, though, that can be the silver lining of this elimination - they now literally have nothing to lose in their next match, which is their last one before they take on Ottawa - perhaps they can use that to experiment and try some new solutions to try and change their defensive fortunes.

Unfortunately, it won't be an easy matchup, as they take on rivals Pacific, but it's not as if Vancouver has struggled to get up for those matchups in the past, so perhaps that could be exactly what the doctor ordered for them.

Certainly, they'll be hungry as they look to juggle what's ahead in the Canadian Championship, but they're also left frustrated at knowing that despite their early elimination, they've played better than their record indicates. Yet, that's the challenge they face heading into that Ottawa match - it's likely that they'll put in a good performance on that day, as that's not been an issue in recent matches, but how they execute in key moments will be what decides that tie, and right now, they're left wanting in that department.

"It's not a good feeling," Vancouver forward, Hugo Mbongue, said of his team's elimination. "But we know what we're all about, we still have to play the same way that we would approach any other game. We can't just tell ourselves that without the playoffs, we have nothing to play for, we still have to approach each game the same way."

Valour thrive in the chaos as they keep playoff chase alive:

Was this a match that Valour will point to as their most complete performance of the season? Hardly, but they won't mind, as at the end of the day, they picked up a crucial victory, something they've done just five times this season, all coming against Vancouver.

While that's perhaps reflective of Vancouver's struggles this year, of course, it's worth noting that Valour's done well to adjust their approach against this Vancouver side, and have been rewarded for it, too.

It's easy to forget, but Vancouver actually won the first matchup between these two teams this season, picking up a 3-1 win at Princess Auto Stadium in May - since then, Valour has responded by winning the next three matches by a combined score of 11-4, as they've done well to change their approach in these matchups.

In particular, they've done well to 'embrace the chaos' that can come with playing Vancouver, and that was on full display in this match.

Because of that, while most coaches will be frustrated with a 5-2 match where the game was wide-open for large stretches, Valour was fine with that, as they planned for it, and that was shown with how they executed.

With that, they were able to keep their playoff hopes alive, as they've kept the gap between them and the final playoff spot to 13 points with six games to go, which is quite the mountain to climb, but still not an impossible one.

They'll need to be nearly perfect the rest of the way to have a chance, while hoping for some misfortune from the two teams tied for fifth-place in York United and the Halifax Wanderers, but perhaps this win will be what they need to spark a late run.

Now, what will be interesting to see is how this game inspires them, as perhaps they can use this idea of embracing the chaos to their advantage. That's easier said than done, of course, especially in matches like those against Forge (who they happen to play next), as teams like that do such a good job of removing chaos out of the game, but perhaps Valour's best route to success will be to push opponents out of their comfort zone in their own way.

Certainly, Valour might've proven that in this game, as they showed no problem of being able to embrace the chaos against a Vancouver team that plays fast and loose, and came out on the other end of that with a win.

Maybe, the key for them can be to find a balance - they don't have to completely lean into the chaos, per se - and instead find a way to bring controlled chaos to matches in moments.

If that can help spark their offence to more performances like this one, that's a fair trade-off to have, even if it comes at risk of debalancing a defence that has now conceded 50 times this season (just one off Vancouver) - at this stage, Valour doesn't have a whole lot to lose, to be fair.

"Yeah, we have to try and stay controlled, and not fall in a game that becomes transitional and moves north to south," Valour FC head coach, Philip Dos Santos, said. "That opens it up too much, so for us, it's about finding that balance, and we want to build off that."

What They Said

"The game was what we had predicted when it came to the type of game it'd be, with the type of opposition we were facing. It's a game that could get a bit wild at times with the way they press, the way they throw bodies at you, so for us, the message was always to try and stay composed and eliminate their press, knowing that there would be rewards if we were able to do that." -- Valour FC head coach Philip Dos Santos

"It means a lot, because scoring goals is what you want to do as a striker. As an individual, you want to get on the spreadsheet and impact the game the most you can." -- Valour FC forward Myles Morgan

"That feeling has been there since I came in, so I've been trying to change that feeling, because they felt they were eliminated already. We've been trying to get their spirits up, and to their credit, they've given it a go all the way to the end. I'd be worried if the players were just giving up near the end of games, but they're not, they're battling through to the end - we're just conceding at times we shouldn't, we're giving up silly goals that are easily preventable." -- Vancouver FC interim head coach Martin Nash

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Myles Morgan, Valour FC

Ultimately, it's very special to score a hat trick, making Morgan a deserved player of the match winner, even if Froese has a strong argument to also earn the honours.

Morgan's performance speaks for itself, too, as he scored his three goals on just four shots, while also creating three chances in an active offensive showing up front for Valour.

What’s next?

Vancouver will head to some unfamiliar territory in their next match, as they'll travel to Vancouver Island to take on Salish Sea Derby rivals Pacific FC at Royal Athletic Park in a special one-off match Saturday, September 13th (4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET). Meanwhile, Valour will return home to Winnipeg, as they get set to host Forge FC at Princess Auto Stadium on Thursday, September 11th (7 p.m. CT/8 p.m. ET).

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