**2024 CPL Regular Season — Match #23
** **Halifax Wanderers FC vs. Valour FC
** **May 20, 2024 at 4 p.m. AT/2 p.m. CT
** **Wanderers Grounds in Halifax, Nova Scotia
** Watch Live: Onesoccer.ca & TELUS Ch. 980 // Tickets available here
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Matchweek six of the 2024 Canadian Premier League season ends in Nova Scotia on Monday afternoon, as Halifax Wanderers FC host Valour FC for a Victoria Day clash at Wanderers Grounds. Monday’s match is the first of four holiday Monday matches on the schedule in Halifax this season, as the club will also celebrate Canada Day (July 1), Natal Day (August 5), and Labour Day (September 2) at Wanderers Grounds throughout 2024.
Sitting seventh and eighth in the table, respectively, Halifax and Valour are both looking for their first wins of the 2024 season, and this match presents an opportunity for both to get three important points on the board. The Wanderers have one point from four matches after a draw at home against Cavalry FC last weekend, while Valour have lost each of their five matches to begin the year. Halifax’s biggest issue has been putting the ball into the back of the net, scoring just twice through four matches. They have created some good chances, but haven’t been able to take advantage of most of them. Bounces haven’t been going their way as well on occasion, with the Wanderers hitting the woodwork three times already — the most in the CPL. Valour, while their goalscoring hasn’t been good either, have a bigger problem at the opposite end of the pitch. Through five matches, the Winnipeggers have already conceded 13 times, and have a minus-ten goal difference as a result. After losing 3-1 to York United last week despite leading at halftime, head coach Phillip Dos Santos stressed the need to cut down the individual mistakes that have let them down in key moments at times this season. “It’s maintaining high levels of focus throughout the training session,” Dos Santos said to CanPL.ca ahead of Monday’s match when asked how his side has been working on limiting mistakes this week. “Making sure that you give nothing away, that standards are kept very high throughout the session. That’s something that you can replicate in training, but the line of fire is really where you see the response that your players will have. “I think that collectively we needed to be a bit more competitive in every action, something that we’ve spoken to the guys about. We’ve shown them that there’s moments in the game where we feel our levels of compete drop a bit. We’ve approached this week, and we’ve prepared for this game, like every other game, but of course when the team isn’t winning, and we see recurrent elements that take away points from you, you have to address them and speak about them.”
The Wanderers will still be without midfield maestro Lorenzo Callegari on Monday, who is serving the final match of his suspension after being given a straight red card against Atlético Ottawa on April 27 for kicking Manny Aparicio in the chest with a stray high boot. Valour are expected to be missing goalkeeper Jonathan Viscosi as he nears a return from an injury, while Raphael Ohin could make his season debut next week in Calgary after being given the green light to return to action but the club opting to wait one more week. The status of Gianfranco Facchineri and Abdou Samake will be decided closer to the match, as they too look to return from minor injuries. Tass Mourdoukoutas could be set for his first start of the year for Valour at centre-back after a couple of bench appearances following an injury. Marcello Polisi and Kian Williams, however, are still expected to be out longer term, with no timeline offered by Dos Santos about when they could return to the pitch.
All CPL matches are available to stream on OneSoccer or on TELUS Optik TV Channel 980.
3 THINGS TO WATCH
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Both teams desperate for first win of 2024: Entering Monday’s match in seventh and eighth place, respectively, both Halifax and Valour are looking for their first wins of the season, and in Valour’s case they are still looking for their first point. There is still a lot of football to be played this season, but with multiple clubs already over ten points, they are starting to leave the teams at the bottom of the table in the rear view mirror. This match is an opportunity for both teams to kick their season into gear, and start to build a bit of momentum. “Not overthink, understand that you can’t get out of this alone, know that we all have a little bit more to give in moments like these,” Valour head coach Phillip Dos Santos said to CanPL.ca when asked what his team needs to do to remain level-headed and get back on track. “For me, it’s don’t see the the mountain as being too high, you have to get the small gains throughout the game, go through those first five, ten minutes where we know they will come to us and press us, and then just just try to go by stages and grow in confidence. I think that’s the best way to go about it.”
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Can Halifax increase their offensive output?: The Halifax Wanderers are the lowest scoring team in the CPL so far this season, finding the back of the net just twice in four matches. They have played one fewer match than every other team other than Forge FC, who have also played four, but Halifax’s 0.5 goals per game is the lowest in the league behind Valour’s 0.6 (three in five). Neither of the Wanderers’ goals have come from their forwards — one was from defender Riley Ferrazzo and the other from midfielder Giorgio Probo — so getting the likes of Tiago Coimbra, Massimo Ferrin, and Christian Volesky going is important, and something they will be looking to do on Monday afternoon.
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Valour looking for first-ever CPL goal at Wanderers Grounds: Remarkably, Valour FC has never scored a goal at Wanderers Grounds in Canadian Premier League action, a scoreless streak on the east coast that goes back to the CPL’s inaugural season in 2019. The Winnipeggers have an 0-1-7 record in Halifax in CPL play, outscored 11-0 in the process, with the lone scoreless draw coming in September 2019. Valour did score in Halifax in the 2019 Canadian Championship, a goal from Marco Bustos in a 2-1 loss to the Haligonians. If Valour are to get their season back on track, both the winless and goalless streak in Halifax will need to come to an end, against a Wanderers side desperate to pick up a result on their home turf.
PROJECTED STARTING XIs
Halifax Wanderers FC: Fillion; Nimick, Dunn, Loughrey; Fernandez, Gagnon-Laparé, Probo, Timóteo; Daniels, Volesky, Ferrin
Valour FC: Murasiranwa; Alarcón, Chantzopoulos, Mourdoukoutas, Antonoglou; Verhoeven, Campbell, Sanchez; Swibel, Hundal, Faria
ALL-TIME SERIES
Halifax Wanderers FC wins: 9 || Valour FC wins: 3 || Draws: 5
Last meeting:
October 6, 2023: Valour FC 0-1 Halifax Wanderers FC
KEY QUOTES
“I’m not going into this telling our guys that this is a team without a win. I’m saying in CPL, the beauty of this league is anyone can beat anyone any week, so really let’s focus on ourselves, raise the standards, and be our best version and take a big step forward.” — Halifax Wanderers FC head coach Patrice Gheisar “Every game is an opportunity. I don’t think that there’s games in the CPL that you look at and you say ‘This one is more winnable than that one’, so every game is an opportunity. We know what Halifax is all about when they play at home, it’s a team that is also looking at this as as a chance for them to capitalize on points that they might have missed in their previous home matches, so we expect a very difficult game, and that’s what we’re preparing for.” — Valour FC head coach Phillip Dos Santos