2024 CPL Regular Season — Match #31**
** **Valour FC vs. Vancouver FC
June 2, 2024 at 4 p.m. CT / 5** p.m. ET**
** Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg, Manitoba**
** Watch Live: OneSoccer.ca & TELUS Ch. 980**** // Tickets available here
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At long last, Valour FC open the home portion of their season, doing so with a significant test, as they face second-place Vancouver FC on Sunday at Princess Auto Stadium. Their 2024 home opener comes after seven consecutive away matches to start the year, eight including the Canadian Championship, due to pitch resurfacing. On a brand new field and with a renewed sense of optimism after back-to-back strong performances and results, the Winnipeg side are relishing this opportunity to show their improvement against one of the league’s top teams so far this season. “We need these games, we need these games because if we aspire for big things, if we want to meet our objective these are games that we need to go for, and win the three points,” said Valour FC head coach Phil Dos Santos. “It’s a good test for us to see how we come back home and match ourselves with some of the good teams of this league.” Vancouver FC and Valour met in Langley on the opening weekend of the season. Despite Valour opening the scoring in the 24th minute through Jordan Swibel, Vancouver FC came back — aided by a Jordan Faria red card — to secure a dominant 4-1 victory. This has been a bit of a theme for the two sides thus far this season, as Valour have already dropped eight points from winning positions in 2024. With that being said, the fact that they have scored the opening goal in four of their seven matches this season is certainly a positive. Doing so was a significant struggle for the club last season, as they scored just four first-half goals at home in 2023 — tied with York United for the fewest in the league. That was part of a multitude of performance-related factors that combined for a league-worst just 13 points in 14 home matches last season. Changing that in 2024 will be crucial to the club reversing its fortunes.
Vancouver, meanwhile, have made a habit of coming back in matches since that opening-day win over Valour. A 2-1 victory over Pacific FC in the Salish Sea Derby, after conceding an early Ayman Sellouf penalty, makes it a league-leading seven points on the season from losing positions. Vancouver collected just eight from such scenarios all of last season. It has helped them to rise to second place in the table through the first quarter of the 2024 season. Their head coach, Afshin Ghotbi says that while it is still early in the year, and a few results can cause significant standings fluctuation, that table position still matters to him. In fact, he says that anyone who isn’t at least keeping an eye on the table probably isn’t being entirely truthful. “Being in a good position in the table really helps us attract more fans and gives our players more confidence,” said Ghotbi. “So yes for us it’s important that we stay in the top three, and that we stay close to the top of the table, so at the end of the season, we can make a push to finish on top .” Vancouver FC could see the return of Rocco Romeo to the lineup after the key central defender missed this past weekend’s clash with Pacific. Ghotbi says that Romeo has made significant progress in his recovery but will be making one final visit to the team therapist and doctors before a decision is made as to whether he is on the plane to Winnipeg or not. Moses Dyer, meanwhile, will not be making his return to Winnipeg after picking up a one-match suspension for yellow card accumulation.
3 THINGS TO WATCH
- Valour open important home stretch: After seven straight on the road to start the season, Valour FC open their first homestand of the year with three consecutive home matches. The opponents, however, will provide a big challenge. After Sunday’s clash with Vancouver, the Winnipeg club host current top-of-the-table side Atlético Ottawa, before battling with third-place Pacific FC the following week. It doesn’t get more difficult than that, especially since Valour have already lost to all three of these sides this season away from home. But it will also be an immense opportunity for the group to show how much they have grown since, and if they can get positive results and performances from these matches, it would mean a significant confidence boost when it comes to playing out the remainder of their home schedule. * **Raphael Ohin’s return significant for Valour: **Valour FC were given both an incredible emotional and personnel boost when captain Raphael Ohin played his first minutes in over a year this past weekend off the bench against Cavalry, having played just one CPL match in the past two seasons due to a pair of serious knee injuries. Dos Santos is cognizant of the fact that he’s going to have to continue to ease the player back into action, but even in those limited minutes against Cavalry this past weekend it was clear what kind of an impact having a healthy Ohin is going to have on the club’s midfield, whether he is starting matches or available off the bench. “I think that the way he is training we see that he’s growing every day, that he’s now less fearful,” said Dos Santos. “He’s getting back to the Raph that we know…He’s a player that knows how to eat space in the midfield if he has a bit of time and we want him to go slowly but at the same time games pile up and we have to give him minutes.” * **Vancouver FC showing improved defensive depth: **Over the past three matches, due to injury and illness, Vancouver FC have been forced to roll out a trio of different centre-back pairings. First, it was Anthony White and Allan Enyou against Atlético Ottawa, then against Forge FC it was Rocco Romeo and Enyou, finally this weekend Enyou formed a pairing with David Norman. The result in all three matches was the same, just a single goal conceded. That demonstration of depth and quality in each option has been impressive, especially considering Vancouver conceded the most goals in the league last season. Goalkeeper Callum Irving has certainly played a big part as well, with the 20 saves he has made being the second most in the league so far this season. But the team has clearly gotten deeper and better across the backline. “I think it’s been great,” said Irving. “I think that’s probably something that we looked at in the off-season as a club and, you know, Jeevin [Kang] and Afshin [Ghotbi] and Rob [Friend] and everybody looked at our roster and saw that we needed some more quality, some more depth, some experience, some youth. And I thought we found a very good blend.”
PROJECTED STARTING XIs
Valour FC: Viscosi; Alarcón, Mourdoukoutas, Chantzopoulos, Antonoglou; Campbell, Sánchez; Binate, Ressurreição, Faria; Swibel
Vancouver FC: Irving; Chung, Enyou, Norman, Gee; Bitar, Fry, Garcia, Fisk; Díaz, Navarro
ALL-TIME SERIES
Vancouver FC wins: 2 || Valour FC wins: 1 || Draws: 2
Last meeting:
April 14, 2024 — Vancouver FC 4-1 Valour FC
KEY QUOTES
“[Vancouver is] a good team, good group of players that they put together. It’s a confident group. They were able to get a good result, not only the last result at home against Pacific, but their last away trip in a very difficult place.” — Valour FC head coach Phillip Dos Santos
“This game for us is very dangerous, not because of their form, rather the fact that they’re at home. They’re going to have an enormous amount of enthusiasm, energy, motivation to play their best playing at home. I think that concerns me more than the fact that they have four points from the last two games.” — Vancouver FC head coach Afshin Ghotbi
“It’s always difficult to play in people’s home openers, in a sense where, you know they’re going to be up for it. There’s going to be energy coming from their end, but I think there’s also a pressure on them to win.”** — Vancouver FC goalkeeper Callum Irving **