Wanderers surge for Canada Day triumph vs. Valour | MATCH ANALYSIS

Match in a minute or less

The Halifax Wanderers have climbed into second place in the Canadian Premier League, after they defeated Valour FC 3-1 at the Wanderers Grounds on Tuesday afternoon.

Although the visitors took the lead in the first half, thanks to a well-finished strike by Kian Williams, Halifax went looking for ways to break down their foes and eventually succeeded in the second half.

Tiago Coimbra got on the end of a good through ball from Isaiah Johnston to score the equalizer with about 25 minutes to play, and soon enough the Wanderers found two more goals, courtesy of substitute Vitor Dias and then Coimbra again in quick succession.

So, the Wanderers came out of it with all three points, while Valour suffered a third consecutive defeat.

Three Observations

Halifax keep knocking, finally find attacking reward

For a long stretch of this game, it was starting to feel like the Wanderers would never find a way through Valour's defence. Halifax had a massive advantage in possession and spent much of the game in their opponents' half, but they continuously found themselves denied when they tried to play balls into the box.

To the Wanderers' credit, though, they did not seem particularly frustrated by their struggles to create good chances. Instead, they remained patient and continued their methodical work, trying to find ways to pull Valour out of their shape and create space.

For that, they were rewarded eventually.

Halifax as a team this year have incredible energy and commitment to their game plan, which serves them very well in games where it takes a while for the goal to come. They did not waver in their strategy on Tuesday, slowly wearing down an opponent until finally they broke. Halifax are very effective at moving the ball from side to side and making pragmatic decisions with it, picking the right moments to play passes between the lines. Most of their players have outstanding passing ability -- Lorenzo Callegari, Isaiah Johnston, Sean Rea, and so many others -- which allows them to move fluidly and play forward balls when the opposition steps out of their block.

The Wanderers finished with 64.3 per cent possession and made 70 final third entries, making more than half of their 476 total passes in Valour's side of the pitch.

Halifax coach Patrice Gheisar explained postmatch that sticking to their identity is, in itself, the club's identity. They are committed to a way of playing, whether it works or doesn't -- although lately, it's worked more than it hasn't.

"We recruit a certain type of player," Gheisar said. "Those are the players we bring in; they're here because they love this city, they love this organization, they want to be a part of this league, but they want to be a part of that style. So for me to say, the last 10 minutes let's completely change and go a different way, I won't really have the buy-in. So I'd rather empower them to say, the game's not over until the final whistle. We are who we are for better or worse.

"We have a plan, our opposition always has a plan. If we stick with our plan totally and commit to it for 90 minutes, and at the end of the game we could say their plan was better, but if we keep changing the plan, you'll never really know what you were trying to do."

Valour squander another bright start in frustrating loss

Coming off last weekend's heavy 5-0 loss at home to Forge, the number one priority for Valour coming into this game had to be tightening up defensively.

So, coach Phil Dos Santos and his staff would've been happy to see their team's composure and focus without the ball, as they absorbed pressure from a possession-heavy Halifax team for about an hour of this match.

However, when you withstand as many attempts and balls into the box as Halifax threw at Valour, eventually one of them is going to fall kindly and end up in the net.

Dos Santos explained postmatch that his side's energy began to waver in the second half, which was when Halifax began scoring. The defensive effort to keep the Wanderers out until then had required a high level of concentration and attention to detail, so when that started to slip, the cracks began to show.

Of course, the Wanderers' equalizer did come in an unfortunate situation for Valour, who were playing with 10 men as Zach Fernandez received treatment for a cut on his hand. What's particularly painful about that is the fact that Coimbra arrived at the back post to score in exactly the lane where the Valour right-back would have been marking, so had he been on the pitch that space might not have been there.

Regardless though, Dos Santos pointed out that his team did not compose themselves well after conceding, which led to a slip in mentality and suddenly gave Halifax new life.

"Our team needs to learn, under pressure in tight games where you concede a goal like this, not to concede the second or third very fast," Dos Santos said.

The most frustrating thing for Valour now is that this game was the third time this year they've scored first, and they still haven't won any of those matches, and have lost two of them. In recent games -- the 5-0 loss to Forge aside -- they've consistently started quite well, but ended up on the losing end after failing to reward themselves sufficiently. That's what happened in their recent 3-0 loss away to Atlético Ottawa, and this game likewise saw them execute their plan well for a time before slipping.

Halifax depth makes the difference in second-half surge

On several occasions this year, Patrice Gheisar has been able to change a match in the second half by making clever substitutions, and he has benefitted from having quality players on his bench who can make an impact in a short appearance.

This game was tied when Gheisar made his first two substitutions, introducing Jason Bahamboula and Vitor Dias in the 71st and 78th minute, respectively, and both players would go on to play huge roles in the closing stages of the match. Bahamboula's energy on the right-wing instantly increased the tempo of the match, as he ran relentlessly at a tiring Roberto Alarcón on Valour's left flank.

Bahamboula managed to get into the box on several occasions with the ball, including the moment where Halifax may have deserved a penalty after he was taken down by Rocco Romeo. Shortly after, Bahamboula's well-placed touch assisted Dias's goal, and just a minute after that, it was Bahamboula again who did much of the work to set up Coimbra's second goal of the day.

This is actually the second time this year that Dias in particular has come off the bench to haunt Valour, having scored a 90th-minute winner in Winnipeg back in April.

Part of the reason Halifax are so good at sticking to a possession-heavy attacking game plan for an entire match is that they know players are able to come off the bench and integrate seamlessly.

The energy that Gheisar was able to inject for the last 20 minutes on Tuesday made a massive difference. The Wanderers boss pointed out, though, that Bahamboula and Dias weren't the examples of his team flexing its depth. Sean Rea hadn't started the last three games, but Gheisar revealed that he earned a start this week in training, slotting in ahead of Giorgio Probo.

Gheisar has been able to rotate starting-quality players in and out of his lineup to keep his side fresh, while also ensuring he has quality substitutes who can change a game at any moment.

What They Said

"You never want to start the game in those kinds of moments, where you're down 1-0 against a team playing a low block and was super organized. ... You need these moments to assess your group. You need these moments to grow, to have resilience. I thought that the best way I could sum it up is we never lost belief. And the greatest compliment I could give the group was that we got better as the game went on." -- Halifax Wanderers head coach Patrice Gheisar

"As the team fatigues, you wear out, and you start opening the gaps a little bit more. When you look at the game, there's moments we could've stayed on the ball, been better on it, allowed the team to recover a bit, and we were losing it too fast, so now they're coming right back at us. It wears you out with time." -- Valour FC head coach Phillip Dos Santos

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Tiago Coimbra, Halifax Wanderers

Coimbra scored the first and third goals for the Wanderers to bring his total up to six on the season -- already his best total as a Wanderer. He had nine touches in the box and had four shots, spearheading the Halifax attack well.

What’s next?

Both teams will next be in action on the road, beginning on Saturday, July 12 when Halifax head west to take on Pacific FC (6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT). Valour, meanwhile, will be in Toronto on Sunday, July 13 for a matchup with York United (6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT).

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