Valour FC has found some timely mid-summer magic to breathe some life into its 2025 Canadian Premier League season.
Winnipeg's professional soccer side posted a 2-1 victory over Cavalry FC in front of 2,369 fans on a pristine Tuesday night at Princess Auto Stadium and, in the process, not only earned consecutive wins for the first time since last August but climbed into sixth place in the CPL tables.
The club, now 4-10-2, is still 10 points back of fifth-place HFX Wanderers who own the final playoff spot at 7-6-3, but the result -- coupled with a 3-1 win over Vancouver FC on the weekend -- does represent significant progress for a squad desperately working to climb out of a hole.
"That was a solid team performance," said Valour GM and head coach Phillip Dos Santos. "I told the guys a couple weeks ago it's better to lose together than to win alone because I know in the long term when you're a team your chances to get results are bigger.
"That's what we were out there -- we were a team."
Valour FC got a huge save from goalkeeper Jonathan Viscosi less than 30 seconds into the match and then settled in to serve up one of its best performances of the season.
Cavalry had the better possession numbers -- 58.7 to 41.3 -- but Valour generated 12 shots, four on goal, and got some brilliant work off set pieces as Themi Antonoglou delivered two exceptional corner kicks with the first headed home by Zach Fernandez in the 23rd minute and then Myles Morgan in the 56th minute.
"We have guys in the box who can head a ball so I just tried to put it in the right area and two of them came off today so I was happy about that," said Antonoglou.
"It's a good feeling. Winning away in Vancouver is not easy and then coming home to get three points is a step in the right direction, for sure.
"We just take it game by game now, that's most important. Of course, the first half of the season we didn't start the way we wanted but the second half of the season we're 2-0, so hopefully we can keep that going."
Cavalry would cut into the lead in the 60th minute on a goal by former Valour captain Diego Gutierrez, but the home side steadied to seal the deal before things got chippy in extra time with three yellow cards and two reds -- one to each team -- in the closing moments.
Valour's tough climb to get back into the playoff discussion continues this Saturday in Hamilton against Forge FC before a visit by Atlético Ottawa a week later on August 10th.
"It's still one game at a time, you still have to go one moment at a time," said Dos Santos. "It's a good day today. I believe in the group and sometimes it's easier when the guys start believing in each other when you get wins and you good things happen.
"We have to enjoy it and know that the next game is right around the corner."
Valour FC 2 Cavalry FC 1
Goals
Valour FC
22:50′: Zachary Fernandez (assist: Themi Antonoglou)
55:03': Myles Morgan (assist: Themi Antonoglou)
Cavalry FC
59:12': Diego Gutiérrez (assist: Tobias Warschewski)
Card summary
Valour FC
85:01': Raphael Ohin (yellow, not retreating)
95:28': Erik Pop (yellow, dissent)
97:19': Frankie Facchineri (yellow, dissent)
99:46': Eleias Himaras (red, foul and abusive language)
Cavalry FC
69:08': Sergio Camargo (yellow, dissent)
96:36': Goteh Ntignee (yellow, tactical foul)
97:13': Goteh Ntignee (red, violent conduct)
VALOUR STARTING XI
GK – Jonathan Viscosi
D – Zach Fernandez
D – Kelsey Egwu
D – Frankie Facchineri
D – Themi Antonoglou
MF – Raphael Ohin ©
MF – Safwane Mlah
FW – Bruno Figueiredo
FW – Myles Morgan
FW – Kris Twardek
F – Kianz Froeze
—
Valour substitutions
71:56’: On Xavier Venancio; off Bruno Figueiredo
72:10′: On Roberto Alarcon; off Themi Antonoglou
89:02′: On Erik Pop; off Kianz Froese
95:56': On Markiyan Voytsekhovskyi; off Kris Twardek