Final Score: York United 3-2 Valour FC
Goalscorers: Altobelli 45+1' (pen.), Yeates 45+4', Reid 47'; Williams 22', Morgan 61'
Game of the 2025 season: 54
CPL Match: 650
Match in a minute or less
York United fought from a goal behind to beat Valour FC 3-2 at York Lions Stadium on Sunday night.
The Winnipeg side took the lead about 20 minutes in as Kian Williams scored a screamer from the top of the penalty area. However, York answered just before halftime as Adonijah Reid won a penalty kick, which Julian Altobelli scored smartly to his right.
Seconds before the break, York added another, as Steffen Yeates buried a loose ball in the box after an initial Altobelli shot was saved. Then, less than two minutes after halftime, they scored yet again, this time with Adonijah Reid's head as he got to a good cross from Orlando Botello.
Valour would claw back one goal, a superb Myles Morgan strike from considerable distance, but that would be all they could muster in the second half as the Nine Stripes left with all three points.
Three Observations
York show character to fight back from behind again
Three times in the last month, York United have found themselves behind in the first half of a match, and got back to level footing. A month ago at Pacific, the Tridents scored first and York scored three in the second half to win 3-1. Earlier this week, they were two goals down on aggregate (and playing with 10 men) against Atlético Ottawa and fought back — although a late goal did eliminate them from the Canadian Championship.
On Sunday, they were behind about 20 minutes in, from a play where the defenders perhaps could've closed down Kian Williams more quickly to prevent his screamer. However, York collected themselves well, didn't panic, and continued playing the way they wanted to.
They were rewarded for that, with three goals and three absolutely critical points. With the CPL table becoming so stratified into a top tier and a bottom tier, York need every point they can possibly manage to keep pace with the clubs ahead of them.
On a weekend where Pacific FC, their closest competitors right now, won, York were under some pressure to win against a team below them in the standings.
The fact that they didn't even let it get to halftime before they fought back was an impressive show of character from York.
"I think now the players understand what I want more and more," York head coach Mauro Eustáquio said postmatch. "There's a belief behind it. They're enjoying their football. You can see it, we don't shake as much as we used to. I told the guys in the locker room, I think if this result happened in the first six or seven games of the season, we probably would have conceded on a long ball or something along those lines. ... The number one thing I wanted to do at this club was to change the culture. I can't do that by myself; I got the backing from ownership, and most importantly I got the backing from the players. And I think we're in this together."
After the Halifax Wanderers lost to Pacific on Saturday, the result of this game became a bit of a pivot for York. If they'd lost, suddenly Pacific would be close behind them for that fifth playoff spot. Now that they've won, though, they can turn their attention upward.
Dos Santos sounds off after 'act of comedy,' poor execution to concede
After another frustrating loss, Valour head coach Phillip Dos Santos told the media that he does not want to sugar-coat things.
Valour have lost four consecutive CPL matches, and conceded at least three goals in each of them. In two of those games, they scored first, and in the 3-0 loss to Atlético Ottawa they had an excellent first half but gave up a penalty just before halftime.
The 90-minute performance from Valour wasn't particularly poor, but the three to five minutes on either side of halftime certainly were. To concede in the first and fourth minutes of stoppage time before the break, then again almost immediately after, was crushing.
"You need to manage the game. You get someone trying to dribble around three players, we lose the ball, we don't follow a runner, 1-0," Dos Santos said.
"Then the second goal is an absolute act of comedy. Even if you want to script that, you can't script how that transition happens. Then the third goal, you start the game, it's 2-1, you say, 'Let's pick ourselves up and go.' And then you again dribble the ball through the middle, lose it, and then there's a transition again.
"At some point people have to understand that, you know what? The internet messed up football. So many people think that everything is tactical and it's about how a team is shaped. It's about executing little things, and today we weren't good at those small executions, and it put us on the back foot in a game that, without taking away anything from York, I actually think that if we had been more simple in our ways, we could have turned the game easy for us after the 1-0."
Dos Santos went on to add: "Individually, there were some moments of brilliance, and that's the positive. But individuals are going to make you get goals like that; to win matches, you need to be collectively better, and we weren't today. My answer is always going to go back to the fact that collectively we were below par. Enough of sugar coating, enough. It wasn't good enough."
Valour's two goals were relatively similar, both excellent strikes from the top of the penalty area. There's no denying that Valour have individualy technical quality, but a look at the stats sheet does indicate that they would've found it hard to score easier goals; they had just eight touches and two shots from inside the box, suggesting they struggled to get the ball into good areas.
York thriving with direct transitional football
Two games in a row now, York have ripped an opponent apart with rapid transitional attacks beginning in midfield. They've been an entertaining team to watch recently, in large part because the team seems to be more comfortable together, and fully committed to the identity that Mauro Eustáquio has been implanting.
It starts in midfield; Kembo Kibato and Steffen Yeates have been outstanding together for the past few weeks, and again in this game they were the engine of York's performance from the middle of the park. They both had a role in the second goal; Kibato's rampaging run through the middle took York forward quickly, and Yeates continued his own run into the box to get to Altobelli's saved shot first and score.
Generally though, there's a general mentality among York's players to prioritizing forward progress. They want to go up the pitch quickly and prevent an opponent from setting their defence. This team has a lot of pace up front, particularly wide with Adonijah Reid and Massimo Ferrin, and those players have learned the tempo and timing of their midfielders' passes to stay onside and get into the right spot for a through ball between a centre-back and full-back.
York had just 44.1 per cent possession on Sunday, but generated 11 shots (seven on target) and 2.23 expected goals. Roughly a quarter of their 406 total passes were in the final third. They were efficient and aggressive, which makes them a formidable foe to any opponent.
Eustáquio did explain that, in an ideal world, he'd love his team to play more possession-based football eventually. However, what's most important is that his group is learning how to identify the right way to play in each moment. When those opportunities to play direct are available, as they were against Atlético Ottawa on Tuesday and here against Valour, York are good at capitalizing.
"I always talked about understanding the moments," Eustáquio said. "Right now we've been able to score in transition, which is something that we didn't do before. A lot of the time we were organizing our goals, [playing with] offensive organization, but that just shows how dynamic we are. If teams want to give us the ball, fantastic, we'll keep it. We'll want to punish them. If teams want to come and press us, we'll also have to be a little bit more direct, a bit more quick transitions, that's fine with me as well. I think we've matured."
What They Said
"On the defensive end and the offensive end, the players have been showing that I can count on them. ... There's been progress in a lot of areas. We're still conceding too many goals for my liking, but if we're going to score one more every game, I won't be that mad." -- York United head coach Mauro Eustáquio
"Even with the possession we ended up having in the second half, we failed to get in the box with real good glimpses and opportunities. Earlier in the season we were getting a lot of touches in the box, but not generating enough shots. In football, sometimes you can create a lot through a direct play, and not necessarily shooting from inside the box or touching the ball once inside the box, that's going to be enough. You have to play what you have in front of you." -- Valour FC head coach Phillip Dos Santos
CanPL.ca Player of the Match
Adonijah Reid, York United
Reid scored a goal of his own just after halftime, which stood as the winner, but he was excellent in the first half as well. He created three chances and won seven duels, also making three interceptions and winning four fouls in a strong all-around performance. Reid also made a good run to get on the ball for the play that ultimately won a penalty and York's first goal.
What’s next?
York are at home again next Saturday, July 19 when they host Vancouver FC (4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT). Valour also return home, and they'll be at Princess Auto Stadium on Sunday, July 20 to play Cavalry FC (3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT).
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