Many happy returns for Valour FC Despite second straight losing season, players willing to play for Winnipeg soccer team next season By: Taylor Allen Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Wednesday, Sep. 9, 2020 Last Modified: 7:27 PM CDT Friday, Sep. 11, 2020 Updates

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For a second straight season, Winnipeg’s professional soccer club found itself nowhere near the Canadian Premier League’s title picture.

After finishing in a tie for last place in the league’s inaugural season in 2019, Valour FC head coach and general manager Rob Gale had a busy off-season revamping his roster and only bringing back seven players from Year 1. But even with all the new faces, some of which boasted rather impressive resumés, Valour still struggled to establish itself as a contender.

The Winnipeg side went 2-2-3 at the Island Games — a single-site tournament based out of Charlottetown, P.E.I., which replaced the originally scheduled season owing to COVID-19 — and finished in sixth place in the eight-team league. Valour needed to crack the top four in order to qualify for the second stage of the tournament.

It’s not exactly the start local soccer fans were hoping for when they found out professional footy was returning to town, but Gale said there’s no need to panic just yet as the standings don’t tell the whole story. Rolling with essentially a new squad in a tournament format without a pre-season isn’t exactly a recipe for success, nevermind the fact nine players were battling the injury bug when the team took the pitch for their final game on Saturday — a 2-2 draw with 2019 league winner Forge FC.

They didn’t catch any breaks this year, but the club is encouraged by its small sample size and believes the future is bright.

“The feeling amongst the group was we really wish we had a full season,” Gale told the Free Press on Wednesday.

“We were decimated by injuries, really, throughout the tournament. And I think if I look back, that was the story for us… We feel very good about where we’re at and what we’re building as a club. So, I’d say a completely different feeling to last year. All of the players enjoyed the experience in our discussions. The culture amongst the group, the camaraderie amongst the boys, really is first class. They stuck together from start to finish. There was no pointing the fingers, no blaming, everybody worked as a collective to try and get better and I think we got better and better as the tournament went on.”

While Valour may have taken a small step forward this summer, they’ll quickly find themselves taking two steps back if they’re unable to keep their core intact in 2021. With key pieces such as defender Julian Dunn and goalkeeper James Pantemis on loan from their respective MLS clubs, it might not be so easy.

“I think we feel like we’re maybe only two or three pieces, and maybe a couple changes here and there from having the squad that we wanted,” said Gale before adding there were a handful of players they weren’t able to bring in because of COVID-19 travel restrictions.

“So, the beauty is there’s an overwhelming desire for all the players to come back in our early discussions with them. There’s also an overwhelming desire to try and find them more games between now and March because that’s the biggest challenge, right? Can we get them in an environment playing games? Because a year where you only play seven games feels like a waste to everybody. The desire is there on both sides, I think, for all the key pieces to return and we’re already working on it, to be honest… We’ve already renewed some contracts, so we’ll be announcing that shortly.”

For midfielder and co-captain Dylan Carreiro, that’s music to his ears.

“I’m hoping it isn’t a different-looking squad because I think everybody enjoyed their time and everybody enjoyed being in Winnipeg at the time they were there. To have a squad that loves the club and likes the club’s philosophy and what the club is about is something you want,” Carreiro said.

“As you can see, the results kept getting better and if we had a 28-game season, we’d cause some mayhem in this league. I think for me, I’d love to have the whole team back and obviously tweak a few things. Some new players because, obviously, that’s how football is, but yeah, for me, I think everybody would love to come back and have a full season together.”

However, there’s definitely room for improvement. If you take away the team’s 4-0 victory over an Atlético Ottawa side on Aug. 19 that only had 10 players on the field for much of the game because of a red card, Valour was only able to score four times in six games. Struggling to find the back of the net has been an issue for Valour since the league’s inception.

“The signs are there. That’s the most important thing for us. The culture is right off the field now,” Gale said.

“The leadership group, we have some of the best players in the league without a doubt. We rebuilt from the back forward and now we’re going to go out and get those pieces ahead of that to complete that jigsaw puzzle. So I think there’s a lot to be optimistic about for the fans.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca
Twitter: @TaylorAllen31

Taylor Allen
Reporter

Taylor Allen is a sports reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press. Taylor was the Vince Leah intern in the Free Press newsroom twice while earning his joint communications degree/diploma at the University of Winnipeg and Red River College Polytechnic. He signed on full-time in 2019 and mainly covers the Blue Bombers, curling, and basketball. Read more about Taylor.

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