Final Score:  Valour FC 1-0 York United
Goalscorers: Ressurreição 29′
Game of the 2024 season: 44
CPL match: 528

Match in a minute or less

Valour FC held on for a 1-0 home victory against York United on Thursday night, handing Benjamín Mora his first loss as coach of the Nine Stripes.

Diogo Ressurreição opened the scoring for the Winnipeg club and they held on for their third victory of the season despite facing 16 shots and wave after wave of York United attack in the second half especially.

The three points for Valour ends a three-game losing skid for the club, and has them just five points out of the fifth and final playoff spot at time of writing. For York, meanwhile, they have just one road victory from six matches so far this season.

Three Observations

Valour FC show an improved mentality, fight in character home victory 

While Valour FC were made to suffer defensively for a lot of Thursday’s contest as York United controlled the ball and the chances, there was a lot to like in the way the Winnipeg side responded to their recent adversity and picked up a big three points.

Coming off three straight losses, and short rest after a trip to Hamilton on Sunday, they showed incredible fight in front of their home fans on Thursday — competing for the full 90 minutes, plus nine minutes of stoppage time, to get to the full-time whistle with a victory.

“We probably had to hold on a little bit more than we would have wanted to, but it’s a long season, and these are three points that, at the end of the day, how we got them and their circumstances don’t matter,” said Valour FC manager Phil Dos Santos. “It’s the game, and we were able to hold on, and that’s the most important.”

One thing the hosts were really pushing for coming into this match was a better start, after going into half-time having conceded twice in each of their past two matches. They showed that in a big way on Thursday night.

Similar to the first meeting between these two sides back on May 10, Valour scored first, this time through Diogo Ressurreição. But after conceding three second-half goals in the first meeting with York, they showed a strong defensive fight on Thursday night to hold on for a big three points.

A big part of that was a strong performance from their backline, particularly 22-year-old Frank Facchineri. In his first start in six matches, alongside Tass Mourdoukoutas, Facchineri made four clearances, won two tackles, and completed 40 of 49 passes.

“He’s a competitor,” said Dos Santos. “He has a built-in way of being in the game that I believe is made for the CPL. His athleticism is very good, he’s better than people might perceive on the ball, his mindset is very, very good. It’s up there with the best players and best centre-backs in the league. So he’s a player that is going to grow and you’ll see him in the league for many years, I believe.”

The chart below shows the incredible defensive fight Valour’s backline showed on Thursday, with Themi Antonoglou (30), Facchineri (23), Mourdoukoutas (13) and Alarcón (2), and substitute Haris Chantzopoulos (4) all putting in strong shifts.

Regardless of what happens the rest of the weekend, Valour FC know that they will gain a bit of ground in the CPL table. Now it is about building momentum from this performance and turning it into more results in the coming weeks.

“This weekend, we could watch knowing that we’ll be closer to the playoff line than we were before this game,” said Dos Santos. “The group knows we are going to be a very difficult team to play against when we’re at home.”

Valour FC use width on the counterattack to create attacking moments 

For the Winnipeg side on Thursday, a big part of their attacking success came from the direct and decisive play of their wide players.

When they won the ball back, Valour often quickly looked to move it forward up their flanks — with the fullbacks overlapping their respective winger to quickly create overloads out wide.

With York wingbacks Orlando Botello and Max Ferrari pushing up wide down the flanks, Valour were able to find spaces in behind them, isolating one of the back three central defenders.

“[We felt that] we would have opportunities to break through, and exploit those spaces between their center backs and wing backs,” said Dos Santos.

This led to their opening goal, with Dante Campbell playing a quick pass into left winger Jordan Faria, which he flicked forward into the path of an overlapping fullback, Themi Antonoglou. From there Antonoglou was able to run into space play the ball across to Diogo Ressurreição in the middle who calmly found the back of the net.

DIOGO RESSURREIÇÃO WHAT A GOAL 🤩

He opens the scoring in Winnipeg 👀#CanPL | 📺 @onesoccer pic.twitter.com/kJlrG5Wpqc

— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) June 28, 2024

“I think we got the goal from a very good action that we had talked about,” said Dos Santos. “We knew where the spaces would be. And again, Diogo, in a good position, was able to capitalize.”

Dos Santos said ultimately York adjusted well in the second half, making it far more difficult to play through those areas. Given his team’s short turnaround from playing in Hamilton on Sunday, however, he was impressed with the tactical execution of his players on their goal.

Despite first loss, Benjamín Mora happy with his side’s performance  

Football can be an odd game sometimes. In a lot of aspects of Thursday’s game, York United had their most dominant performance of the Benjamín Mora era with 61.8 per cent of the possession and a lot of quality chances that could have easily kept his unbeaten run going.

When the final whistle blew, however, the result was Mora’s first loss as a manager of the Nine Stripes.

“My team played very good football, 65 per cent of possession, good movements, good combinations,” said Mora. “We had double of passes than the other team. 500 passes. They had 250 but this is football. Sometimes the team that deserves to win, doesn’t win, and winning is sometimes not very loyal, but the team, my team did a good job.”

If there is one area where they did struggle, however, it was in the final act, as despite 16 shot attempts, nine of which came inside the box, and 36 touches in the Valour box, York managed just a single shot on target. They also hit the crossbar twice, most notably on a wide open net for league-leading goalscorer Brian Wright in the 34th minute which he really should have finished.

The chart below shows York United’s shots attempted during the match, with Mo Babouli’s volley from the top of the box the only effort that forced a save from Viscosi.

Wright did put the ball in the back of the net twice during the game, but both were disallowed for fouls called in the buildup. But Mora wasn’t willing to use that as any sort of excuse, saying that ultimately he respects the referee’s decision.

“It’s part of football,” said Mora. “I think we don’t blame referees, we don’t blame the weather. We don’t blame the pitch. We don’t blame anyone. We are supposed to do a good job. And I expect the best for my players. They did it, and this time, the score didn’t follow with us.”

One definite positive to take away from the match for the Nine Stripes, however, was the play of 16-year-old Shola Jimoh. The Exceptional Young Talent signing came off the bench in the 72nd minute and instantly started causing Valour problems down the right flank with confident and composed play.

He won four fouls, while creating two chances, and attempted five dribbles. While he ultimately couldn’t get his side back in the match, it was a strong case for the exciting young player to get more minutes and opportunity going forward.

“Yeah 16 years old, he came in, he made a difference,” said York United fullback Max Ferrari. “He’s doing well taking players on, he showed confidence and showed what he is as a player and yeah, it’s exciting to see.”

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Diogo Ressurreição, Valour FC

He scored the game’s lone goal, but was also tremendous in taking the pressure off Valour throughout the 90 minutes. The Portuguese also created two chances, completed four of five dribbles and won two fouls on Thursday.

What’s next?

Both teams are at home next week, with York United hosting Halifax Wanderers on Saturday, July 6 (4:00 p.m. ET), while Valour FC are back in action at Princess Auto Stadium against Cavalry on Sunday, July 7 (4:00 p.m. CT / 5:00 p.m. ET).

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