2024 CPL Regular Season — Match #100
Valour FC vs. Pacific FC
September 30, 2024 at 7 p.m. CT/5 p.m. PT
Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg, Manitoba
Watch Live: OneSoccer.ca & TELUS Ch. 980 // Tickets available here

The 100th match of the 2024 Canadian Premier League season closes out matchweek 25, with Valour FC hosting Pacific FC at Princess Auto Stadium.

Monday’s match is a “six-pointer” — doubly important as the Tridents are currently sitting in the fifth and final playoff spot entering the weekend, with Valour four points back in eighth place. A win for Valour and they’re one point back of the Tridents, who could lose their playoff spot with a loss depending on other results around the league. A win for Pacific, though, and they will end the weekend in fifth no matter what happens elsewhere this weekend, while Valour’s playoffs hopes would be all but officially over.

Both sides are unbeaten in four games, with Pacific picking up two wins followed by a pair of draws, while Valour have drawn four matches in a row.

In the three previous meetings this season, Pacific has two wins and Valour has one, with the Tridents winning in their previous trip to Winnipeg. Josh Heard and Sean Young, two Vancouver Island natives, scored in Valour’s trip to the west coast in the second week of the season, before they came out on top in a 3-2 thriller in Winnipeg in June. In their most recent meeting, at Starlight Stadium at the end of July, Themi Antonoglou, Shaan Hundal, and former Tridents forward Abdul Binate all scored in a 3-0 demolition from the visitors.

Hundal, who also scored in the aforementioned 3-2 game in Winnipeg, comes into Monday’s match on a three-game goals streak, and with four goals in his last five matches. The only CPL striker in better form recently is Pacific’s Moses Dyer, who has a goal in each of his last four matches and has formed a great attacking partnership with Dario Zanatta in recent weeks to ignite both of their seasons.

RELATED READING: ‘We have to fight more than them’: Valour and Pacific set for season-defining showdown

Pacific will be without midfielder Marco Domínguez for this match as he serves a one-match suspension for yellow card accumulation. Heard and Georges Mukumbilwa were both back in training this week after missing a few weeks with injuries, but whether or not they can play — or for how long — on Monday will be determined ahead of kickoff.

Valour are healthy at the moment as well, and should have their entire regular squad available for this important game. An interesting development this week was that midfielder Marcello Polisi — who is yet to play a game this year as he recovers from a long-term injury to his lower abdomen area suffered at the end of last season — may be able to return to the group before the end of the season after all. Phillip Dos Santos told CanPL.ca this week that he would need to be 100 per cent healthy to return to action, due to the nature of his injury and recovery, but they are hopeful of positive progress in that regard.

All CPL and Canadian Championship matches will be broadcast live on OneSoccer, available as a linear channel on Telus’ Optik TV (Channel 980) as well as online at OneSoccer.ca, through the OneSoccer app and on the fuboTV Canada platform.

3 THINGS TO WATCH

• Dyer and Hundal looking to stay hot: The two most in-form strikers in the Canadian Premier League meet on Monday night, as Moses Dyer and Pacific FC visit Shaan Hundal and Valour FC. Dyer has scored in four matches in a row, an impressive run of form that seems to have been brought about by a midseason loan move from fellow BC club Vancouver FC. Dyer told the media after last week’s match in Ottawa that his strong form is due in part to having more chances with the Tridents than he did in Vancouver, as a result of his new club playing a more attacking style of football. Hundal, who re-joined the Winnipeggers from Vancouver in the offseason after previously being teammates with Dyer at Valour in 2020, has scored in three matches in a row and four times in the last five matches. Both are hitting their stride at a perfect time in the season to get hot, and will look to be the difference-makers again in this crucial match.
• Valour likely need three points to keep playoff hopes alive: Monday night’s match is one of those “six-point games” for these sides, as a win for either would have a big impact on the playoff race. If Valour win at home, they will be just one point back of Pacific and their playoff hopes will be very much alive still as they look to make the postseason for the first time in club history. A win for Pacific, though, would see the Tridents end the matchweek in fifth regardless of other results around the league, and leave the Winnipeggers seven points back and almost certainly out of the playoff race with three matches to go afterwards. A draw doesn’t particularly help either team, but especially not Valour. If Pacific win and Halifax Wanderers and Vancouver FC lose their matches this weekend, the Tridents will have a commanding lead for the final playoff spot — but they shouldn’t rely on getting help from opponents and need to play for the full three points.
• Tridents could welcome back important players: After missing the last eight matches in all competitions, Pacific FC captain Josh Heard is back in training and his status has improved from week-to-week to day-to-day according to head coach James Merriman. Left back Georges Mukumbilwa, meanwhile, has missed the last three matches, but has also returned to training. Their availability for Monday’s match will be decided closer to kickoff, but the expectation is that even if they can’t play this match, they’ll be available sooner rather than later for this important playoff push and the postseason itself if Pacific can remain in that fifth position.