2024 CPL Regular Season — Match #4
Vancouver FC vs. Valour FC
April 14, 2024 at 4 p.m. PT / 6 p.m. CT
Willoughby Community Park in Langley, British Columbia
Watch Live: OneSoccer.ca & TELUS Ch. 980 // Tickets available here

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The opening weekend of the 2024 Canadian Premier League season ends at Willoughby Community Park in Langley, British Columbia on Sunday night, with Vancouver FC hosting Valour FC. With a new year comes new opportunities for all eight CPL clubs, but especially for these two after a season where they finished seventh and eighth.

Both teams have made a lot of changes to their squads from last season, so it’s a fresh start for them in that regard as well. Both sides come into 2024 optimistic that they can find more success on the pitch than they did a year ago. As the only teams in the Canadian Premier League yet to make the playoffs, both will be looking to check off that milestone — Vancouver in their second season in club history, and Valour in their sixth.

2024 CPL SEASON PREVIEW: All you need to know about the 2024 Canadian Premier League season

The story of Vancouver FC’s off-season was their ability to bring home many players from the Lower Mainland back to their home region. Attracting local talent is something that every club strives for in the CPL, and Vancouver FC has had one of the most impressive hauls in league history in that regard this winter.

The influx of Vancouver-area talent includes Grady McDonnell, the youngest signing in CPL history. CPL veterans Ben Fisk, Zach Verhoven, Paris Gee, and David Norman return home after plying their trade elsewhere in Canada and abroad, while Elage Bah, Matteo Campagna, and Vasco Fry join McDonnell in signing for VFC from various levels of the Vancouver Whitecaps organization. Not done there, other CPL standouts Moses Dyer (Valour’s all-time record goalscorer) and former Cavalry FC and York United goalkeeper Niko Giantsopoulos are among the other players making the move out west.

All of the local players have discussed how special it is to move back home, and when defender/midfielder David Norman was asked how many loved ones would be in the stands watching him on Sunday, he asked the reporter how much time they have before listing some of them. There’s a special culture building at VFC, and they are truly embracing their community.

The Eagles did lose some big pieces too, including inaugural goalscorer Shaan Hundal to Valour. Min-jae Kwak, who finished third in the league in tackles in 2023, and passionate defender Ibrahim Bakare are a few of the names on the departure list. The additions join a returning core that includes past CPL Golden Boot winner Alejandro Díaz, captain Callum Irving, defenders Rocco Romeo and Kadin Chung, forwards Gabriel Bitar and Miki Cantave, and U021 Player of the Year candidate James Cameron, among others.

Down the stretch last season, Vancouver were one of the best teams in the CPL — winning five of their final nine matches. If it wasn’t for a poor and inconsistent season up to that point (before that strong finish they had won just three of 19 matches), they could have told a very different story in their inaugural campaign. The team enters the season looking to build on that strong finish to 2023, and work toward their goal of making the playoffs.

This is an improved, deep squad that has the potential to hang with the best in the CPL — beginning on Sunday they have to start proving it.

RELATED: 2024 Season Preview: Vancouver FC || 6 questions ahead of Vancouver FC’s 2024 season

It was a busy off-season for the Winnipeggers as well, as Valour bring back just seven players from the side that finished bottom of the table last year. Included in that are recently-named captain Raphael Ohin and goalkeeper Darlington Murasiranwa, who made just one and two league appearances for the club in 2023, respectively.

They lost a lot of key players this off-season, with reigning U-21 Player of the Year winner Matteo de Brienne and Goalkeeper of the Year nominee Rayane Yesli heading to Atlético Ottawa, midfielder Diego Gutiérrez joining Cavalry FC, captain Andrew Jean-Baptiste’s contract expring, and Pacifique Niyongabire being sold to the Tampa Bay Rowdies, to name just a few.

Among the players joining the team are several with strong CPL resumés, or experienced players with track records in other leagues that are nothing to scoff at. Roberto Alarcón joins the club after winning the CPL Shield with Cavalry FC last season, Shaan Hundal returns to Valour after sharing the team lead in goals for Vancouver FC in 2023, and Tass Mourdoukoutas makes the switch from York United to anchor the backline. Themi Antonoglou is one of the more notable signings anywhere in the CPL as well, with the young Canadian left back joining Valour after nearly 75 professional appearances between Toronto FC and Toronto FC II.

Making such sweeping change can be scary, but a fresh start can also be exactly what a club needs — just ask Atlético Ottawa who went from eighth place in 2021 to regular season champions in 2022, or the 2023 Halifax Wanderers who finished third last year after finishing seventh the year before. Both of those successful teams made a lot of moves in the off-season before having success, so why can’t Valour do it too?

Of note for Valour, attacker Kian Williams and midfielder Marcello Polisi are expected to be out of the lineup for the first few games of the season as they continue to recover from injuries suffered at the tail end of last year.

RELATED: 2024 Season Preview: Valour FC || 6 questions ahead of Valour FC’s 2024 season

In four meetings last year, each side won 1-0 once with the other two matches ending in 0-0 draws. The most recent meeting was in Winnipeg in September, where teenage prodigy TJ Tahid scored late to win the match for Vancouver FC on the road.

Sunday is the start of a new journey for both teams as they look to start 2024 with a bang.

All CPL matches are available to stream on OneSoccer, FuboTV, or on TELUS Optik TV Channel 980.

3 THINGS TO WATCH

• Valour begin lengthy road trip to start 2024: Valour FC face a unique challenge this year in that their first seven games of the season, as well as their Canadian Championship tie against Atlético Ottawa in May, will all be on the road while necessary turf upgrades are completed at Princess Auto Stadium (recently renamed from IG Field). It’s a tough way to begin the year, but it can also be looked at as a potential way to bring a squad of new players closer together before playing 14 of their remaining 21 matches at home down the stretch. If Valour can have a good start to the year despite this hurdle, they will have the opportunity to go home to Winnipeg in June with a strong foundation to build on the rest of the way.

• Vancouver’s Dyer excited to make CPL return: Before a single season with FC Tulsa of the USL Championship in 2023, where he registered four goals and five assists, New Zealand international forward Moses Dyer was a crucial part of Valour FC. Still Valour’s record goalscorer with 19 goals between 2020 and 2022, including back-to-back nine-goal seasons in 2021 and 2022, Dyer established himself as one of the best forwards in the country, and will be hoping to recapture that form in Vancouver. He played it cool when asked in a press conference on Friday about facing his former club, insisting that it’s “just another game”, before saying that he’s excited to be back playing competitive matches again.

• How will Valour line up in attack?: Valour will be without Kian Williams, a locked in starter, to begin the season as he returns to the pitch following an injury, leaving his likely left wing position open for Phillip Dos Santos to fill. Shaan Hundal can start up top or out wide, as can Abdul Binate, giving Dos Santos a couple of flexible options alongside fellow attackers Joe Hanson, Jordan Faria, Jordan Swibel, and Juan Pablo Sánchez. Hundal starting centrally seems the most likely selection, with wingers on either side of him to get him the ball. Fullback duo Themi Antonoglou and Roberto Alarcón will also be relied upon to deliver service in from wide position.  Having a lethal goalscorer is something Valour lacked last season, so they will be hoping to see an improvement on their league-fewest 25 goals from a season ago.

PROJECTED STARTING XIs

Vancouver FC (4-4-2): Irving; Gee, Norman, Romeo, Cameron; Bitar, Chung, Simmons, Cantave; Díaz, Dyer

Valour FC (4-2-3-1) : Viscosi; Alarcón, Mourdoukoutas, Chantzopoulos, Antonoglou; Sukunda, Campbell, Verhoeven; Faria, Hundal, Binate

ALL-TIME SERIES

Vancouver FC wins: 1 || Valour FC wins: 1 || Draws: 2

Last meeting:

September 20, 2023 — Valour FC 0-1 Vancouver FC

KEY QUOTES

“I think it’s very competitive on top, we have four very good strikers, and we have even wingers that can play as strikers. We have different profiles, and I believe that their personalities — we can see already in the friendly matches and we see it in the training — they really get along off the field and on the field, and they do complement each other, and my job is to try to pair them up.” — Vancouver FC head coach Afshin Ghotbi on his depth in attack

“It’s exciting, it’s a new opportunity. I think that when you come to this moment it’s what you’ve been waiting for. It’s a long off-season, so we’re all very excited to start.” — Valour FC head coach Phillip Dos Santos on the start of a new year

“It was a good time playing for them, but being able to play against them this time obviously adds a little bit of something to it. But it’s just another game, as I’ve been saying. It’s the first game of the season, which obviously all preseason we’ve been working up towards, and that’s what I’m most excited about — just playing again, playing football, competition.” — Vancouver FC forward Moses Dyer on playing his former club Valour FC

“I think it’s hard to try to narrow it down to one single thing. For me individually, I think learning to play the centre-back position, I was lucky enough to play beside two really experienced, quality centre-halves that I learned a ton from. I really think I grew into that position after really only starting to play it with Calvary in 2021. And then just other experiences as well: becoming more professional games, different environments, that I’m hoping to bring to the younger boys here, both on the field and then also off the field.” — Vancouver FC midfielder/defender David Norman on what he learned in his year away from the CPL in England and Ireland