Final Score: Valour FC 0-1 Vancouver FC
Goalscorers: Tahid 78′
Game of the 2023 season: 100
CPL match: 467

Match in a minute or less

Valour FC joined their opponents on Wednesday night, Vancouver FC, in elimination from CPL Playoff contention after the latter picked up a 1-0 victory on a late goal from 16-year-old TJ Tahid.

It was Tahid’s third of the season, and the first goal that Vancouver had managed to score against Valour in their four meetings this year. It was also just Vancouver’s second win away from home this season, and fifth clean sheet this season — three of which have now come against Valour.

To add insult to elimination, the result also means that Valour go bottom of the table, with Vancouver moving up into seventh on the wins tiebreaker.

Three Observations

TJ Tahid celebrates a special week with the match-winning goal

What a week it has been for 16-year-old TJ Tahid. On Monday, it was announced that Tahid had been called up by the Canadian U-17 side for a pre-World Cup friendly series with Brazil. On Wednesday, the CPL’s youngest-ever signing and goalscorer scored the match-winner, his third of the season, as Vancouver FC defeated Valour 1-0.

Tahid’s performance was in many ways emblematic of the rollercoaster that can take place with a young player who is learning his craft on the job. After being introduced in the 62nd minute, Tahid almost immediately made an impact — a decidedly negative one — when he got caught on the ball near his own box and nearly allowed Pacifique Niyongabire to score the opener.

However, Tahid took that moment in stride and continued to play the kind of direct and ambitious football that had provided Vancouver with their best moments of the night to that point. In the 67th minute, he played an excellent through ball into the box to Shaan Hundal, which the forward sent into the path of Gabriel Bitar for a big Vancouver chance which forced an outstanding stop from Murasiranwa.

Then, just over ten minutes later, he delivered the match’s decisive moment, bursting into the box to get on the end of a deflected pass from Hundal that he smashed past Murasiranwa to secure victory for Vancouver.

TJ Tahid makes it 1-0 for @vanfootballclub on the road!#CanPL I 📺 @onesoccer pic.twitter.com/dBn0eOvGH5

— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) September 21, 2023

“We were here yesterday training and I was hitting some balls so I knew how the ball bounced on the Valour turf, so I was just ready for that hit,” said Tahid after the match.

For Vancouver head coach Afshin Ghotbi, it was the latest in a series of impressive moments from the club’s young players of late. Given Vancouver’s mandate from the start has been to provide a professional platform for young local players, it is a sign that while the wins haven’t necessarily come just yet, the team is still achieving a different kind of important results.

“The finish, you see the movement, you see the action, you see the decisiveness, the power and the precision of the final touch are world-class,” he said. “Very proud of him and very happy that VFC has already produced a youth international player for Canada, and I’m hoping that we will have many more to come.”

Valour FC eliminated from playoff contention as finishing, patience lacking despite possession

With their season on the line, Valour FC dictated most of Wednesday’s match in terms of possession and chances, but will leave IG Field like they have far too many times this season: feeling like they let themselves down in the match’s critical moments.

Despite 1.26 expected goals, 16 shots and 27 touches in the Vancouver box and four shots on target, they were held scoreless for the tenth time this season. For a club that is tied with Vancouver for the league-low 23 goals, Valour has now underperformed their expected goals total by 7.15 this season to date.

The hosts also held 66.9 per cent of possession during the match, but were guilty of not quite being patient enough on the ball. For head coach Phil Dos Santos, that showed itself in two different ways, both of which could be summed up as trying to force the play instead of being more methodical in how they created opportunities.

“We knew that if we were patient on the ball we would be able to switch the play and just be a little bit more patient with our entry, we would open gaps up,” he said. “That was our message at halftime because we felt we were forcing it centrally a little too much with no need to do that.

“We felt that in the second half, too early in the second half, we started to stretch a little bit too much the game. Going a bit long and that just separates the team.”

At the end of the day, Valour were eliminated in the fashion which they have played for most of this season, being very much in the game but being on the wrong end of the moments, or in this case moment, of the match that truly made the difference.

“If someone wants to know what our season has been like, just watch today’s game,” said Dos Santos.

If there was one distinct positive from the match for Valour, however, it was the play of goalkeeper Darlington Murasiranwa. The 22-year-old, who was given the start because Dos Santos wanted him to get the chance to start one of the team’s final two home matches, made four saves including an outstanding stop on Bitar.

“He’s one of those guys that make me want to get up and come here and work, and help succeed,” said the Valour coach. “Because his honesty, his dedication, his passion, the way he handles himself in the locker room, the way he steps into occasions that are not always easy…when you are serious about your stuff, it might take time but good things are going to come.”

Vancouver FC’s defensive block creates multiple chances in transition

As they have on the road at times this season, Vancouver FC lined up in a 4-4-2 on Wednesday night in a hardworking and well-organized low block that ultimately secured their second away victory of the season. Mostly playing as a winger of late, this allowed Shaan Hundal to be deployed as a striker, where he was dangerous throughout the match, with Mikaël Cantave and Gabriel Bitar playing as wide midfielders.

Ghotbi said after the match that the suspension of Vasco Fry played a role in switching formations, wanting to get his most in-form players on the pitch regardless of how they lined up. It worked on both sides of the ball, allowing Vancouver to play in a block that was incredibly difficult to break down out of possession, and then have multiple central options to spring attacks when they won the ball back.

“We felt that to start the game with players that had been playing and are in form, regardless of how the system of play would be, would be the most effective way,” said Ghotbi. “I thought the players did very well executing the 4-4-2, defensively and also in the attack.”

In particular, it allowed them to be compact centrally and eliminate any sort of ball movement that Valour tried through the middle of the park. This also meant that they usually won the ball back in central areas, and as a result, could lauch counterattacks in more dangerous positions.

Playing as a striker for the first time in several matches, Vancouver FC’s leading goalscorer Shaan Hundal deserves particular credit for his work within this system. While he lacked quality at times in the final third, his persistence played off in playing a key role in the winning goal. Hundal had a stunning 10 touches in Valour’s box, three shots, and attempted six dribbles as the club’s key catalyst in attack.

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

TJ Tahid, Vancouver FC

Tahid’s goal was a just reward as he came off the bench and immediately got stuck into the match. He contested 10 duels, won possession twice in the final third, and had a pair of interceptions in just over 28 minutes of action.

What’s next?

Valour head out to the nation’s capital, looking for their first win against Atlético Ottawa since a now infamous 6-1 victory back in April of last season on Sunday, September 24 (1:00 p.m. CT / 2:00 p.m. ET). Vancouver, meanwhile, return home where they will host the Halifax Wanderers on Saturday, September 23 (1:00 p.m. PT / 4:00 p.m. ET).

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