A common cliche in sports, especially football, is that regular season matches are being treated like finals. Sometimes it can seem like an exaggeration, but there comes a point in a club’s season where it really does start to seem that way.

Regular season matches won’t get much bigger in this Canadian Premier League season than Monday night’s clash between Valour FC and Pacific FC at Princess Auto Stadium. It will be a so-called “six-point game” in Winnipeg as the hosts look to move closer to the fifth and final playoff spot in front of their home fans, while the visitors look to maintain their position just above the playoff line after a recent good run of form. A loss and Valour’s chances of making the playoffs will appear to be over, but if they win they will be a single point back of the fifth-place Tridents, and closer to potentially making the postseason for the first time in club history — especially if they get some help from other clubs around the CPL. A draw doesn’t benefit either side a whole lot, especially the Winnipeggers.

“The most important [game] will always be the next one,” Valour head coach Phillip Dos Santos told CanPL.ca this weekend. “There’s been games where we feel that they’re must wins and they’re very important, but of course, looking at the moment today, this is the most important game. It’s the only one that matters.”

Defender Tass Mourdoukoutas echoed those sentiments, but also stressed the importance of treating this game like any other game, even if its significance is unquestionably raised.

“If you put it up on this big, big pedestal, like it’s all or nothing, maybe stray from what you’ve been doing, I think that’s an issue too,” he said to CanPL.ca this week. “We know that when we play to our strengths and what we do, we’re in every game, and we have a chance to win every game. If we feel like this game is completely different and will be completely different to anything we face, then maybe our preparation might struggle, our chemistry might struggle, because guys will be trying to do a little bit too much.

“It’s important that we just stay locked in and do what we do well. If everyone wins their battles and does their jobs individually, then there’s no reason as a collective why we can’t get three points and get a result, a much-needed result as well.”

Pacific might be in a better position than Valour in the table, but with three teams hot on their heels and just four matches to go, they are not comfortable yet either. This match is as much must-win for them as it is for Valour, especially if Vancouver FC or Halifax Wanderers FC win their matches this weekend before Monday night’s tilt — which would only ramp up the pressure even more.

“I think we’re kind of in the same situation as them,” Tridents centre-back Thomas Meilleur-Giguère said to CanPL.ca. “For sure we’re in a better position right now, but we’re as desperate for the points. We really need them, so for sure we’re expecting them to come very strong and very ready to fight, but it’s in our hand. We have to fight more than them and show that we want it even more than them, even if we’re in a better position. That’s all on us.”

The Tridents are back over the playoff line amidst a four-game unbeaten run that has seen them pick up eight crucial points to climb from seventh up to fifth. It was Meilleur-Giguère that scored the goal that put them up into fifth place last week, a dramatic equalizer in the seventh minute of stoppage time in a midweek trip to play the Wanderers.

Moses Dyer has scored in all four of those matches, while Valour’s Shaan Hundal has scored in three in a row and four of his last five as they have drawn four matches in a row. Both strikers are red-hot this season and will be central figures in Monday’s crucial match.

Both Meilleur-Giguère and Mourdoukoutas take pride in the leadership roles they bring to their sides as well. Both have worn the captain’s armband at times this season, and provide valuable experience to their respective backlines. Despite being just 26 and 25, respectively, they both have a wealth of experience already, both in the CPL and elsewhere.

Mourdoukoutas has been tasked this year with anchoring a new-look Valour backline which he too only joined this year. He and 22-year-old Gianfranco Facchineri, Valour’s second-round pick in the 2024 CPL–U Sports Draft, have played nearly every match together at centre-back and performed admirably, while 23-year-old Themi Antonoglou has been a revelation at left back. As Valour have seemingly found their best lineup late in the season, Roberto Alarcon has often been deployed at right back, in front of goalkeeper Jonathan Viscosi, whose recent performances have landed him two consecutive spots in the league’s Team of the Week.

Meilleur-Giguère, meanwhile, has played alongside a revolving door of defensive partners this year. He and Aly Ndom were arguably the league’s best centre-back pairings through the first few weeks of the year before Ndom suffered a season-ending injury. Since then, the man they call TMG has played alongside Paul Amedume, Juan Quintana, and most recently Kevin Ceceri,

“It’s a lot of change, different personnel, different attributes, different qualities, and I’m proud of all of them,” said Meilleur-Giguère. “They had to come out in big moments with maybe less repetition, so they did a very good job and they’re all willing, no matter who plays. That backline is really willing to help, and for my part in that I’m just trying to help make them feel comfortable in that backline as soon as possible.

“Even our left back, Christian Greco-Taylor, played the last two, three games, and he’s been amazing. I can’t really say nothing about them, they’ve been amazing, and they’re willing to work and willing to help us. That’s exactly what we needed for that space, so happy with all of them.”

Meilleur-Giguère has won a Canadian Premier League title before, when Pacific beat Forge FC in the 2021 CPL Final at Tim Hortons Field — the only time the Hammers have missed out on the playoff title.

Only a handful of players are left from that squad — him, Josh Heard, Kunle Dada-Luke, and Sean Young. Several players on that team, considered one of the best ever assembled in the Canadian Premier League, have gone on to play in MLS and Europe, and had increased success in the CPL — including Lukas MacNaughton, Marco Bustos, Ollie Bassett, Alejandro Díaz, Kadin Chung, Manny Aparicio, Alessandro Hojabrpour, Isaac Boehmer and Terran Campbell.

“I’m trying my best to make them understand how good it is to win, because there’s no feeling like that [when] you win,” Meilleur-Giguère said. “It’s a different feeling, you’re proud, everyone’s proud of you. I just want to make them understand what it’s like and what it can change for your career, especially the younger guys.”

Valour have never made the playoffs, something that Mourdoukoutas knew he and the club wanted to change when he signed in the offseason. He played in the 2023 postseason as a member of York United, where the Nine Stripes were knocked out by Pacific at Starlight Stadium on a dramatic stoppage time winner from Adonijah Reid.

That game was a lesson learned about staying focused from kickoff to the final whistle, a lesson that Valour also learned last weekend against Halifax Wanderers. A Zachary Fernandez equalizer in the 89th minute took two points away from Valour — two points that would currently have them on 26 points and give them a chance to overtake the Tridents on Monday.

Instead, they had to settle for one point and sit four back — something they might not be able to afford to do again this season.

“It’s a type of game where, just like these ones we have coming in the next four, you have to play the full game with concentration from minute one right through in order to see out a result,” said Mourdoukoutas. “That’s all it is, it’s about winning games now, and it’s crunch time, and the boys know that, there’s desperation in training, you can see it in everyone’s eyes and in everyone’s pulse. It’s only going to hold us in a good way, so really looking forward to Monday.”

“They’ve turned things around in terms of some results of late, some goal scoring,” he added, speaking about Pacific. “I think they’ve added that to their game, so they’re going to be a threat from that standpoint, but I think if we do play the way we’re capable of playing when we’re at our best, I think nobody in the league really can can stop us. I know that, I believe that, and so does the team, so it’s about displaying that this week.