Final Score: Valour FC 3-2 Cavalry FC
Goalscorers: Cela 51′, Gutiérrez 60′ (pen.), Ponce 72′ ; Akio 8′, 48′
Game of the 2023 season: 74
CPL match: 441

Match in a minute or less

Valour FC stunned Cavalry FC with their first come-from-behind victory of the season, erasing a two-goal deficit to emerge 3-2 winners on Friday night in Winnipeg.

The host side spoiled what looked like it would be a perfect return to IG Field for former Valour attacker William Akio, who scored a brace to put Cavalry up 2-0 within the first 48 minutes of the match. Three second-half goals from Klaidi Cela, Diego Gutiérrez and Walter Ponce, however, saw Valour break a six-match winless streak — and was the first time this season they have scored three goals in a match.

With the win, Valour narrow the gap to the playoff positions to five points. Cavalry, meanwhile, remains in second place for the timing being, two points behind top-of-the-table Pacific FC.

Three Observations

Simple and direct approach ignites incredible Valour FC comeback win

“This is football, there’s things that you can’t explain,” said Valour FC head coach Phil Dos Santos after the match.

For just over half of Friday’s match, it looked like his side were headed for sure defeat, a seventh straight match without a win, and a result that would have all but killed their hopes of making a first-ever playoff appearance.

Instead, emboldened by an excellent crowd at IG Field, Valour pulled off one of the most surprising comebacks of the season with three second-half goals.

Crucial to that comeback was quickly shifting the momentum of the match. After Akio had scored his second of the night to give Cavalry a 2-0 lead in the 48th minute, Valour were able to reply with a goal of their own just three minutes later.

From there, Valour’s comeback was built on direct and simple play. They quickly moved the ball out wide in attack, where they found space, especially down their left flank with Cavalry deploying Shamit Shome as a converted right-back for the second straight match. From those areas, it was decisive play that made the difference.

“Simplicity,” said Dos Santos. “One [goal] comes off a set play that you win by being objective. The third one is also an objective play by Kian [Williams], who cuts it back takes a chance on goal and there is a rebound. Objectivity going forward by Marcello, puts a ball in the box then the pk comes from that. Sometimes I feel we are a bit too sweet around the box looking for the perfect play.”

There were still certainly some concerning elements to Valour’s performance. They allowed a goal within the first ten minutes at home for the fourth straight match, and a miracle comeback like this perhaps does more to boost the team’s belief than it is a repeatable formula for how they will pick up further points down the stretch.

Now that they’ve picked up these three points, however, Valour get perhaps an even bigger opportunity next week when they host Atlético Ottawa. Atleti are one of the three sides tied on 25 points as of Friday who they are chasing for one of the league’s five playoff spots in this season’s new format.

“I said to the media in the week that eight points could be five, and then suddenly five are two, and it is game on,” Dos Santos said of his side’s hopes to narrow the gap and stay in the race. “That’s the beauty of this league, where you play everyone four times and these things could happen. So now we put our heads down and we work.”

Diego Gutiérrez, delivers true captain’s performance in comeback, but still has another gear

In order to get themselves back into the match on Friday, Valour desperately needed someone to step up and take charge. They found that in captain Diego Gutiérrez, whose brilliant cross set up Klaidi Cela’s opener, before he stepped up from the spot and equalized the match on a penalty kick.

“It’s hard when we are losing 1-0, seventh minute, it is hard to believe that moment,” said Gutiérrez. “But in the second half, the coach speak a lot, we push all the team, the guys say ‘come on guys we have to be better, it’s not [happening] again’…after [they scored the second] I saw the eyes of everyone in the team, there we a switch. We deserved [the win].”

Aside from his goal and assist, Gutiérrez had a match-leading 70 touches, created two other chances and won two tackles while completing 80.8 per cent of his passes.

The home side responds quickly, as Klaidi Cela cuts @ValourFootball's deficit in half 🌾#CanPL I 📺 @onesoccer pic.twitter.com/G7rfDlMX5x

— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) August 12, 2023

Dos Santos, however, still thinks there is another gear to Gutiérrez’s game. He sits fourth in the league in chances created (31), 17th in expected goals, suggesting perhaps that he should be on the scoresheet more often than the three goals and just one assist on the season. Getting more performances like this from the Valour captain will be incredibly important to his side’s late push.

“The truth is I am hard on him because I think that he could be so much better,” said Dos Santos. “I look at many chances he gets between the lines and he could release a teammate with a little bit more quality and maybe you are talking about a second assist, maybe you are talking about more points. So I’m hard on him, I liked what I saw tonight, I still think he has another gear in his game. And I’m going to keep pushing him for him to reach that other gear.”

Gutiérrez played the match in a double pivot with Marcello Polisi, who also deserves a lot of credit for his performance on Friday night. Polisi made a great run and played a dangerous cross that ultimately resulted in Valour’s penalty, played the switch that kicked off the attack for the third goal, completed two dribbles and won possession seven times.

Despite the loss, William Akio shines brightly in his return to IG Field

For the first 50 minutes of Friday’s match, it looked like the biggest story would be the triumphant return to IG Field of William Akio. The 25-year-old, who played a season and a half for Valour before transferring to Ross County in Scotland, was the best player on the pitch for most of the match on Friday, scoring goals early in both halves in a performance that really should have earned his side three points.

“He’s terrific, he has been a great signing for us,” said Cavalry FC manager Tommy Wheeldon Jr. “I feel for him, because he has come here, you know he’s got some good memories here, he has scored another couple of goals, trying not to celebrate in front of the fans as a mark of respect and we’ve let him down there with our defending and our collective response.”

Having scored his first goal as a Cavalry player last week, Akio’s dynamic and direct play, not to mention his finishing ability and quality to be able to move the ball from out wide and into dangerous central positions. Those qualities have found an excellent home within this deep and dynamic Cavalry attacking unit.

“It’s very dynamic, I get to express myself, play the way I want to play and everyone is just on the same page,” said Akio of what he likes about how he fits into this Cavalry attack.

After he potted his second of the match, it looked like Cavalry would cruise to another victory. Instead, it is the league-leading 15th point that they have dropped from a winning position this season, an ugly habit from earlier in the season that crept back into their play on Friday night.

“We said it before the game, it wasn’t going to be the same game as it was last week,” said Wheeldon Jr. “The sign of a really good side and one that wants to be in the conversation is to come here and give a good away performance. We needed to be as tight as we were defensively when we last came here and to be 2-0 up within the first few minutes of each half was very good. Then I just want to see us shut it down. I think we invited pressure, we’ve given a soft corner away, didn’t defend it. Soft penalty away right after, and then we are chasing the game and I don’t like it when we are in that situation. I think it is a very humbling lesson for us at this point in our journey.”

Cavalry have now won just three of ten away matches this season. Given how good they have been at home this season, perhaps the difference-maker for them in the regular season title race is how they can apply this lesson to picking up points in their final four road matches of 2023.

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Diego Gutiérrez, Valour FC 

It was the kind of performance, and offensive impact, that the Valour midfielder delivered earlier in the season when he was named the league’s Player of the Month for April. It is the kind of performance they will need from him consistently down the stretch if they are to truly make a push for their first-ever CPL playoff spot.