Final Score: Halifax Wanderers FC 1-2 Valour FC
Goalscorers: Nimick 67′ (PK); Ressureição 49′, Swibel 75′
Game of the 2024 season: 23
CPL match: 507
Match in a minute or less
Valour FC are into the win column in 2024, after beating Halifax Wanderers FC 2-1 at Wanderers Grounds on Monday.
In front of a large crowd for a Victoria Day clash on the east coast, the visitors struck first moments after halftime, when Diogo Ressureição beat Yann Fillion with a curling shot from outside the box that struck the right post on its way in for his first CPL goal. The Wanderers responded in the 65th minute, as Dan Nimick coolly fired home a penalty for his first of the season, before Jordan Swibel earned Valour the three points with a rocket into the top left corner.
With the win, Valour jump from eighth to seventh in the table, over the still-winless Wanderers.
Three Observations
Valour pick up first win of 2024, and know they need to build on it
After five losses in a row to start their CPL campaign, with a 7-0 thrashing by Atlético Ottawa in the Canadian Championship mixed in, Valour FC came into this match almost desperate to get some points on the board, and they delivered.
Head coach Phillip Dos Santos has been preaching a couple of things for a few weeks: that his team needs to cut down on its individual mistakes, and that it needs to be more clinical in front of goal. Monday’s match wasn’t perfect, but the team played with a passion and commitment that saw them take the lead early in the second half, and then fight back to take it again when Halifax equalized from a penalty after a dubious decision from the official to point to the spot.
Last week Valour crumbled under the pressure of conceding an equalizing goal at York Lions Stadium, so that they were able to retake the lead and then hang on for 15 minutes and six long minutes of stoppage time is a huge step in the right direction.
The way that Valour scored their goals was impressive as well. Diogo Ressureição curled the first goal off the post and in from distance to open the scoring, and Jordan Swibel won the game for the visitors with a laser from the edge of the box that Yann Fillion had no chance of getting to.
GOAL 🎖️🎖️
Jordi Swibel restores the lead for @ValourFootball vs. @HFXWanderersFC and Winnipeg is now up 2-1 with 15 minutes to go in this one! ✨
Can they secure their first W? 👀
🔴 Watch the @tonybet_canada #CanPL Match of the Week on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/YJXCaTlCnc
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) May 20, 2024
Valour celebrated hard at the final whistle, and Dos Santos said after the match that he wanted his players to savour the moment and enjoy the feeling of winning, but the team also knows that there are 22 matches still to be played this season and that they are still some distance away from their objective of making the playoffs for the first time in club history.
“It’s the monkey off the back,” said a relieved Swibel after the match. “I think it was kind of playing on our minds and everyone was aware of it, so to get the three points is the main thing and we can just continue to push forward from there.
“On a personal note, that’s what I love doing. I love scoring goals and that’s what I came here to do, so hopefully there’s many more to come.”
Up next, Valour head to Calgary for a date with the team that is now one place above them in the table, Cavalry FC. The Cavs are a very good home team, but Valour picked up a couple of big results against the Calgarians in 2023, and will be hoping to again on Sunday.
From there, Valour finally head home to Princess Auto Stadium for the first time this season for their long-awaited home opener. As the turf is being upgraded in Winnipeg, Valour has had to play their first seven matches away from home (eight if you include the cup game), so being back in front of their own fans for a chance will be special.
Things won’t magically improve when they get back home, but having the opportunity to play 14 of their remaining 21 games in front of their own supporters and without travelling could prove to be an advantage after some early-season adversity — especially if they can find a point or three in Calgary and head home with some momentum.
Halifax looking for a big response after another loss at home
After finishing in third place last year, Halifax came into 2024 with high expectations — both internally and externally — that this year they could challenge for the CPL Shield and North Star Cup. Through five league matches, however, they have not shown signs of being at their 2023 level at all yet.
Frustration has been evident around the Wanderers, who are now the only team in the Canadian Premier League yet to win a game this season as a result of Valour winning. Goals have been hard to come by for the Wanderers thus far, with the team scoring just three in five matches — one of which was Dan Nimick’s penalty in this match. Their last three matches have been at home (four if you include a loss in the Canadian Championship to Ligue1 Quebec side CS Saint-Laurent), with the Wanderers losing two and drawing one for their only point of the year to this point.
Fans, players, and coaches are frustrated alike, but can take comfort in the fact that Halifax also hasn’t been blown out in any of these games. The team is still working hard and trying not to let their heads drop, but are looking to turn things around very quickly.
A couple of bounces going their way could ease some of the pressure on the team, but so far that has not been the case this season. In this game, Massimo Ferrin hit the crossbar in the first half with a shot that could have completely changed the match. Instead, it went out for a goal kick and the match remained scoreless going into halftime, before a back-and-forth second period.
“It’s tough to keep it positive, to be honest,” said Wanderers midfielder and captain Andre Rampersad after the match. “It’s a big job of mine to try to keep the younger guys and the team focused on us coming out of this hole that we dug for ourselves.
“I don’t think effort is the reason why we are where we are. I think it’s just probably limiting the sloppy mistakes and being a little more clinical in front of goal or a little more gritty in defence. I think that’s what’s gonna win in the games.”
Halifax don’t have much to dwell on this defeat, as they play on Friday night away to York United. That match won’t be easy against a Nine Stripes side that has won 3-1 against Valour at home two weeks ago, before drawing Cavalry on the road this past weekend.
The Wanderers see that match as a chance to get back on track, pick up a result, and start working their way up the table bit by bit.
“We really have to do some soul searching,” admitted Patrice Gheisar after the match. “This York game may be exactly what we need for the short turnaround against a very good team that just came off a great result against Calgary.
“When it’s not working, the best thing you can do is just jump out of it again. We have to be better in every moment of the game and phase, and we’ve just gotta come out and fight. We gotta go again.”
Diogo Ressureição shines in breakout performance
After Diego Gutiérrez left Valour in the offseason to join up with Cavalry FC, the club has been looking for a creative midfielder that can dictate how the team plays around him. Since the start of the season they have found goals a little bit hard to come by, but on Monday produced their first multi-goal performance of the year to come away with all three points.
With Diego now in Calgary, this time it was Diogo’s time to shine — that being 23-year-old Portuguese midfielder Diogo Ressurreição.
After spending time with Porto B and Vitória Guimarães B earlier in his career, the latter club agreed to mutually terminate his contract in January, and Valour swooped in. Ressureição impressed during Valour’s preseason trip to Portugal, and he officially joined the club in April. Joining the team so late meant that he didn’t play in the club’s season opener, and has slowly had his minutes increased game-by-game.
Monday’s game seemed to be his breakout performance for the club, and he marked the occasion with a brilliant curling shot from outside the penalty area that struck the post and ended up in the back of the net to open the scoring for Valour — the club’s first-ever CPL goal in Halifax.
GOAL 🎖️@ValourFootball's Diogo Ressurreição stuns @HFXWanderersFC as he cleans up a 1-2 sequence with a post-kissing shot to open the scoring in our @tonybet_canada #CanPL MATCH OF THE WEEK 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Tzb6vFNH6R
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) May 20, 2024
Ressureição linked up well with the players around him, and played several passes throughout the match that were both ambitious and impressively executed. He had particular success when finding his teammates in wide areas, connecting several times with Jordan Faria and Themi Antonoglou on the left, and Abdul Binate and Dante Campbell on the right. If he can continue to do that consistently, Valour’s goal of creating more chances from wide areas could be heavily boosted.
“What you saw today was what Diogo did in three or four days [in the preseason camp in Portugal], he’s a player that is a maverick,” Dos Santos said after the match. “[He has the] ability to do what he did today, and when he gets on the ball and he’s able to turn and has a bit of space, he’ll find passes that very few will, and he has an ability to finish like very few as well.
CanPL.ca Player of the Match
Diogo Ressureição, Valour FC
The Valour midfielder scored the game’s opening goal in impressive fashion, and put in a shift on both sides of the ball.
What’s next?
Halifax Wanderers FC have a short turnaround, heading west to Ontario to play York United on Friday night at York Lions Stadium (7 pm ET/8 pm AT). Valour head to Calgary to play Cavalry FC on Sunday (3 pm MT/4 pm CT) in the final game of their lengthy road trip to start the season.
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