Winless and hurting, Valour FC not ready to hit the panic button

Winless and hurting, Valour FC not ready to hit the panic button

Winnipeg’s pro soccer club must live up to its name on Sunday.

Valour FC hasn’t shown much fight to begin the Canadian Premier League season, on Wednesday the team stooped to a new low when it was blown out 7-0 by Atlético Ottawa in the nation’s capital.

The defeat came in the Canadian Championship and won’t count toward Valour’s winless record (0-0-3) in league play, although it knocks the club out of the running for the Voyageurs Cup.

Valour, outscored 15-2 through four matches, has no choice but to lick its wounds and re-set for another crack at Atlético in Ottawa in league play Sunday (1 p.m. CT).

“Listen, everybody wants to go out there and win,” captain Raphael Ohin told the Free Press by phone Thursday. “It is very painful for us, as well, too. I can’t imagine how the fans feel, (they) pay money to watch us. It is not the best news for them, I know it’s very hard. We’re in the storm right now, all I know is the storm is going to be over soon.

“The beauty part is we play them again in three days. What we can do now is respond. Forget about the numbers. Yes, the numbers are not pretty. Yes, this sucks, to concede 15 goals in our first four games. But the numbers are just numbers. We have to go out there and win a game, you respond well and that’s it.”

The Canadian Championship is an in-season knockout tournament between Major League Soccer sides Toronto FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC and CF Montréal, all eight CPL clubs and the champions of League1 Ontario, League1 British Columbia, and Ligue1 Québec. The winner receives a berth to the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

Valour has never made it through the second round.

Winnipeg’s side conceded three goals in a seven-minute pocket in the first half against Ottawa and another three in a six-minute stretch in the second half. Valour was dominated 10-2 in shots on target.

Though it’s still early in the 28-game season, perhaps the most concerning part is the club has yet to show improvement in any facet from its last-place finish in 2023.

Even Vancouver FC, in its second year of operation after struggling to a slightly better record than Valour last season, has started the year 2-0-1.

Valour head coach Phillip Dos Santos acknowledged while changes need to be made, it’s too early to reach for the panic button.

“It’s hard to point a finger on specifics but I think rewatching the game, the basics are always going to be commitment and discipline. (On Wednesday), there wasn’t a lack of commitment… but we were very undisciplined in the way we approached the game,” he said.

“Right now, I need to assess. I think we’re also still looking at personnel. There’s certain pairings we haven’t been able to put together,” he added. “We haven’t been able to steady that backline the way we want to, so my evaluation is going to be done maybe in a few matches when we’ll be able to have everyone up and running.”

Indeed, there are more questions than answers at this point. Near the top of the list for fans is whether the team will improve by the time it returns home. Valour is in the middle of an eight-match road trip to begin the year while a new turf is installed at Princess Auto Stadium.

The club’s first home contest is June 2 against Vancouver FC.

“We’re hurting today,” Dos Santos assured. “It’s not an easy day for us, for the team, for the players. But we’re working hard to turn things around and that’s our message.

“Nobody wants to be in this situation. We look at the individuals that we have in the group and we believe, we haven’t quit, and we believe our fans will have something to hope for once we get to go back home.”

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