Valour FC gets out of basement in front of record-breaking crowd
Valour FC gave some students plenty to cheer about in their inaugural school day match.
The Winnipeg club scored three times in a game for the first time all season as they defeated Vancouver FC 3-1 in front of a record-breaking crowd Wednesday morning at Princess Auto Stadium.
The announced attendance was 11,390, which shattered their old record by almost two-thousand fans as 9,699 attended their first-ever match back in 2019.
Valour fell behind one-nil in the 17th minute, but they scored late in the half and then added two more markers in the second half for just their second league victory of the season.
'Emotionally the guys were hyped and they felt the energy,' said Valour FC general manager and head coach Phillip Dos Santos. 'You go down one-zero and sometimes the balloon can deflate and they didn't.
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'Very, very happy with, yes, the outcome, but again, I feel that the team has been growing, and for me that's the most important.'
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Kris Twardek, Kelsey Egwu, and Jordan Faria scored the goals for Valour, while Emrick Fotsing replied in the loss.
The win leapfrogs Valour FC past Vancouver and into a tie for sixth place in the Canadian Premier League standings after not getting the desired result in a nil-nil draw on Sunday.
'Huge,' said Twardek. 'For morale, it's massive. We obviously have a little bit of a gap between games now, so it gives you real positive emotions to sit on for, I don't know, 10 days or so.
'Naturally it was a really, really quick turnaround. We felt we should have beat Pacific. We felt that we were pressing for a goal, so when today started we went in hungry, ready to get chances, and to score goals today.'
Both teams played the second half with only 10 men after Gianfranco Facchineri and Kunle Dada-Luke were issued red cards after an altercation that ended with a shoving match late in the opening half.
Valour FC forward Shaan Hundal was stopped on a penalty kick in the 51st minute.
Valour is now unbeaten in their last five straight matches on the home pitch. They now have two wins, five losses, and two draws in their first nine league matches of the season.
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They now get a 10-day break with their next match Sunday, June 15 on the road against Atletico Ottawa.
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