Valour FC lost 1-2 to Cavalry FC in matchday 15 of the Canadian Premier League on Sunday, July 20, at the Princess Auto Stadium.

Both teams delivered strong performances from the outset, but both struggled to break the deadlock, sending the match into halftime tied at 0-0.

Cavalry FC opened the scoring in the 51st minute with a header from Callum Montgomery. In the 82nd minute, Valour FC midfielder Bruno Figueiredo received a pass in Cavalry’s half and rounded defenders to score the equalizer for his side.  Sergio Camargo sealed the win for Cavalry FC in the 93rd minute, beating Valour FC goalkeeper Jonathan Viscosi to score the decisive goal.

Valour FC head coach Phillip Dos Santos recounted the circumstances that led to his side conceding the late goal. “It’s what I call a freak football play” said Dos Santos. “It’s a throw in, a loss of ball that you had already recovered, players already taking a position to try and go the other way, and then these things need to be managed. We need to see what went wrong.”

Dos Santos noted that the positives from the match will help drive future improvement for the players and the team. “Of course, we can’t take steps back. When there’s good that happens, we can’t take it. We have to cling to the progress. We have to hold on to the progress.”

He added, “I’m with the guys. That, for me, [means] you have a choice as a coach. If you start caring more for the results than for the people that you have to work with every day, you’re going to lose their response. I’m there to help. I want to hold on to a positive approach, help them, help them in their career because there’s nobody in that locker room that starts a game wanting to lose. There’s nobody. So that’s my job.”

Valour FC goalkeeper Viscosi reflected on the players mood following the defeat. “It’s a real tough one,” said Viscosi. “We’ve been in a difficult time, and we kind of started to separate ourselves from the outcomes, recognizing that we just need to focus on how we play and being solid and being together and just applying our game model the best that we can.”

Viscosi highlighted the lessons from past matches and how that can help the team, “The last three league games especially, there was positives to take from it. We’re trying new things, small adjustments to try and solidify even more.”

He continued, “When something goes in our favour and it’s working well for us, something else creeps up and we need to address that. It’s just a continual process of addressing these small areas that we can do better and try and solidify those and piece them together. Gradually, like I said, we’re learning every lesson that a team can go through in a season. Of course, I do think that once we’re applying those and if we can stay committed to it and keep our heads throughout this process, that we will build on performances like this and turn good performances into results. Because at the moment, even though we’ve had good performances, they haven’t been giving us the results that we want.”

Cavalry FC head coach, Tommy Wheeldon Jr., commented on key factors behind his team’s victory. “Absolutely, there is a great resilience in these lads, they refuse to lose,” said Wheeldon. “They were actually performing better second half. The goal went in and, credit to Valour, that was some finish from the lad. So the best way to win a game is just focus on the next play, and they did.”

In the Canadian Premier League standings, Valour FC sit in seventh place with eight points, while Cavalry FC holds third place with 25 points.

Valour FC will play Vancouver FC away on Friday, July 25, followed by a home game against Cavalry FC on Tuesday, July 29.