September 12, 2024...Preview: York United FC vs. Valour FC - 2024 Match #88 (from canpl.ca)

PREVIEW: York United FC vs. Valour FC — 2024 Match #88
2024-09-12
by Charlie O’Connor-Clarke, Digital Content Editor (@charliejclarke)

2024 CPL Regular Season — Match #88
York United FC vs. Valour FC
September 13, 2024 at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT
York Lions Stadium in Toronto, Ontario

Watch Live: OneSoccer.ca & TELUS Ch. 980 //

The race to the finish line in the Canadian Premier League continues on Friday night at York Lions Stadium, where York United and Valour face off for the final time in the 2024 regular season.

York return home after two games on the road — a loss in Halifax and a win last Friday in Vancouver — and they’ll be looking for nothing less than three points to help them keep pace in the CPL title race. Entering matchweek 23, the Nine Stripes are in third place with a 10-5-7 record and 35 points. If they win against Valour, they’ll leapfrog Atlético Ottawa — at least temporarily — and move to within three points of league leaders Forge FC.

Fortunately for York, they’ve been very good at home this year; their six wins at York Lions Stadium are second-most in the league, and they’ve still got four more to play at home including this game. However, they didn’t win either of their two home games in August, losing to Cavalry FC and drawing 0-0 with Forge.

Meanwhile, Valour arrive in Toronto with their playoff hopes intact, though they’re in desperate need of some points. They’re in seventh place right now, but only four points behind Vancouver FC for the fifth and final postseason berth. Valour are 6-4-12 on the season so far, and one of those wins was against York United back in June — the first defeat Benjamín Mora suffered as York manager.

It was a short turnaround for the Winnipeg club, who hosted Atlético Ottawa on Wednesday. They wound up with just one point from that match, a 1-1 draw, but felt a little frustrated they hadn’t emerged with more, given how well they played against a good side — only to drop points by way of a controversial penalty call late in the game.

As mentioned, this is the fourth and final regular season meeting between these clubs this year. York have won two of their matches, including the only one at York Lions Stadium, and Valour have taken one game. The most recent contest was in mid-August, when Thomas Vincensini saved a penalty from Shaan Hundal shortly before Austin Ricci scored the winner for York.

These two teams are in desperate need of points this weekend, so expect both clubs to come out swinging in hopes of running away with a convincing win to set the tone for the final few weeks of the year.

All CPL and Canadian Championship matches will be broadcast live on OneSoccer, available as a linear channel on Telus’ Optik TV (Channel 980) as well as online at OneSoccer.ca, through the OneSoccer app and on the fuboTV Canada platform.

3 THINGS TO WATCH

York backline still evolving: The Nine Stripes have been dealt some serious bad luck in the centre-back position lately; Frank Sturing has been missing with injury for the last three games, and in Vancouver on Friday young Noah Abatneh was forced off in the 16th minute with a knock of his own. The status of both players is unclear ahead of this Friday night’s match, but if both are unable to play then Mora has some difficult questions to answer in his squad selection. It might no longer be possible to play his favoured back three formation if Oswaldo León and Nyal Higgins are the only available centre-backs, although Mora has shown at times that he’s comfortable moving Elijah Adekugbe into the backline — which he did after Abatneh came off last week. With a few more options available in midfield, especially now that Santiago Márquez is increasingly comfortable starting for York, Mora may again choose to start Adekugbe in the middle of the back three. Mora did say on Thursday that Abatneh is “ready,” but still dealing with discomfort; it’ll be a down-to-the-wire decision whether he’s able to make the starting XI or will be on the bench.

Valour look to maintain patience: The best part of Valour’s performance against Atlético Ottawa on Monday was the first 15 to 20 minutes, where they controlled the ball and were very patient looking for openings in the opposition’s block. As Ottawa settled into the game, Valour’s patience slipped a little and they ceded more possession, which was a phase of the match that their head coach Phil Dos Santos was less happy with. York are, of course, a very different team to Atleti and will not likely sit in a conservative defensive shape in the same way, and they’ll go hunting for the ball when Valour try to play out of the back, but Valour need to remain confident and hold onto the focus they had early on Monday for the entirety of this match. The good news for the Winnipeggers is that, finally, it looks like they’ll have a full best XI available after at least one player was suspended in each of the last three games. They’ll have Gianfranco Facchineri back after he missed out on Monday, which means Dos Santos is able to deploy what he seems to have zeroed in on as the best possible way to arrange his team.

Rest gap could affect match tempo: There’s considerable difference in the time these two sides had to prepare for this game; York had the whole week at home after playing in Vancouver last Friday, while Valour have travelled from Winnipeg in the middle of the week after playing on Monday night. That could mean that York have a little more energy available and could therefore press higher or try to push a fast-paced style of play. However, Valour could also take command and make it a more pragmatic affair; if they can be smart with their ball movement and set the pace as they want it, they can ensure they’ve got energy for to keep up their style late in the match. The last thing Dos Santos will want is for his team to run out of fuel in the second half, so perhaps it’ll be a calm approach from the visitors on Friday night.

PROJECTED STARTING XIs

York United FC: Vincensini; León, Adekugbe, Higgins; Ferrari, Márquez, Martínez, Córdova, Guzmán; Babouli, Ricci

Valour FC: Viscosi; Alarcón, Mourdoukoutas, Facchineri, Antonoglou; Faria, Mlah, Campbell, Ressurreição; Hundal, Swibel

ALL-TIME SERIES
York United wins: 8 || Valour wins: 9 || Draws: 2

Last meeting:
Aug. 11, 2024 — Valour FC 0-1 York United

KEY QUOTES

“Winners win, losers lose. If we really are winners, if we really think that our mentality is to win, we’re going to win it. We’re going to do everything that is in our control to do it. I think the balanced mind and the balance of emotions and taking it step-by-step, I’m talking about the function of the team. We can’t go ahead of the next 10 minutes; we have to play minute by minute, focused on what we do.” — York United FC head coach Benjamín Mora

“I think our group of players is a good group of players. They work for each other and they like to be with each other, and there’s a sense of togetherness and a mentality that has been fantastic, but that takes a little bit of time to build. … We need to want more and we need to work for more, and keep building this identity for the club, and make sure that the players understand that if we sleep or lower our guard, we’re back at ground zero.” — Valour FC head coach Phillip Dos Santos (postmatch on Monday)

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