Valour FC looks for ‘miracle' against Whitecaps in Canadian Championship quarterfinal
Dos Santos, a former Vancouver assistant coach, calls the Major League Soccer club 'arguably one of the best teams in North America and CONCACAF.'
'It would be a miracle and that's the truth,' he said. 'But we've seen it. It's football, it's pro sports … The truth is with the 2-2 (draw) we gave ourselves a chance to now play for one game. In football, crazier things have happened.'
'Is it the most important game of the club history? It's definitely up there,' he added.
CF Montreal, trailing 1-0 after the first leg, hosts Forge FC in the other quarterfinal second leg Wednesday.
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Vancouver is after its fourth straight Voyageurs Cup, a feat only Toronto FC has accomplished (2009-12).
The Whitecaps needed an 80th-minute goal from Ali Ahmed to pull even at Princess Auto Stadium in the first leg May 20. Sam Adekugbe opened the scoring for Vancouver in the sixth minute before Rocco Romeo and Bruno Figueiredo answered for Valour in the 28th and 51st minute.
Both Vancouver goalscorers have since been sidelined by injury, playing for Canada.
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Vancouver Whitecaps goalkeeper Isaac Boehmer, front left, hoists the Voyageurs Cup as goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka, back right, applauds after Vancouver defeated Toronto FC on penalty kicks during the Canadian Championship final soccer match, in Vancouver, on Wednesday, September 25, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck. DD
'We've played a lot of football since. It's like you're starting a new competition,' said Whitecaps coach Jesper Sorensen.
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The Dane expects Valour 'to bring everything they've got.'
'I expect it to be a battle,' he added. 'And I expect them to want to battle. I hope we can avoid the battle by moving the ball very fast but we'll have to see.'
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Midfielder Sebastian Berhalter and striker Brian White return from Gold Cup duty with the United States.
'It's good finally to have this group back together … We haven't been together in more than a month,' said Sorensen. 'And I think having the entire group back so we can progress instead of just fixing things on the fly, that will be important for us right now.'
The two players return in differing form. While Berhalter played a lot of minutes for the U.S., White didn't so is not in the game shape he was when he left the Whitecaps, Sorensen noted.
The Valour game is also the first of four fixtures in 11 days for Vancouver, which is coming off a 3-0 loss at the lowly Los Angeles Galaxy and has gone 2-3-0 since the 5-0 loss to Mexico's Cruz Azul on June 1 in the CONCACAF Champions Cup final.
'We've not even talked about the Cruz Azul game yet because it doesn't make much sense when players who were a big part of it have not been here,' said Sorensen.
Valour, seventh in the eight-team CPL at 2-8-2, is coming off a rough stretch against the league's top three teams, losing 3-0 at No. 1 Atletico Ottawa, 5-0 to No. 2 Forge and 3-1 at No. 3 Halifax.
The Winnipeg side has won just one of its last six league outings (1-4-1) since the first leg of the quarterfinal.
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Still, Valour midfielder Kian Williams says he feels no pressure facing the MLS side.
'I feel like there's more pressure for them,' said the 25-year-old from England.
Dos Santos spoke fondly about his time with the Whitecaps. He spent 2 1/2 years as an assistant to his brother Marc Dos Santos before both were let go in August 2021.
'At the end of the day you were a part of a top organization, that is now collecting the fruits of the hard work and the struggles that they had to go through,' he said. 'I keep an eye on them. I have a lot of friends there still.'
Dos Santos says his young son still wears a Whitecaps jersey.
Valour defeated League1 B.C.'s TSS Rovers 1-0 in the first round while Vancouver had a bye. A draw will be held to determine the tournament semifinal pairings.
After flying west for the cup game, Valour heads east to Toronto to play York United. The Whitecaps visit Colorado on Saturday.
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