Final Score: Halifax Wanderers FC 3-1 Valour FC
Goalscorers: Loughrey 22′, Nimick 26′ (pen.), 53′ (pen.); Hundal 15′
Game of the 2024 season: 55
CPL match: 539

Match in a minute or less

It might not have seemed like it after the first 15 minutes, but by the end it was a convincing win for Halifax Wanderers FC at home on Thursday night, as they beat Valour FC 3-1 to jump ahead of them in the standings.

Valour took the lead early in the game as Shaan Hundal finished off a great cross by Themi Antonoglou, but Halifax drew level quickly as Cale Loughrey jumped on a loose ball after a corner for his first goal as a professional.

The Wanderers took over from there; moments after the equalizer, Ryan Telfer was brought down in the box and Dan Nimick scored the ensuing penalty kick to put the hosts in front. Shortly after halftime, the situation repeated, as Halifax won another penalty — this time for handball — and Nimick again scored it.

Nimick would actually have one more chance from the spot late in the match, which could’ve given him the first hat trick in Wanderers history, but that effort was saved. Nonetheless, the Wanderers emerged happy, with all three points earned on home soil.

Three Observations

Halifax re-establishing home field advantage

For just the second time this year, fans at the Wanderers Grounds went home happy on Thursday after seeing their team win. It had happened nine times last year, including twice against Valour, but they haven’t consistently been able to put teams away on home soil in 2024.

This time though, Halifax did so comfortably. This was the most they’ve looked like the 2023 version of themselves since the beginning of this season: a team willing to play aggressively at home, and capitalize on advantageous moments.

Patrice Gheisar spoke prior to this match about how he wanted his side to “own the home pitch,” and get back to their traditional ways of dominating at the Wanderers Grounds. His team gave him that response on Thursday.

It was the first time all year Halifax had led a home match at halftime, and they did not let off the pedal after the break. The Wanderers finished this match with 19 shots, eight of which were on target, getting into the final third 54 times.

“We felt like we kind of deserved more from the first half of the season, but now we’ve got a good little undefeated stretch at home going and turned it back into a fortress,” Nimick told reporters postmatch.

Indeed, the Wanderers are now unbeaten in their last four at home, winning their last two. Overall, they’ve lost just one of their last seven matches.

Outside of a first 15 minutes where they took some time to find a rhythm, the Wanderers were generally clicking on Thursday. They had a heavily loaded midfield, with Lorenzo Callegari and Andre Rampersad as the actual double pivot behind Aidan Daniels, Jérémy Gagnon-Laparé and Giorgio Probo, all of whom are also naturally midfielders. With those five players interchanging, the Wanderers were able to overload spaces in the centre of the pitch to put pressure on a Valour side that was much thinner in that area.

As a result, Halifax were able to make a lot of their attacking motions happen through the centre of the pitch. They could find space to suck in Valour’s midfielders and create individual duels for their more advanced players against central defenders, which the Wanderers won more often than not.

“I thought everybody really was committed to what they were trying to do,” Gheisar said after the game. “[Gagnon-Laparé] was brilliant tonight. I thought Ryan Telfer was above brilliant, his back-to-goal game, playing guys through; that slip that he played to Aidan [Daniels] that missed the net. But I announced to the group that the man of the match for me was Lorenzo Callegari. You talk about positives, the amount of running he did, the amount of tackling he did, is unmeasured. He really is the heart and soul of this team.”

Frustrated Valour left empty-handed again after early lead

This is not the first time in 2024 Valour have experienced the emotional roller coaster of an early lead turning quickly into defeat.

After 14 games in the regular season, they’ve now dropped 11 points from winning positions — with 10 actual points recorded. They took a first-half lead against Vancouver FC, against York United and against Cavalry FC. With one point gained from that potential nine, the Winnipeg club are just 3-1-2 in the six matches where they’ve scored first, and only once have they also been the next team to score after they made it 1-0.

Once again on Thursday, things got away from Valour alarmingly quickly. Their opening goal in Halifax was excellent, and showed some of the best of what this team can be: decisive and quick in transition, with individual quality to turn opportunities into goals. Themi Antonoglou, probably Valour’s best player this season, again demonstrated how effective he can be, delivering a perfect cross to Shaan Hundal for a much-needed confident finish.

The composure they had in the first 15 minutes, however, for some reason disappeared after Valour took the lead. They were less aggressive in pressing the Wanderers and instead allowed them to travel forward with the ball, which gave Telfer the opportunities to get into the box.

Although Valour may take issue with some of the penalty decisions — the second might’ve been harsh for a handball — coach Phillip Dos Santos still conceded that his team has to be better at managing moments, and can’t afford to keep making mistakes.

Multiple Valour defenders had a chance to clear the ball before Loughrey’s equalizer, and Gianfranco Facchineri’s tackle to give up the first penalty was a costly mistake. Plus, Halifax’s dominance wasn’t all from set-pieces; they had 19 shots in total in the match.

“These are mistakes that you’re going to pay [for] at this level,” Dos Santos said. “And then the team seemed immature in the way we dealt with what was next. Sometimes 90 minutes is like life; you won’t have good days every day. You need to be able to wake up the next day and go again, and I think that we just didn’t do well with conceding the equalizer. We couldn’t find our references, we started to chase a bit more and it becomes more difficult.”

One problem for Valour in this game was how thin the squad was; with Roberto Alarcón suspended, Facchineri was forced into an unnatural right-back position, and he had a very difficult game. Likewise, it was a tough night for Noah Verhoeven, taking on much of the responsibility of a likewise suspended Dante Campbell.

Now, Valour find themselves at the bottom of the table, with 10 losses in their first 14 matches — more than any other CPL side has ever had through the first half of a season. After a brief positive stretch that followed their early-season losing streak, they’ve now lost four of their last five.

Hundal didn’t mince his words postmatch, making no excuses for his side after a frustrating defeat.

“This has to be better,” he said. “There’s nothing really else we can say about it; giving up that many penalties, and Nimick’s almost getting a hat trick from penalty shots, that’s happened very rarely. It might not happen in some people’s careers, getting given three penalties in a game. We’ve just got to be clean at the back — the whole team has to be clean, keeping the ball up front, then we don’t get the pressure on the opposite side on our backline. I think everyone just has to be better.”

Valour now have an immediate chance to be better, as they take on league leaders Atlético Ottawa just three days later on Sunday. It’ll be a tough test, perhaps one of the toughest they’ve faced this year, but maybe that kind of challenge is exactly what they need to get out of this funk.

Wanderers proving harder to beat; show resolve after early blow

It’s a moment we may soon look back at as a critical turning point in the 2024 Halifax Wanderers season.

The 10 minutes and 56 seconds after Hundal’s opening goal were jam-packed: Diogo Ressurreição had a chance saved which could’ve made it 2-0 for Valour. Halifax then went up the other end and Telfer flicked a ball through to Aidan Daniels, whose shot wasn’t quite what he wanted, but still won a corner.

That corner, poorly defended by Valour who had a chance to clear it, ended up at Loughrey’s feet for the equalizer. After that one hit the back of the net, it took just two minutes and 49 seconds for Telfer to win the penalty that would be Halifax’s winning goal. It’s worth nothing, of course, that Telfer was heavily involved in both goals (also earning an assist on Loughrey’s in addition to creating the chance for the corner); the striker has been the Wanderers’ best player for the past month or so, and although he didn’t score on Thursday he was again an excellent focal point to his team’s attack.

Loughrey’s passionate celebration after scoring said everything, really. It was a symbol of how much that goal, and that immediate response, meant to the team; they hadn’t let their shoulders sag after conceding, but rather punched right back and returned to the driver’s seat.

After perhaps a sluggish start to the game, the opening goal might’ve been exactly the slap in the face the Wanderers needed. Immediately after that, and for the entire rest of the match, they were the better team, never once really letting off the gas.

“It just shows how the character of this team has developed over the season,” said Dan Nimick. “I think at the start of the year, that would have ruffled our feathers a little bit, we’d have become a little nervous and tried to force things, but now we really believe in the talent we have, and we know we’re going to create chances for the game.”

Gheisar echoed Nimick’s feeling, agreeing that his side might not have been able to pull off such a rapid turnaround six weeks ago. As a coach, he’s mostly powerless from the touchline to control how his team reacts to moments like that Hundal goal, but he’s increasingly encouraged by the resolve he saw on the pitch.

“What our season is going to be about is how we respond after mistakes, how we respond after losses,” Gheisar said. “The beginning of the season was a real difficult period. Right now what it’s done for us is made us stronger than every before. Long answer short, I think all the trials and errors and the bumps and bruises we’ve had have prepared us to say, ‘No problem, we’ll come back from this.'”

In 2023, snatching points from difficult situations became a hallmark of the Wanderers. Consider, for instance, the number of times a late goal turned a potential loss or draw into victory — dramatic triumphs against Forge FC and Atlético Ottawa come to mind.

If that version of the Wanderers is truly back, then that six-point gap to the playoffs — with games in hand, no less — suddenly looks a little more manageable.

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Ryan Telfer, Halifax Wanderers FC

The in-form striker had his fingerprints all over both of the team’s first two goals, finishing the match with three shots of his own and six touches in the box as well as two chances created. He consistently made himself available to get on the end of crosses, and did well as the spearpoint of Halifax’s attack to put pressure on Valour’s backline.

What’s next?

Valour’s road trip continues quickly, as they now head to Ottawa on Sunday, when they’ll take on Atlético Ottawa at TD Place (2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT). Halifax, meanwhile, have some time off again with their next contest also being in Ontario, a visit to Forge FC next Saturday, July 27 (7 p.m. ET/8 p.m. AT).

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