HIGHLIGHTS: Valour FC vs. FC Edmonton (August 21, 2022)

Valour FC hosted FC Edmonton at IG Field on Sunday afternoon, and after Azriel Gonzalez scored seconds into the second half to cancel out Sean Rea’s opener, they would play out a 1-1 draw at IG Field.

After kicking off, the home side immediately charged up the pitch and won an early corner. Sean Rea curled in a cross, which was only cleared as far as the edge of the penalty area, before the ball was laid off for Brett Levis. The Valour left back fired a shot toward the bottom right corner of Darlington Murasiranwa’s goal, but his shot hit the side netting just 52 seconds into the match.

Valour again came close eight minutes later, and again from a corner. Rea played another promising cross into the penalty area, and Matteo de Brienne met it in the air, but his header toward goal was caught by the Eddies goalkeeper.

The Eddies had back-to-back chances in the 18th and 20th minutes, but both Bicou Bissainthe and Shamit Shome failed to hit the target.

With seconds left in the first half, Murasiranwa was finally beaten. After a pass down the pitch from Moses Dyer was collected by Billy Forbes, the Turks and Caicos Islands cut inside and charged into the FC Edmonton penalty area. He was tackled, but the ball fell to Rea, who took a couple of touches before driving a low shot across goal and into the back of the net.

It gave Valour a deserved lead after more than 45 minutes of being mostly on the front foot. FC Edmonton actually outshot the hosts in the opening 45 minutes, seven to six, but could only get one shot on target compared to Valour’s three.

Just over a minute into the second period of play, The Eddies tied it up at 1-1.

Tobias Warschewski played a pass forward to the overlapping T-Boy Fayia, who won the ball to start the counter attack. Fayia passed the ball along the ground to the back post. None of the Valour players were in a position to be able to clear or intercept the ball, and Azriel Gonzalez was there to put it into the back of the net.

It’s the second match in a row with a goal for Gonzalez, who scored the second Edmonton goal in a 3-2 away defeat to York United last weekend.

Corners continued to be a source of good scoring opportunity for Valour. Daryl Fordyce nearly gave his team the lead with about ten minutes to go, meeting a corner from Matthew Catavolo in the air and redirecting it toward the far post. It would go just wide for a goal kick, with Rea unable to catch up to it and keep it in play for a second opportunity.

Continuing to knock on the door, Valour came close again, with Moses Dyer’s point black effort being stopped by Murasiranwa. A high ball to the back post was met in the air by Walter Ponce, who headed the ball back to Dyer. From inside the six yard box, Dyer managed to get a shot off, but the Edmonton goalkeeper was again able to hold onto it.

That would be the closest Valour came to a late winner, and after five minutes of end-to-end stoppage time, referee Scott Bowman’s whistle signalled the end of a 1-1 draw in Winnipeg.

It was a missed opportunity for Valour to move closer to the playoff spots in the Canadian Premier League, while FC Edmonton were officially eliminated from playoff contention as a result of not picking up all three points themselves.

BOX SCORE

Goals

45+3′ — Sean Rea (Valour FC)

47′ — Azriel Gonzalez (FC Edmonton)

Discipline

43′ — Yellow: Bicou Bissainthe (FC Edmonton)

45+2′ — Yellow: Billy Forbes (Valour FC)

78′ — Yellow: Brett Levis