Be Brave, Winnipeg, and Say It Loud: Valour Coach Dos Santos Needs to Go

Winnipeg soccer fans are an unhappy bunch, judging from recent social-media posts. And one can imagine the beer-drowned grumbles at downtown's King's Head Pub, where frustrated followers of Valour FC meet to support their hapless team.

Many of these fans say it's time for Valour coach Phil Dos Santos to go.

The evidence for Dos Santos's dismissal is strong, and the case keeps building. Since the appointment of Dos Santos in 2021, Valour has regressed, finishing dead last in the eight-team Canadian Premier League in both 2023 and 2024, and is now tied for the bottom halfway through the current season. Valour leads the league in losses, while scoring the fewest goals and giving up the most. In half of its 14 games this season, Valour has ceded at least three goals, and in two of those games the number was five. The team is almost certain to miss the playoffs, keeping intact its record of never qualifying for the postseason.

The blame for Valour's futility surely lies with Dos Santos, 46, who has had more than enough time to turn Valour into a contender. Harder to understand is why the team's owner - the same entity that controls Winnipeg's Canadian Football League franchise - continues to back him. CPL teams have a tendency to go soft on coaches, but Dos Santos's extended tenure is starting to raise eyebrows. And there is now a clear basis for booting Dos Santos: Last week, the coach of rival Vancouver FC, Afshin Ghotbi, was let go. Notably, Ghotbi's teams managed to finish ahead of Valour in the standings the past two seasons.

Valour, picked by a OneSoccer commentator as the preseason favourite to win the CPL, has some decent players. Kris Twardek, Jordan Faria and Bruno Figueiredo are competent offensively minded midfielders, and newcomers like 20-year-old Myles Morgan are promising. But defenders Kelsey Egwu and Zachary Fernandez, the latter acquired this year from Halifax Wanderers to help anchor the defense, have been spotty. Striker Jevontae Layne has not been much of a presence, and it's difficult to asses the performance of higher-profile Kian Williams, who rarely sees the ball because Valour is so poor at getting the ball into the box.

And therein lies the coaching problem: tactically and strategically, Valour is a mess. Passes travel comfortably between fullbacks and across the pitch at midfield, but few balls find their way forward in dangerous ways. Dos Santos has experimented with four strikers this year and shuffled his midfielders, but no combination has clicked.

A glaring weakness for Valour has been a series of inexplicable defensive breakdowns, most recently last week, when Calgary's Sergio Camargo, one of the league's top players, was left all alone in front of goal to score in extra time for a 2-1 win. Valour was seconds away from securing a hard-fought point after tying the game in the 82nd minute.

Dos Santos, born in Montreal and partially raised in Portugal, was hired after being fired as assistant coach by the Vancouver Whitecaps of Major League Soccer, along with his brother, Marc, who was the head coach. Valour's name honours three Winnipeg veterans awarded the Victoria Cross, Britain's highest military decoration, for service in World War I. Valour was one of the original seven teams in the CPL's inaugural 2019 season.

Dos Santos's shortcomings as a coach were on full display last week at a match that didn't even involve Valour. Shaan Hundal, a striker traded two days earlier to York United, the CPL's Toronto outpost, had an assist and 18 touches for York United in just 26 minutes. More importantly, Hundal played with a verve and flair not seen when he was at Valour, and was showered with affection by new teammates likely stunned that Valour had wasted a player with Hundal's capabilities. By contrast, Hundal had just two goals and two assists in his 10 games for Valour this season, and he inexplicably did not play for several games leading up to the trade. Hundal's vast improvement in a different setting begs the question: why was Dos Santos unable to extract such performances when Hundal played at Valour?

Dos Santos returned to coach Valour this year after receiving a one-year extension in January. At the time, Valour CEO and President Wade Miller said in part: “Phil has been a consistent presence in our organization since 2021 and is skilled at getting the best out of his players."

Really?

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