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WINNIPEG - Unlike 2023, semi-pro TSS Rovers did not manage to get past Valour FC this time.

But the League1 B.C. champion made the ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥ Premier League side work for its 1-0 Telus ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥ Championship preliminary-round win Wednesday.

Diogo Ressurreição's 65th-minute goal decided the game at Princess Auto Stadium.

"We had a game plan, we had a strategy," said Rovers coach Brendan Teeling. "At times it wasn't pretty but I think the boys did us proud. They worked their socks off. They put everything in it — their heart, their soul — and we just came a little bit short today."

Valour needed a goal-line clearance by captain Rocco Romeo in stoppage time to hold off the B.C. side after the former Toronto FC product conceded a free kick on the edge of the penalty box.

The two sides have history. TSS Rovers knocked Valour out of the 2023 cup competition with a 3-1 victory at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby, B.C., becoming the first non-professional team in the history of the competition to defeat a fully professional opponent.

Wednesday's win was welcome for other reasons as well, with winless Valour last in the eight-team CPL at 0-3-1 this season.

"The guys needed this," said Valour coach and general manager Phillip Dos Santos.

TSS Rovers proved to be a tough nut to break in the first half and threatened several times before Valour finally broke through.

Valour went ahead in the 65th minute when Shaan Hundal found Ressurreição just inside the penalty box and the Portuguese attacker picked the corner of the goal with a shot through traffic. 

"It was a really good goal they scored," said Teeling, whose team thought the play should have been stopped for an injury to defender Avi Alemu.

The goal came after a spirited start to the second half by the visitors.

Valour moves on to face the three-time defending champion Vancouver Whitecaps in the two-legged quarterfinal. The Major League Soccer-leading Whitecaps received a bye into the final eight.

The Whitecaps beat Valour 2-0 when they met in the preliminary round of the 2022 tournament.

TSS Rovers had hoped to reap the rewards of the making that quarterfinal. It estimated a matchup with the Whitecaps would have meant a potential windfall of $200,000-plus in gate revenue and other sources, such as increased sponsorship from its home half of the tie.

In the earlier preliminary-round game Wednesday, Forge FC defeated the visiting Halifax Wanderers 3-1.

CF Montreal, Atletico Ottawa, Cavalry FC, York United and Vancouver FC had already won their preliminary-round games. In other quarterfinals, it's Vancouver FC versus Cavalry FC, Atletico Ottawa versus York United and CF Montreal versus Forge or Halifax.

Valour outshot TSS Rovers 14-11 (8-3 in shots on target) across the game and had 67.1 per cent possession.

TSS Rovers' lone shot on the mark in the first half came close with a diving Eleias Himaras parrying a left-footed shot from Lowell Wright on the edge of the penalty box in the 39th minute.

Wright previously had stints with York United and the Whitecaps reserve side. 

Valour needed a goal-line clearance by Safwane Mlah of a Danylo Smychenko header in the 54th minute to keep it scoreless as Rovers started the second half with purpose.

Rovers goalkeeper Callum Weir, who had a fine game, made a reflex close-range save to deny Myles Morgan's header off a corner in the 72nd minute.

After ousting Valour in 2023, TSS Rovers lost 2-0 to Pacific FC in the quarterfinal. Last year TSS Rovers lost to Pacific in a preliminary-round penalty shootout, with the CPL side needing a 98th-minute goal by Reon Moore to avoid defeat in regulation time.

The 2024 trip to the cup competition came on short notice with TSS Rovers replacing the Victoria Highlanders, who withdrew from the B.C. league for financial reasons.

Valour had not made it past the preliminary round the last three years, beaten 7-0 by Atletico Ottawa last year and by the Whitecaps in 2022 in addition to the 2023 loss to Rovers. The Winnipeg side made it to the quarterfinals in 2021 before being ousted 2-1 by Forge.

TSS Rovers (2-1-1) are currently third in the nine-team B.C. league.

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This report by ´ºÉ«Ö±²¥was first published May 7, 2025