In the preseason, Florian Valot made his presence felt with three goals and clarity to the team’s midfield. On Sunday, he returned to the pitch in a competitive match.
For the French midfielder, the home opener at Red Bull Arena was a special day, one that created an excitement he made sure to showcase on the field where he gave two assists.
Kaku, who scored off a Valot pass, made sure to highlight his importance on the pitch and how their partnership can help the team’s offense.
“It’s how I’ve been talking about it, I already know how he likes to play,” said Kaku. “We know each other well, and we hope to continue making our fans happy, and of course, I’m happy for the goal.”
After the match, Head Coach Chris Armas described how Valot has worked to recuperate after two knee injuries and grown stronger from the difficult experiences.
“I've been with him along the way, every step of the way with those injuries, and I say that just because I've seen how hard it has been for him,” said Armas. “It's hard for a player to go through injuries like that because the thing you love, maybe one of the things you love most gets taken away over six, seven, eight months. And imagine experiencing that and then coming back, and then it happens again almost immediately. So this, does it truly make you stronger? I think it actually can because I've seen him come back with a different edge with an almost greater love for being out there in training every day.”
In the last preseason game of the year, Valot scored one of the two goals in the 2-1 win over Sporting Kansas City, and a week later in the home opener, he contributed two assists. His contributions have directly impacted the game’s outcomes, but Valot is calm, acknowledging the team performance throughout the 90 minutes.
“I’m just really happy to be back and get the win in the home opener,” he said. “We’ve prepared really well this offseason and preseason. We had a really good team performance.”
