Atlético Madrid have long cultivated a reputation among the biggest clubs in world football for being intensely difficult to break down. Only once in the last 10 years have they finished worse than second place in La Liga in terms of goals conceded.

So, when affiliate club Atlético Ottawa allowed more goals than any other Canadian Premier League team in 2021 and finished bottom of the table, work began quickly to address the defending.

The club brought in a new manager in Carlos González and overhauled the squad in hopes of establishing a new, defensively-sound identity. A handful of key defenders from the previous year stuck around — Drew Beckie and Miguel Acosta remain pivotal to the backline today — but the newcomers may have put them over the top.

Work began in preseason at the Atlético Madrid facilities in Spain. González set about imprinting a new tactical identity on a new group of players — an identity that drew inspiration from how the parent club plays against some of the world’s best.

“I think we started to build in Madrid an important mindset, a mentality in the players, and one of the keys was that the club brought hungry players, ambitious players that in the past season it probably wasn’t an easy season for them,” said González. “This was a great first step to begin with, since the preseason when we started to play against strong opponents over there”

One of those new faces, Spanish-born Atlético Madrid academy product Diego Espejo, arrived in Ottawa on loan from the parent club and almost immediately — at 20 years old — has been one of the most dependable centre-backs in the CPL.

He came to the league with a strong résumé: Two caps for Spain’s U-17 national team, and the pedigree of Atleti’s storied academy, of which he’s been a part since 2016. Espejo’s loan to Ottawa came simultaneously with a contract extension at the Spanish club until 2024, indicating how Atleti values the players they send to Canada for such sojourns.

The six-foot-two centre-half is one of the league’s most forceful presences as the last line of defence before the goalkeeper, taking care of business by breaking up attacks and protecting the penalty area.

Despite hailing from the vacation destination Canary Islands, Espejo is truly a no-nonsense defender. He finished second in the league this year with 114 clearances with 12 blocks and 18 tackles won, and he wasn’t charged with a single error leading to a shot all season. Indeed, Espejo was only dribbled past by an opponent four times — the fewest among defenders with more than 1,500 minutes played this year.

He truly shines in the air, though. Espejo led the CPL in headed clearances with 80 — almost 20 more than second-placed Amer Didić. His positioning is always excellent, and with a solid structure of players around him Espejo is typically free to hunt for those crosses and steer them to safety.

Espejo typically plays in Ottawa’s back four in between left centre-back Beckie and right-back Acosta, with Maxim Tissot on the left.

Under González this season, Ottawa have tinkered with their tactics a little bit, but in the final few months of the regular season they seemed to settle on the 4-5-1 that has made them regular season champions. It’s a well-organized system, which falls into rigid banks of players while defending but, in possession, becomes more of a back three with Espejo anchoring the line in the middle while left-back Maxim Tissot pushes forward.

“I’ve been talking very highly of Diego and the boys in the past, and I think huge compliments have to go to Drew and Miguel playing on the outsides of three in the back,” Ottawa goalkeeper Nathan Ingham said recently. “It’s a more difficult job, they’re covering more ground, they’re asked to do a bit more with their feet. That’s been able to leave Diego in the middle to win balls in the air and do his job.”

To illustrate the point, see how they set up defensively in their own half in this match (which they won 1-0) against Forge:

As well as how that same formation slides into a back three when they get the ball, from this game against HFX Wanderers:

This system has been formidable for Ottawa almost all season since they settled into it. They’re by no means a possession-heavy team — Atleti averaged just 42 per cent this year, seventh in the CPL — but that’s by design.

Ottawa are perfectly happy to absorb some pressure and look to strike in transition when they win the ball. It’s not dissimilar to some of the tactics Atlético Madrid have used in big matches.

“This season, the positions, they want to work in defence like a 4-5-1,” Acosta explained. “Hard, hard, hard work, like Atlético Madrid. You see our system, our play, it’s the same as Atlético Madrid. The similarities are on the pitch; other teams, to score on us, they have to shoot too much [from distance].”

He’s right that teams shoot from low-quality areas against Ottawa: Although they faced the second-most shots in the CPL this year (325), they only faced the fifth-most shots on target (102), and the second-fewest expected goals against (30.27).

Despite usually having to spend long periods defending without the ball, Ottawa actually had the third-fewest tackles in the CPL this year; their defending is done on a team-wide level, maintaining their shape and frustrating teams into losing the ball via poor crosses and shots.

“The tactics were very simple, it was about analyzing what works on this league, and with the elements that we have, try to do a similar thing so we can perform well,” González said. “This has been a process of developing the team tactically. First we started with the idea to be solid, because I think it’s basic in a team that once you are solid you can start to grow in other different aspects.”

It’s a full 11-man effort that makes Ottawa so difficult to score against — Ingham quipped that the team’s defence begins with the strikers, and its attack begins with him in goal — but the individuals have proven they have the quality to save the day when things do break down.

Espejo, of course, is at the centre of that. His solidity as the anchor in defence allows all of Acosta, Beckie, and Tissot to press when defending, or get forward in possession. The stay-at-home centre-back is where Ottawa’s play out of the back begins, with his ability to distribute the ball to either side and allow fellow defenders to join the attack.

In Saturday’s first leg of the CPL semifinal, Atlético Ottawa will try to do yet another thing with which their parent club is familiar: win in knockout football.

Ottawa’s first postseason journey begins on Vancouver Island in Leg 1 against Pacific FC (7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, live on OneSoccer).