More than two months since Ollie Bassett and Atlético Ottawa walked off the field for the final time in 2022, the night still replays in the mind of the 24-year-old midfielder.

After winning the regular season and defeating Bassett’s former club (and reigning CPL champions) Pacific FC in the semifinal, the fairytale worst-to-first story for Ottawa had fallen just short in the 2022 CPL Final. Two-time champions Forge FC were leaving TD Place with a third North Star Shield in four seasons, defeating Ottawa 2-0 in front of an impressive crowd.

Two days earlier, Bassett and head coach Carlos Gonzalez were all smiles at TD Place during the CPL Awards — in which Bassett picked up the Player of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year awards, and Gonzalez the Coach of the Year honour — but now it was looks of disappointment as they fell at the final hurdle.

“Obviously you take some time to detach yourself from the game,” Bassett said to CanPL.ca recently. “I think overall on the night, we can’t really complain too much in terms of the outcome of the game. To be fair, we probably lost to the better team on the night.

“I think we would say we were the most consistent team over the course of the regular season, but playoffs is playoffs. Conceding the goal in the first half, and then finding yourself chasing the game against the team that you know can keep the ball and exploit the space really well, that’s always going to be difficult.

“We gave it a good shot, we gave everything we had, but unfortunately it just wasn’t quite enough.”

While not the final result that Bassett and his side were looking for, it’s undeniable that Atlético Ottawa had a season to remember. They almost doubled their number of points from the 2021 campaign — jumping from 26 points to 49 — and after losing 14 of 28 games in 2021, improved to lose just five all year in 2022.

With the aforementioned Coach of the Year Gonzalez at the helm, his first season with the club, Ottawa perfected a defensive style of football that saw them concede 18 goals less than the season prior in regular season action, and climb to the top of the pile. They just ran into an in-form Forge side that was playing in its fourth consecutive final and looking to avenge their defeat in the championship match the year before.

“You have to give credit absolutely to the coach, I think to come in and take 17-18 new players under his wing into a squad, having never experienced or coached in Canada before, and to do what he did within seven or eight months — to go from worst to first within the space of just under a year — is remarkable,” Bassett said. “He and his backroom staff, and all the people at the club behind the scenes, they deserve immense credit for how they set us up to win. Hopefully next year we will have the core group that brought success last season coming back, and hopefully, we can all build on it together.”

That match was a special one and will go down as one of the best in CPL history. If the match itself wasn’t a reason to look back on it fondly, a showdown between arguably the two best teams in the league last year, then the occasion was. A record 15,000 people crammed into TD Place to watch the league’s championship-decider, including a loud and passionate section of Forge FC away fans that made the trip a few hours across Ontario.

It made for a fantastic showcase of Canadian soccer, and one that fans will remember for a long time, even if many of them were the Ottawa home fans that turned up all season long for their club but were unable to see their side lift the trophy.

“For the City of Ottawa in general and how well the fans have done in growing the culture of the sport in the capital, I think despite the result it was a fantastic way to cap off a really good year on and off the pitch,” Bassett reflected. “Full credit to everyone that came out, and hopefully we’ll see many of those people back in the stands in 2023.”

Last, but certainly not least, on our countdown of the best Canadian Premier League games of the year, we have the season finale ?

15,000 fans in the stands and a battle between @atletiOttawa and @ForgeFCHamilton. The 2022 Final was one to remember ?#CanPL I ? @onesoccer pic.twitter.com/Muw7IPp0SA

— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) December 31, 2022

Losing the final has motivated Bassett even more this offseason. He knows what it’s like to reach the top in the CPL, having won the 2021 North Star Shield with Pacific FC, so coming so close was a learning opportunity for himself and the squad as a whole.

“You take these games and these big moments and you try and learn from them and make sure that stuff like this doesn’t happen again,” said Bassett. “We were close — we were pretty much as close as you could get — but it just wasn’t quite enough. I think it will spur a lot of the guys on in the dressing room next year to hopefully repeat the same success we had during the regular season.

“Fingers crossed by the end of the year we can find our way in the playoffs as well. It’s definitely motivation to come back and be that little bit better next year.”

As he said, it was still a brilliant season for a team that underperformed in its first two CPL campaigns, but took about as big a step forward as possible in season number three.

There were plenty of special moments for a group that really came together and grew as a unit, but a few that stand out in particular for Bassett.

“I think as a collective, not including the playoffs and the final, two games probably come to mind,” he started. “The first one would be York away when the fans came down from Ottawa… we ended up winning that game 3-0. That’s definitely the first one, and then Halifax at home — when we let a two-goal lead slip in the last minutes of the game and then ended up scoring 30 seconds later to win. I think as games go, that was probably the best way you could hope to win one. That one will definitely stick in my mind.

“Individually, I think the goal against Valour from the corner — that’s probably one that I won’t forget.”

ANOTHER #CanPL OLIMPICO! ?@OllieBassett28 ties the game for @atletiOttawa from the corner flag ?

? @onesoccerpic.twitter.com/SZhNOOmxiB

— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) September 18, 2022

Reflecting is great, and it’s important to acknowledge all of the success that Bassett and Ottawa had in 2022, but last season is already in the rear-view mirror. Bassett has turned his attention to the 2023 season, and is working hard to take another step forward from his Player of the Year-winning campaign in 2022.

“I’ve been sent a schedule, an individual program from the [strength and conditioning] coach in Ottawa, so I’m just working away on a lot of sessions in the gym, and then I have some friends who are in their offseason as well, they play in Scandinavia,” he said. “That season runs a similar time to the CPL, so we get together and do small sessions, staying on top of the ball and just getting touches in and stuff like that.

“It’s some sessions on the pitch with some of my friends, and a lot of time spent in the gym doing strength and weight training, and then cardio.”

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Bassett recently joined up with Atlético San Luis, another club in the Atlético Madrid family of clubs, on trial. He and goalkeeper Nathan Ingham are under contract with Ottawa for next season, but are training with the Liga MX side and hoping to impress with an eye to possibly earning a transfer up the Atlético pyramid.

“I’ve said a couple of times that I do have aspirations and goals to play at a higher level, so I’m hoping that I can prove myself again next season and continue the same form that I had this year going into next year,” Bassett said when asked about his goals for 2023. “Maybe hit double figures for goals, which will be nice. Ultimately, it’s just about staying consistent and working hard day in and day out and keep performing at the highest level I can, and then hopefully opportunities come to take my game to the next level somewhere else in the world.”

? A first look at our guys training with @AtletideSanLuis in Mexico ?? #ForOttawa | #PourOttawa pic.twitter.com/LE9KFCi3Cg

— Atlético Ottawa (@atletiOttawa) January 9, 2023

Individual success is important to him, but at the same time, the always-humble midfielder also has the team’s success at the forefront.

“I think collectively, we just have to go in with the same mentality that we applied every day in training to do what we did last year, and the things that brought us success,” he said.

“Then hopefully we’re there in the final again, and hopefully we can go one better. I think as a team we were probably the most consistent over the course of the regular season, and I think if we can build on that again next year, then there’s no reason why we shouldn’t make the playoffs again.”