Final Score: Atlético Ottawa 1-1 Cavalry FC
Goalscorers: Didić 47′; Twardek 90′ (o.g.)
Game of the 2024 season: 7
CPL match: 491

Match in a minute or less

Cavalry FC snatched a point on the road on Saturday afternoon in the nation’s capital, as they and Atlético Ottawa played to a 1-1 draw at TD Place.

After a cagey first half, Ottawa took the lead just two minutes after halftime as Amer Didić got his head on the end of an Ollie Bassett corner kick. After that, however, Cavalry made several changes and pushed forward with menace, and they were eventually rewarded for it. In the 90th minute, Fraser Aird whipped in a cross from the right flank that found its way into the six-yard box, where Lleyton Brooks and Ottawa’s Kris Twardek battled to get under it and the ball ultimately deflected into the net off Twardek’s leg.

With the rewards split, Cavalry earned their first point of the 2024 season, while Ottawa remained unbeaten after two home matches to kick off the campaign.

Three Observations

Cavalry make impactful subs, find way through after persistent pressure

By the end of this game, it was undoubtedly Cavalry who were dreading the final whistle more than Atlético Ottawa. The tide seemed to shift after Ottawa scored, and the Cavs seemed on a steadily upward trajectory as they collected more and more of the ball and spent more and more time in the attacking third.

In a way, it was Cavalry’s advantage in depth that carried them to a point in this game. Tommy Wheeldon Jr. made two key substitutions at the hour mark with Ali Musse and Lucas Dias coming in, and shortly after he added Tobias Warschewki, Fraser Aird and Lleyton Brooks. After bringing back almost all of the core that carried them to the regular season title last year, Cavalry added significant depth to their squad for 2024 with the likes of Dias, Warschewski, Brooks and Diego Gutiérrez, and that made a difference in this game.

Brooks and Aird had an obvious impact, both contributing to the equalizer with Aird’s cross finding the perfect spot in the box, and Brooks doing just enough in his battle with Kris Twardek — although Wheeldon Jr. was surprised postmatch to learn it had been credited as an own goal rather than a first in the CPL for Brooks. Dias and Musse, meanwhile, did very well in their roles; Musse brought his trademark skill and elusiveness at a point in the game where Ottawa perhaps couldn’t match his energy, and Dias was a good creative presence to replace Sergio Camargo, also providing some decent set-piece deliveries.

“I thought the lads that came on as finishers — Lleyton, Tobi, Musse, Fraser, Lucas — gave us that extra step,” Wheeldon Jr. said after the game. “First half was quite an even bit where they had a spell, we had a spell, we were sensing each other out. It’s a new looking Ottawa team that’s got a lot more going in the attacking direction. Then you saw the old Ottawa team that as soon as they got their goal, sat back very well and were hard to break down, but we persisted and I think at the end of the day, it was the least we deserved.”

Cavalry’s ability to change games in the second half by introducing new dynamics off the bench will be a major advantage for them this season.

Atleti strong in transition but falter in late second half

With so much attacking talent in the squad, Atlético Ottawa are still working out what the best way to effectively penetrate an opposing penalty area might be. Early in this match, they were deliberate in their forward motion, looking to find Ballou Tabla and stretch the pitch in transition.

With a central midfield of Manny Aparicio and Alberto Zapater winning the ball frequently, Ottawa looked to use Tabla, Ollie Bassett and Aboubacar Sissoko as vertical threats, either on the dribble or with incisive forward balls.

Atleti have also looked dangerous from dead-ball situations early on, with Didić providing the goal from a corner on Saturday after Aparicio’s goal from a second phase set-piece the week prior. If that’s an area they can continue to threaten from, opposing teams will be more mindful of letting Ottawa drive vertically toward the end line to avoid giving them those opportunities.

Where things may have fallen apart in this match for Ottawa, though, is in their shift to a more passive approach after taking the lead. Around the 60-minute mark, Carlos González opted to bring Maxim Tissot on and switch to a back five, at the same time taking Tabla off the pitch, which took some of the venom out of his side’s ability to get forward.

At that point, Cavalry became clear protagonists in the game and created seven shots in the final half-hour, one of which landed in the back of the net. Of course, it might be a different story had Tissot’s golden opportunity just seconds before the equalizer ended up a goal rather than a shot off the post, but instead Ottawa were punished for not scoring their insurance goal.

“We were feeling throughout halftime that they were creating superiorities outside on the flanks,” González explained postmatch. “We tried to manage it in a different way throughout the first 20, 30 minutes. We managed it with Sissoko dropping a little bit more and changing the position of Sissoko and Ollie. But still they were creating those superiorities and we weren’t reaching those spaces. We felt that was the moment to fix the structure so we could control those intervals and those superiorities in the flanks. Maybe that message or that structure, instead of matching them up and maintaining the medium-high block and getting to them in a three-v-three in the pressure, maybe made us drop a little bit more.”

González went on to elaborate on how exactly things went wrong tactically for his side, suggesting that perhaps the shift he’d wanted to make hadn’t been the way things panned out in actuality.

“The idea was to do a 5-2-3, not a 5-4-1 that made us drop into straight lines and give them the metres to make us drop,” he added. “The idea was a little bit different, but we have to keep on working because this can happen throughout the season. We have to try to maintain the way we want to press with different structures on the field, to match them man-to-man in the building they had with three, with the wingers jumping a little bit more with the wingbacks, releasing them to jump and being a little bit more protected with the three centre-backs. But instead of having a man-to-man and matching them in a higher pressure, we dropped a little bit more and we conceded them the spaces to put those early crosses.”

Next time Ottawa take a lead in a match, it’ll be interesting to see how they react, and whether they look more aggressively to find a second goal.

Ottawa’s attack-minded fullbacks settling in defensively

One of the potential concerns surrounding Atlético Ottawa heading into this season was a vulnerability they might have in the wide areas, without many natural defensive fullbacks in the squad. In both of the first two matches, Carlos González has deployed Matteo de Brienne and Kris Twardek — two players who might usually be more comfortable further up on the wing — at left- and right-back respectively, and reviews are largely positive, save for Twardek’s relatively unfortunate own goal on Saturday.

Of course, de Brienne has a dozen or so games’ experience playing as a fullback for Valour FC, and Twardek was used in the position occasionally during his time in Poland and Slovakia (and once for the Canadian U-20 team). Still, with both players’ skillsets being more on the attacking side of the ball, it was a gamble from González to put both in his back four.

In this game particularly, the pair were tested by Cavalry’s wingers. De Brienne spent most of the afternoon defending William Akio, and he kept his former Valour teammate quiet. In just under 82 minutes of work, de Brienne had six clearances and three interceptions, winning a team-high eight duels (from nine attempts) — including five out of six in the air. After Ali Musse came on he had perhaps even more defending to do, but still largely managed to avoid being beaten one-on-one.

“I think both of them didn’t have big problems in the defensive end,” González said of de Brienne and Twardek on Saturday. “I think the main problem is that we created many situations in which they were defending. Matteo had to be subbed because he was cramping, his hamstring was a little bit tight so we decided to sub him to not take any risks. I’m very happy with the fullbacks … The idea is that the team as a unit should concede less chances, and as a unit create more situations so that they can develop.”

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Diego Gutiérrez, Cavalry FC

The midfielder continued to be his quietly excellent self on Saturday, with 90 per cent passing accuracy and two chances created, winning possession four times as well. He helped keep Cavalry ticking when they were building up their possession advantage in the second half.

What’s next?

Atlético Ottawa now head on the road, as they play Halifax Wanderers FC next Saturday, April 27 (2 p.m. AT/1 p.m. ET). Cavalry, however, have a Canadian Championship match to play before they return to league action; they’ll be at home for the first time in 2024 when they play Vancouver FC this Tuesday, April 23 at ATCO Field (7 p.m. MT/9 p.m. ET) before hosting Pacific FC on Sunday, April 28 (3 p.m. MT/5 p.m. ET).

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