Final Score: Atlético Ottawa 2-0 Valour FC
Goalscorers: Bassett 25′ (PK), Verhoven 90+3′
Game of the 2023 season: 54
CPL match: 421

Match in a minute or less

Atlético Ottawa picked up three important points at TD Place on Sunday, beating Valour FC 2-0 to jump from eighth in the table up to sixth.

Ollie Bassett opened the scoring in the 25th minute for the home side, beating Rayane Yesli from the penalty spot with a calm finish into the bottom right corner after Anthony Novak fouled Carl Haworth in the box. Valour had their chances in this match but again failed to find the back of the net, and Zachary Verhoven put the game to bed in the 93rd minute with a powerful shot into the bottom left corner of the goal.

Valour, who drop to seventh in the table, haven’t scored from open play in four consecutive matches as their offensive struggles continue. It won’t get any easier for them as they visit reigning champions Forge FC next weekend, while Ottawa travel to ATCO Field to take on Cavalry FC midweek.

Three Observations

Bassett and Verhoven find the back of the net as Ottawa pick up big three points

Coming into Sunday’s match at the bottom of the table, Atlético Ottawa knew that they needed to start picking up points as they approach the halfway point of their 2023 CPL regular season. They were also well aware that they were up against a Valour side struggling to score goals – something the Winnipeggers did again on Sunday.

After the sides traded scoring chances in the early stages of the match, Ottleti were awarded a penalty as Carl Haworth was kicked in the box by Valour forward Anthony Novak. Reigning CPL Player of the Year Ollie Bassett, as he usually does, stepped up to the spot and placed the ball into the bottom right corner, giving his side the lead.

It was a second penalty goal in as many games for Bassett, who also scored the tying goal from the spot last weekend against Pacific FC. He is now up to six goals on the season, one back of Myer Bevan in the Golden Boot race.

GOAL 🏡@atletiOttawa open the scoring vs. @ValourFootball as Ollie Bassett gets his mark from the penalty spot 🎯#CanPL | 🔴 WATCH on OneSoccer pic.twitter.com/iU6CSR632n

— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) July 9, 2023

Throughout the match Ottawa had plenty of opportunities to put this game to bed, taking 17 shots in total with ten of them hitting the target. Bassett had five shots and Aboubakary Sacko had four more, but both kept having shots blocked, or stopped by Rayane Yesli — who was solid on the day, making six saves. They will work on being more clinical with their opportunities and putting games to bed quicker, but creating so many chances is a plus.

With time running out in second half stoppage time, Zach Verhoven confirmed the three points just moments after coming off the bench to replace Bassett. After a goal kick down the pitch from Nathan Ingham, the ball would eventually fall to Haworth. The Ottawa captain played a brilliant pass over the Valour backline to the charging Verhoven, who patiently waited for it to land at his feet, before firing it into the bottom left corner of the goal.

GOAL 🏡🏡

Putting a bow on the result, @AtletiOttawa score a second vs. @ValourFootball in the dying embers, as Zach Verhoven finishes coolly to secure the dub 😎#CanPL | ▶️ Next match FREE on YouTube (7PM ET) pic.twitter.com/3Irq4XNjNO

— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) July 9, 2023

With the win, Ottawa have jumped from eighth in the table up to sixth, passing Valour and Vancouver FC. They are now one point back of the Halifax Wanderers, who occupy the fifth and final playoff spot.

“It’s big, the way the CPL is set up is everything is so tight at all times,” said Haworth, who celebrated his 34th birthday with an important three points. “All it takes is to get a bit of momentum together, put a couple of good results together, and you can move up that table pretty quick. Conversely, if you drop a couple of games in a row all of a sudden you find yourself down near the bottom.

“It’s just a reminder that every game is just as important as the next, and we need to stay focused. You could see how much it meant to us today, celebrating with the fans — they’ve given so much for us all season, home or away. It’s nice to get one for them here at home and we’ve just got to keep that momentum going now.”

The hope now for Carlos Gonzalez is that his team can build on this result and start to go on a run and climb further up the table. They play twice more in the next week — away to Cavalry on Wednesday and at home against Vancouver on Sunday — and are looking to pick up the maximum number of points.

“I think they were vital,” said Gonzalez of the three points. “We were speaking about that during the week, that the game against Valour today was a very important game because we played against a team that was fighting for similar targets during the season.

“Also it was an important game because we were down in the standings before the game, and this put a bit of pressure there. At the end of the day, what we have to do at the moment is add, three by three.”

Valour’s offensive woes continue as they fail to score again

The story every week recently for Valour has been that they are creating chances but not putting them into the back of the net. They have gone four matches now without scoring a non-penalty goal, losing three of them and beating Vancouver FC 1-0 on a penalty from Diego Gutierrez a few weeks ago.

The club has scored a league-fewest eleven goals in fourteen matches, something they need to change as soon as possible if they are going to meet their objective and expectation of making the playoffs for the first time in club history. Sunday’s match was an opportunity to take back fifth spot in the table, but instead they end the weekend in seventh as Ottawa leapfrogs over them and eighth-placed Vancouver.

While their chances dried up a bit in the second half, the Winnipeg side had six shots in the first, before adding two more after the break. Pacifique Niyongabire had a couple of great chances to score, one on either side of the interval, but failed to make either one count. Late in the first half he got his head on the end of a cross from Matteo de Brienne, which had Ottawa goalkeeper Nathan Ingham beat, but his effort came back off the post, before the follow-up effort was headed over the crossbar by Kian Williams from close range.

After being played through by Williams in the second half, Niyongabire had the opportunity to tie the game with a left footed shot from close range. The best option appeared to be a shot across goal to aim for the bottom right corner, but the Burundi international’s shot went high and wide of the top left corner and into the side netting.

Williams provided the only shot on target for his side — a powerful strike in the second half that forced a big save out of Ingham.

The @AllstateCanada Save of the Match goes to Nathan Ingham of @atletiOttawa who prevented @ValourFootball from equalizing the game 🧤 #CanPL | @onesoccer pic.twitter.com/Ape4AOxM9m

— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) July 9, 2023

“When a team is finding a hard time scoring, and you can see it in a moment of the game where you’re in a better position than the opposition — I feel like in the first half it was the case — you start having these ghosts that come back,” head coach Phil Dos Santos said after the match. “Our last (open play) goal was four games ago, so obviously it’s hard to win games if you don’t score, and it’s been a recurring situation.

“When you’re getting your chances — I go back to [Andrew Jean-Baptiste having] a very good chance on a set play, I look at the ball that hit the post from Pacifique when we were already 1-0 down — it just builds up. You’re trying to force things, you lose clarity, you’re taking risks you normally wouldn’t take on the ball. I think that today the game was about that. I think that once they found the first goal off a penalty kick, and as the game progressed with time, we started to take too many risks and that even opened up the game more for them.

“That’s the story, right now we need to find solutions and find ways to score, I’ve said it way too often for the last few games.”

Valour will have a week between matches, before they visit Forge FC — who have also recently struggled at times with converting their chances — next weekend.

Del Campo and Zapater make Ottawa debuts after midseason transfers

Both of Atlético Ottawa’s midseason signings made their highly-anticipated Canadian Premier League debuts at TD Place on Sunday, as Rubén del Campo and Alberto Zapater saw the pitch for the first time in front of their new fans. Both players got a full half of action, with de Campo starting the match at striker for Carlos Gonzalez’s side, while Zapater replaced him to put in a 45 minute shift in central midfield after the break.

Del Campo, who worked with Gonzalez once upon a time in the Atlético Madrid academy, nearly made an instant impact with his new club early in the first half. He got in behind the Valour backline on a long pass over the top, and fired a shot at the net from a tough angle, but it rose and ended up sailing over the bar as he tried to pick out the top right corner. The Switzerland youth international also had an opportunity to head the ball on target from a few yards out later in the half, but Andrew Jean-Baptiste did well to make a crucial block.

Overall, del Campo had three shots, created one big chance for Sam Salter, and won four aerial duels. There was a lot to like about his 45 minutes of work, and as he gradually sees his minutes increase, he could prove to be a real difference maker for Ottawa.

When he came on after halftime, Zapater also showed signs of being exactly the player Ottawa brought him in to be. The 38-year-old Spaniard, who has played over 500 matches in some of the best leagues in Europe, was a calming presence in midfield for the capital city club, and hardly put a foot wrong.

Zapater completed 16 of his 18 attempted passes (88.9%), winning five of his six duels, and making once clearance. He might not be a player that always grabs the headlines, but he could be the calming, veteran midfield presence that the club never really replaced when Abdoul Sissoko departed in the offseason.

“They were great,” Haworth said of his two new teammates. “Ruben’s work rate was fantastic for us in the first half. If that chance goes in it would have been a perfect start for him. His work rate and winning those challenges, or at least making it difficult for them to win challenges, was fantastic. Runs in the channels, runs in behind, it gives us another dimension there, another way to attack.

“Alberto in the second half, you see how calm he is on the ball. Reminds me of when (former Ottawa Fury teammate) Richie Ryan was here, a guy in the midfield that sees the game so much different than a lot of us do, it slows down for him. He’s a great addition for us already, and he’s going to be massive for us, the two of them moving forward.”