Final Score: Atlético Ottawa 1-0 Vancouver FC
Goalscorers: Iliadis 2′
Game of the 2024 season: 82
CPL match: 566

Match in a minute or less

Atlético Ottawa continue to keep pace in a hotly-contested Canadian Premier League title race, as they defeated Vancouver FC 1-0 at TD Place on Saturday to remain within two points of first-place Forge.

It didn’t take long for Atlético Ottawa going in this game, as Ilias Iliadis opened the scoring for the hosts inside two minutes, as he curled the ball directly into the net off a corner kick for an Olimpico, his second such goal in the last three games.

Then, they nearly doubled their lead in the 55th minute, as Ollie Bassett stepped up to take a penalty won by Aboubacar Sissoko, but his spot kick attempt would be nicely saved by Vancouver’s Callum Irving.

From there, however, Ottawa would do what they needed to in order to grind out a victory despite a late Vancouver push, picking up a win that could prove to be valuable in a tight CPL title race.

Three Observations

Ottawa uses strong defensive showing to ride early goal to win:

It’s always the big question when a team scores early – will they be able to build off that and find a few other goals, or will they settle back into more of a defensive posture?

Naturally, the latter is usually always going to manifest itself early – one of the most dangerous things teams can do is to push too hard for more goals after scoring, rendering themselves vulnerable to conceding them at the other end.

Despite that, it’s also important to not sit too deep and to just invite pressure, either, ensuring that the opponent is made to work for space in the final third.

No doubt, after scoring as early as they did, one thing was for sure – the hosts were always going to be able to dictate the terms of the match, and they chose to sit back a bit deeper and let Vancouver bring the game to them, while offering strong resistance in the form of their defensive mid-block in their 5-4-1.

Given that a large reason for Vancouver’s success on the road this season has come from their ability to hit teams in transition, it was a smart decision from Ottawa, and they reaped the rewards of it early on. Not only did they limit Vancouver to just one first-half shot, a long shot from Gabriel Bitar that went nowhere near their goal, but they did so despite letting Vancouver hold 59.5% of first-half possession.

Of course, the big challenge for Ottawa was going to be to see if they could maintain such a formula after the break, as Vancouver was always going to try to finish the game strong in chase of a winner.

Despite that, however, Ottawa continued to hold on, at times bending but never coming close to breaking in the face of Vancouver’s pressure. In fact, their second half performance ended up arguably being even more impressive than their first-half showing, as they held Vancouver to just three shots and just eight touches in their box in the second half despite their late push, which isn’t easy given the quality of Vancouver’s attacking options.

Yet, this is a sign of what Ottawa can do at their best, as they can be tough to crack defensively when they tap into their “Atlético DNA”, as they did in this game.

At the same time, it’s also a reflection of the work they’ve done as of late. Having recently switched to a 5-4-1 formation after using a back four all year long, they’ve done quite well in the three games they’ve used their new set-up in, conceding just one goal, which came from a penalty.

Other than that, they’ve been nearly spotless defensively, doing well to close down space between lines and defend wide areas. Sometimes a bit prone to opening up games when using a back four, given that they used their full backs extremely aggressively offensively, the switch to a back five has allowed them to remain aggressive in how they employ their wide defenders knowing that they’ve got an extra body to rely on at the back.

Certainly, that played a big role in this game, as Vancouver were unable to find shots despite sending 74.3% of their attacks down the flanks, showing the impact of the defensive work Ottawa did on the day, especially out wide.

“Form now on, the defensive phase is critical, (because) if you want to win titles, you have to be a solid team (defensively),” Atlético Ottawa’s head coach, Carlos González said. “That’s why we changed our system three rounds ago, and I feel that the team has been consistent and solid, in our game against Pacific, we had a clean sheet, in the game against Halifax, we only conceded a penalty, we didn’t concede too much, (and today), I think that we (limited) the strengths of Vancouver.”

Vancouver struggles to get ball into box despite possession advantage:

There’s no doubt that Vancouver can score goals. Sitting tied for fourth in the CPL with goals, they can be dangerous offensively on their day, as players like Alejandro Díaz, Mikaël Cantave, Gabriel Bitar and Ayman Sellouf can take over games with their offensive skills.

At the same time, Vancouver’s also been a bit “boom or bust” offensively, as this was the seventh time they were held scoreless in 21 CPL games this season, meaning they’ve been shut out an average of once every three games, despite scoring an average of 1.85 goals per game in the 14 games they’ve found the net in.

Unfortunately, this game was one of the “bust” nights for their attack, as they struggled to get going, as shown by the shots numbers from above. Plus, not only did they generate just four shots, but only two of them were inside of the box and their highest-quality attempt was worth 0.192 xG, meaning they couldn’t say they went for a quality over quantity approach, either.

That’s a surprise, as they certainly had their chances to get the ball into dangerous areas, as they finished this game with 59.4% of possession, doing well to spend time on the ball after Ottawa’s early goal.

Despite that, they didn’t turn that possession into enough dangerous opportunities, as they struggled to get into Ottawa’s final third, let alone their box.

In particular, they were unable to find the final action they required to break open Ottawa’s resolute defensive posture, completing just 63.2% of their passes in the final third – by comparison, Ottawa completed 72.6% of their passes in Vancouver’s final third.

For what it’s worth, they did a good job of getting balls into wide areas as the game wore on, facilitated by a switch that saw Cantave come off the bench to give Vancouver two natural wingers in attack after starting with just one in Sellouf, but they weren’t able to turn enough dangerous looks out wide into actual shot attempts, as they completed just two of 15 cross attempts in this game, with 11 of those attempts coming in the second half.

Overall, that led to a frustrating night offensively for Vancouver. Defensively, they did pretty well considering that they spent 89 minutes trailing and having to deal with Ottawa’s counter-attacking threat, as other than Ollie Bassett’s penalty attempt and a late transition chance from Rubén del Campo that was worth 0.329 xG, they otherwise kept Ottawa to just 0.973 on their 14 other shot attempts in the game.

Along with Callum Irving’s stop on the Bassett penalty, they had every reason to rally around that stop and their overall defensive play in order to find a spark offensively, but it wasn’t meant to be, as they were instead left to rue how they conceded an early Olimpico.

“That first goal, it was a kindergarten error,” Vancouver’s head coach, Afshin Ghotbi, bluntly put it afterwards. “It was 100% our problem, it wasn’t a great corner, so I don’t know what happened on that play, we were in the wrong position and we reacted the wrong way.”

Yet, that’ll be the big challenge for them to tackle going forward. If they’re to secure a playoff spot, and then make some noise in the playoffs, they’ll have to be more consistent offensively, as it’s crucial to be able to know that the goals will fall no matter the opponent and scenario.

Certainly, they’ve got the pieces to be dangerous, and have been able to do it in bursts, but finding that consistency will be the next step for them as they look to grow into the team that they have the potential to be offensively.

“When the other team is playing in a block of three central defenders and then with another three good (defensive players) in midfield, that’s a wall of six players (centrally),” Ghotbi explained. “There’s no space (in the middle), so you have to look for space out wide, as the side of the midfield will always be free, and if you can get to those spaces quickly and then create 2v1s in the side channels, then that’s where the opportunities will come from.”

“I was disappointed that we didn’t find those gaps in the first half, but in the second half I thought that we we did a little bit better, and we can still improve in that part.”

“Details” prove to be crucial for Ottawa on rare off-night for attack:

When Ottawa scored as early as they did, it felt like the goals were about to flow, as they’ve done a good job of scoring in bursts this season, scoring two or more goals in 10 of their 20 games leading into this one, including five in which they’ve scored three or more goals.

Because of that, it felt like it was only a matter of time before they made that 11 from 21, while potentially even pushing for that sixth three-goal outburst, as they did well to find their chances once they had the lead.

Yet, despite getting the ball into dangerous areas, things just wouldn’t fall for them in front of goal, for different reasons.

Either they’d make the wrong decision or they would strike the woodwork, and then, in the moments where they found the target with dangerous attempts, Vancouver’s Irving made some key stops to deny them a goal.

As a result, it ended up being more of a night of frustration offensively than one of joy, and that feeling was best summed up by the penalty save, of which many would’ve expected Bassett to slot home to help put his team in the driver seat.

At the same time, it’s worth noting that while Ottawa will look back on this game and wonder how they can ensure they don’t replicate it going forward, it serves as a big boost for their proof of concept as a club.

Often, González is quick to remind his team the importance of managing details in games, especially defensively, instead of getting caught up on things they can’t control, such as their luck in front of goal.

In a game like this, that ended up being crucial, because had Ottawa not been nearly flawless defensively, they perhaps would’ve been left to rue their missed chances offensively. Instead, their rough night in front of goal can be laughed off and forgotten instead of proving to be a crucial aspect in a frustrating draw or loss, one where they can rue not turning an otherwise positive offensive performance into all three points.

That’s huge, as at this time of the year, all that matters is getting the job done in games, as teams who fail to do so will often miss out on the opportunity to win trophies.

Therefore, while Ottawa will be frustrated they didn’t take better advantage of their chances to give their fans more goals to cheer about, they’ll be pleased that they got the win over the line in the end, doing so thanks to their defensive play, which everyone on the pitch can take credit for.

“It says a lot about how well knit we are as a team that we’re willing to sacrifice everything for each other,” Iliadis said of his team’s defensive efforts. “Even if someone is not having their best day, if someone misses a tackle, if someone misses a header, or if someone misses a pass, we’re always there to pick each other up, we’re always there to support each other, and that shows how well knit this team is.”

At this time of year, a win like this can go a long way, especially with the form of those around them in the title race, so they’ll look to build off it, even if it wasn’t as perfect as they would’ve hoped.

“Yeah, every time we score so early, for me I go: “oof, let’s be calm”,  because sometimes you change the tendency of the game so early,” González said. “But I think that we managed that situation well, in previous games when we scored early, we conceded too much, gave away possession to the opponent, and we dropped (our line) too early. Today, we didn’t do that, the team managed well the advantage.”

“Right now, every detail is going to be critical, so that’s why we are focusing on them as every little thing matters (to us) – that’s our mindset at the moment.”

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Ilias Iliadis, Atlético Ottawa

Not only did Iladis score the winning goal in spectacular fashion (and come close to scoring two other Olimpicos, including one that hit the post), but he did what he needed to defensively at centre back to help Ottawa secure the win, too.

That’s reflected in the numbers, as he made two clearances, two interceptions, two recoveries and won two out of three of his ground duels. Along with what he generated offensively, which included creating two chances, generating a shot, making six passes into the final third and completing two crosses, it was a solid night for Ottawa’s #96 at the back.

What’s next?

Atlético Ottawa will head out on the road for their next game, as they pay a visit to Winnipeg to take on Valour at Princess Auto Stadium on Monday, September 9th (7:00 p.m. CT/8:00 p.m. ET). Meanwhile, Vancouver will return home to host York United at Willoughby Community Park on Friday, September 6th (7:00 p.m. PT/10:00 p.m. ET).

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