2024 CPL Regular Season — Match #99
Atlético Ottawa vs. Halifax Wanderers FC
September 29, 2024 at 2 p.m. ET/3 p.m. AT
TD Place in Ottawa, Ontario
Watch Live: OneSoccer.ca & TELUS Ch. 980 // Tickets available here

A busy weekend of Canadian Premier League action continues in Ottawa, where Atlético Ottawa is set to host the Halifax Wanderers at TD Place on Sunday.

Their fourth and final regular season meeting of this CPL season, it’s a massive match for both teams, who both have just four games remaining on the schedule.

Two teams in vastly different situations, they both come into this match hungry to win despite that, even if their motivations to win might be far from similar.

On one side, there are the hosts, Ottawa, who remain locked in a fierce title race, sitting second place in the table. Having now officially booked their playoff spot for this fall, they can now focus all of their attention on pushing up the table, entering this weekend five points behind first-place Forge.

After missing out on the playoffs in 2023, the 2022 regular season champions will feel this is a return to where they want to be as a club, even if they’ll feel this playoff qualification was the minimum they wanted to achieve this season.

Because of that, they haven’t wasted much time in focusing on what’s next, and that starts with this weekend. With a big six-point clash looming against Forge in a few weeks, they’ll want to at least remain mathematically alive in the race at that point, so look for them to come out strongly in this one.

“This is our first tick(ed box) of the season,” Ottawa’s head coach, Carlos González, said this week. “We have to give it value, because at the end of the day last season, we were chasing the playoff spots during 27 rounds (and didn’t get it). So we give it value, but at the same time, we are an ambitious team and we built this team to to do big things. We are satisfied to now be playoff team, but we move forward and look forward for the next game, because at the end of the day, we want to make things difficult for Forge (in the title race) now.”

Certainly, on the other side, the Wanderers will be up for this match, as they enter this game sitting just outside of the playoff picture.

Currently in seventh place, just three points behind Pacific in the fifth and final playoff spot, they enter this match eager to get a win, knowing that it could vault them as high as into a tie for that fifth spot if other results go their way.

On the flip side, a loss and a combination of the wrong results could see that gap widen to six points, which might prove to be too big of a mountain to climb with three games to go.

Naturally, this Wanderers side remains focused on controlling what they can control, and coming off a week where they picked up five points from three games, they’ll feel confident in their ability to do that, but there’s no doubt – if the Wanderers are to make the playoffs, they’re going to have to treat each of these remaining regular season games like postseason affairs.

“Our mentality is to take things one game at a time,” Halifax Wanderers head coach, Patrice Gheisar, said this week. “Each game is a playoff game. It’s not a do or die, because that’s going to tense you up, but it’s a game that we want to go and enjoy because we put ourselves in this position that we have a chance (at the playoffs).”

In terms of roster availability, both teams had no absences to disclose in their pre-match availabilities, and have no players set to serve any suspensions this weekend.

All CPL and Canadian Championship matches will be broadcast live on OneSoccer, available as a linear channel on Telus’ Optik TV (Channel 980) as well as online at OneSoccer.ca, through the OneSoccer app and on the fuboTV Canada platform.

3 THINGS TO WATCH

• More late drama on the way? It’s always hard to predict what games might look like at this time of the year, as they can either be quite cagey or wide-open. If the first three meetings between these teams this year are to mean anything, however? Expect more of the wide-open variety in this matchup, especially late on. Having combined for 10 goals this year, eight of them have come in the second half, including goals in the 89th, 92nd, 96th and 101st minutes. From Alberto Zapater’s dramatic 101st minute equalizer for Ottawa in a 2-2 come from behind draw in June, to Dan Nimick’s 96th minute equalizer in a 1-1 draw in August, these games have not disappointed in terms of late drama, and it’ll be seen if that can be the case once again. Given what’s at stake for both teams, they’ll certainly hope not, as both will want wins, and will look to secure them as early as possible, but that desire to win could lead to some late drama from both. At a time of year where wins seem to mean more than ever, both teams will not hesitate in their pursuit of points. The Wanderers have seen that first-hand recently – their 1-1 draw against Valour last weekend only came thanks to an 89th equalizer from Zachary Fernandez, so don’t be surprised if they show that same flair for the dramatic if called upon late.

• The battle for playoff minutes begins for Ottawa: While the focus will now be on chasing a CPL Shield and finishing as high up the table as possible, it’s worth noting that these last four games also serve as a crucial audition for several players on this Ottawa team. As seen as of late, Ottawa has made sure to rotate their squad quite often, especially after the return of some key players from injury. Because of that, it’s been hard to tell what their preferred group is, as the race for minutes seems quite wide-open. That makes this last stretch huge, as this will be the last 360 minutes for players to prove they can be trusted to play big minutes in the high-stakes playoff matches, where no one will want to sit on the bench. No better way to audition for those matches than these matches, where Ottawa will play with a playoff-like intensity as they continue to chase the CPL Shield while not having to worry about making the playoffs or not. “We have ambitious people in the locker room, and it’s not enough for them to play only 30 minutes,” González explained. “Everybody’s trying to fight for for starting spots in our 11, and from what I’ve been feeling in the training sessions, there’s healthy competition between them.”

• Wanderers looking to continue newfound defensive solidity: A large reason for the Wanderers recent five-point week can be found at the back, as the centre back duo of Nassim Mekidèche and Jefferson Alphonse put in big shifts across the three games, forming a nice back four with Clément Bayiha and Zachary Fernandez. As a result, the Wanderers conceded just three goals across their last three games, with two of those coming in a match against Pacific where they spent a large chunk of it down a player. That’s huge, as the Wanderers have conceded the second-most goals in the CPL this season with 38, a number they would’ve preferred to be much lower at this stage of the season. With the play of Bayiha, Mekidèche, Alphonse and Fernandez, however, it’s given them some stability at the back, so look for that back four to build some momentum. They’ve created some tough questions for Gheisar, who will have to contemplate if he’ll insert Dan Nimick on his return from suspension, a question he probably never envisaged needing to ask at this stage of the season, yet is a credit to how new faces have stepped up. At the very least, it’s a problem he doesn’t mind dealing with – this recent run can elevate the play of someone like Nimick as he tries to claw back in, which will both push him and the other defenders to hit another level. That will only help the group, no matter who wins the battle for minutes. “With Dan (Nimick) coming back in, he has to compete like everyone does,” Gheisar explained. “That doesn’t mean my belief in him changes, it just means that he has to be even sharper (to get in), because someone’s fighting for his position.”

PROJECTED STARTING XIs

Atlético Ottawa: Ingham; Morer, Walker, Didić, Iliadis, de Brienne; Tabla, Sissoko, Aparicio, Bassett; del Campo

Halifax Wanderers FC: Fillion; Bayiha, Alphonse, Mekidèche, Fernandez; Rampersad, Callegari; Probo, Rea, Ferrin; Telfer

ALL-TIME SERIES

Atlético Ottawa wins: 8 || Halifax Wanderers FC wins: 6 || Draws: 5

Last meeting:

Aug. 24, 2024 — Halifax Wanderers FC 1-1 Atlético Ottawa

KEY QUOTES

“I wouldn’t say every game is a must win. I would say that the next game is a must win – I think that we have to go game-by-game. We will see how the situation goes, because we can see that four games is not many, but 12 points is a lot. We’re still five points away from Forge, so we have to go game-by-game. The most important thing is doing things properly so that we can win this weekend, and then we’ll see what what our opponents do, but the most important thing is focusing on ourselves, on what we can control, and go step-by-step.” — Atlético Ottawa head coach Carlos González

“You got to take things one game at a time. If you win, be happy, but if you lose, still be happy to build, take learnings and adjust for the next game. If you recall last year, I kept saying: ‘Never too high, never too low’. And I think that’s really what it’s about for us right now. You can see the growth in the group, we’re playing well, we’re defending well, we’re passing well, I’m not going to talk about luck or balances, but what we can earn is what we’ve earned through hard work backed by our quality.” — Halifax Wanderers FC head coach Patrice Gheisar