2020 CPL regular season (The Island Games) — Match #7
Atlético Ottawa vs. Valour FC
August 19, 2019 at 1:00 p.m ET/2:00 p.m. AT
UPEI Artificial Turf Field in Charlottetown, PEI
Watch Live: OneSoccer.ca

What can Atlético Ottawa do for an encore?

The CPL’s first expansion club made quite the debut over the weekend, taking a 2-0 lead against York9 FC early in the second half before having a man sent off and eventually settling for a 2-2 draw.

Most pundits predicted the first-year team would have its hat handed to them, but the capital club more than held its own against Y9, and possibly gave a glimpse of what to expect from them the rest of the way at The Island Games.

Valour, meanwhile, featured 10 newcomers in their starting 11 and looked somewhat lethargic in suffering a 2-0 loss to Cavalry FC. After the game, Valour coach Rob Gale bemoaned the lack of bravery from his front three attackers.

“I know they have technical quality. They just needed to be braver. We shied away from it in the first half,” Gale said. “We got it into the wide areas, but we needed to work it side-to-side to unlock them a bit more. We were more comfortable playing a clipped ball through the ball rather than a punched ball.”

How will Valour respond against the league newcomers? And can Mista’s side build upon their impressive, albeit uneven, league debut?

RELATED READING: Valour FC’s Jean-Baptiste looking forward to second challenge in PEI

3 THINGS TO WATCH

• Acuña a threat for Ottawa: Ottawa’s Francisco Acuña was brilliant in his CPL debut over the weekend, covering a lot of ground and involving himself in the attack with his sublime passing ability, in addition to providing the assist for Malcolm Shaw’s goal. But he was subbed off in the 54th minute in order to manage his workload, so it’ll be interesting to see how many minutes, or if he’ll even play, against Valour on three days of rest.

• Valour needs to hit the target: In Valour’s 2-0 loss to Cavalry, the Calgary-based club enjoyed 57.4 per cent of the possession and an 8-4edge in shots. Of Valour’s four shots, none were on target, and Shaan Hundal, Fraser Aird, and Brett Levis combined for just five touches in the Cavalry box. Little wonder that the Cavs cruised to victory. Valour is going to need much more out of its attackers in the final third of the pitch if they hope to get a result against Ottawa.

• More familiar faces for Valour: Valour’s starting 11 against Cavalry featured 10 newcomers, with Dylan Carreiro the only holdover from 2019. Diego Gutierrez and Raphael Ohin came on in the second half, and it wasn’t a coincidence that Valour looked far more solid compared to its opening 45 minutes. Valour might benefit from a few more familiar faces in the starting 11 against Ottawa.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

“We have good players in this team, and guys with a lot of experience like (Francisco) Acuña and (Ben Fisk) and Nacho (Zabal), but we can improve more.” – Atlético Ottawa forward Mohamed Kourouma

“That’s something we can work on… the boys will move on from this (the loss to Cavalry) and have now gone into battle together against a very well-organized difficult opposition. So they can regroup and build for the next game. We put that one to bed and now we’re onto to Atlético immediately.” – Valour coach Rob Gale

ALL-TIME SERIES

First meeting between the club.