Atlético Ottawa won a second straight home game on Saturday at TD Place, as they defeated Vancouver FC 1-0 to pull within a point of the playoff positions.

Heading into this game, Ottawa’s lineup received a couple of welcome boosts as Nathan Ingham returned in goal after six games out with injury, and captain Carl Haworth got his first start of the year. Vancouver, meanwhile, had to make some changes due to injury and Pele Martínez’s suspension, which meant youngsters Anthony White and James Cameron each got their first professional start for the club.

Atleti, looking to bounce back from a loss at York United last week, came out of the gates flying. After a first few minutes that saw them create a handful of opportunities in dangerous areas, they opened the scoring just under nine minutes in. Vancouver appeared to have rescued themselves from a cross as Cameron blocked a point-blank shot on the goal line, but the second ball came in and Samuel Salter managed to wrap his foot around it to volley it past Callum Irving.

The hosts’ dominance did not stop there; chances continued to flow, and it was only a top-class save from Irving that prevented Noah Verhoeven from scoring with a long-distance screamer two minutes after the first goal.

Vancouver managed to settle things down after the first 20 minutes and slowed the tempo of the game, but they still continued to struggle playing through Ottawa’s press. They escaped yet again from conceding on a broken play in the 36th minute, as some last-ditch defending by Rocco Romeo and good goalkeeping from Callum Irving turned away three consecutive Ottawa chances.

Gaël Sandoval would provide Vancouver’s best chance of the half just seconds before halftime, with a short free kick that barely curled over the bar, but ultimately Ottawa would go into the interval up a goal — though they perhaps should’ve had more.

Seeing his team under so much pressure in the first half, Vancouver boss Afshin Ghotbi made an unusual triple substitution at halftime, bringing Mael Henry, Ibrahim Bakare and TJ Tahid into the game in place of Min-jae Kwak, Nima Moazeni Zadeh and Nicky Gyimah.

VFC improved significantly after making the change, with Bakare nearly getting his head on a set-piece attempt to level the score, but Ottawa continued to generate a few chances for themselves too. Maxim Tissot hit the goalpost around the 67th minute with a shot from a difficult angle, but again the second goal eluded the home side.

Jean-Aniel Assi and Gianni Dos Santos came in for the last half hour for Ottawa to try and add different dimensions to their attack, and Aboubakary Sacko and Zakaria Bahous joined them off the bench shortly after. Dos Santos had a chance in on goal alone, but he pulled his shot wide of the far post.

The game continued to be a wide-open affair for the final minutes, but Ottawa ultimately held off the visitors to get the job done, winning 1-0 and putting more space between themselves and Vancouver at the bottom of the CPL standings.

BOX SCORE

Goals

9′ — Samuel Salter (Atlético Ottawa)

Discipline

43′ — Yellow: James Cameron (Vancouver FC)
61′ — Yellow: Luke Singh (Atlético Ottawa)
72′ — Yellow: Ibrahim Bakare (Vancouver FC)
82′ — Yellow: Rocco Romeo (Vancouver FC)