2023 CPL Regular Season — Match #1
Atlético Ottawa vs. Halifax Wanderers
April 15, 2023 at 1 p.m. ET/2 p.m. AT
TD Place in Ottawa, ON
Watch Live: OneSoccer.ca & TELUS Ch. 980 // Tickets available here

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After a long offseason, the Canadian Premier League is back, and the new season begins in the same place the 2022 campaign ended — TD Place in Ottawa. Atlético Ottawa, last year’s regular season champions and North Star Shield runners-up, will host the Halifax Wanderers in match number one of the league’s milestone fifth season.

Saturday’s game will be the start of what both clubs hope will be a transformational season. Ottawa are looking to continue the incredible momentum they built last year, while Halifax are looking to reclaim their place among the league’s elite after two difficult seasons following their 2020 CPL Final appearance.

Halifax have completely revamped their squad, bringing in over a dozen new players. Some of those additions include expected starting goalkeeper Yann-Alexandre Fillon, former PSG and Genoa prospect Lorenzo Callegari, Canadian youth international standout Tiago Coimbra, and 2022 League1 Ontario MVP Massimo Ferrin.

The newcomers aren’t just on the field for the Wanderers, as head coach Patrice Gheisar will manage his first match at the professional level after taking over from Stephen Hart this offseason. Gheisar was chosen to be the second head coach in Wanderers history after a very successful stint with Vaughan Azzurri in League1 Ontario, including winning the league’s Coach of the Year after leading Vaughan to an undefeated season and league title.

Overall with the club, Gheisar had an incredible 41-2-5 record with a +114 goal differential — exciting Wanderers fans about the possibility of a much more attack-minded team than the one that scored just 24 times in 28 matches last season.

He will be up against reigning CPL Coach of the Year Carlos Gonzalez, who enters his second year at the helm of Atlético Ottawa. Gonzalez, despite winning the award and taking the team from eighth place to within 90 minutes of the North Star Shield, also has something to prove this season — that he can get the team to evolve tactically and play more attacking football after relying a lot on strong defending in 2022.

Ottleti also possesses reigning CPL Player (and Players’ Player) of the Year Ollie Bassett, who is also looking to improve on his impressive season to achieve even greater things in 2023. A lot of their 2022 squad also remains intact, but the club did lose fellow Player of the Year nominee Ballou Tabla, captain Drew Beckie and midfield stalwart Abdoul Sissoko, among others.

They have also recruited well, bringing in Canadian international defender Karl Ouimette, talented CF Montreal attacker Jean-Aniel Assi on loan, and a handful of other players with CPL experience — Noah Verhoeven, Gianni Dos Santos and Samuel Salter.

364 days before Saturday’s match — on April 16, 2022 — the two sides met at TD Place in the second game of their seasons, and it was one to forget for the visitors. The Wanderers lost 1-0, but more importantly lost reigning Player of the Year Joao Morelli to an ACL injury, and the Brazilian attacker still won’t be available for at least the first half of this season according to the club.

The focus will be on the players on the pitch, however, as another exciting season of Canada’s top flight league kicks off. These two teams will meet again midweek, facing each other in a Canadian Championship preliminary round match at neutral site York Lions Stadium on Wednesday.

All CPL matches are available to stream on OneSoccer, or on TELUS Optik TV Channel 980. Tous les matchs de l’Atlético Ottawa sont disponibles en français sur OneSoccer.

3 THINGS TO WATCH

• Midfield battle key in opening day clash: Both clubs added talented midfielders to their squads this offseason, which is important in a match that could be won or lost in the centre of the park. 2022 CPL Player of the Year Ollie Bassett is the focal point in an Ottawa midfield that has added longtime CPLer Noah Verhoeven. They are both expected to start the majority of matches this season, with talented youngsters Zakaria Bahous and Gabriel Antinoro also available to Carlos Gonzalez. Halifax has kept Trinidad and Tobago international and club captain Andre Rampersad, as well as a potential attacking difference-maker in Aidan Daniels, but built an entirely new midfield around them. There are high expectations for 25-year-old Lorenzo Callegari — who has been on the books at PSG and Genoa — as well as an NCAA standout in Englishman Callum Watson. Armaan Wilson and Tomas Giraldo are also new midfield recruits, and returning player Mo Omar can play in midfield, but is expected to spend a lot of time at centre-back instead.

• Ottawa’s revamped attack looking to start season strong: While Ottawa did score in bunches at times, a lot of their success in 2022 came off the back of elite defending. They have rebuilt their attack this offseason, partly due to necessity after the departures of Ballou Tabla and Brian Wright, but partly due to wanting to create more goalscoring opportunities. One of those new Ottawa attackers is Samuel Salter, who was Halifax’s leading goalscorer a season ago, and signed from the Wanderers in the league’s first intra-league transfer with a fee. They’ve also added 2021 CPL champion Gianni Dos Santos and promising CF Montreal loanee Jean-Aniel Assi, and will be hoping to get more from Malcom Shaw this season after a downturn in form last year.

• Patrice Gheisar era begins with difficult away test: Halifax and Ottawa have met eleven times since the latter club joined the Canadian Premier League for the 2020 season, and every single match between the two has been action-packed. Only once has there been less than two goals scored, with the lone exception a 1-0 victory for the hosts at TD Place last April. Since Halifax won the first ever match between the two sides 2-0, Ottawa has scored in all of the next ten, winning five times — including winning each of the four meetings in 2022. In his first competitive match in charge of a CPL club, Patrice Gheisar will face the tough task of ending that losing streak, against a team that doesn’t concede many goals, and has shown the ability to score in bursts — and away from home in the nation’s capital. Halifax had a poor record away from home in 2022, with their most recent away victory coming on June 25 against Pacific FC.

PROJECTED STARTING XIs

Atlético Ottawa: Ingham; Ouimette, Espejo, Acosta; Tissot, Verhoeven, Bassett, Haworth; Dos Santos, Shaw, Assi

Halifax Wanderers: Fillion; James, Campagna, Omar, Fernandez; Callegari, Rampersad, Watson, Daniels; Collomb, Mwandwe

ALL-TIME SERIES

Atlético Ottawa wins: 5 || Halifax Wanderers wins: 4 || Draws: 2

Last meeting:

October 1, 2022 — Halifax Wanderers 1-2 Atlético Ottawa 

KEY QUOTES

“We love pressure, it’s what keeps us alive. If we didn’t win [the league] last season then this year we would have more pressure to win, so at the end of the day, we are at a great starting point. Our mentality is going to be the same, we are going to only think about the next game. We will focus on doing a good job the next day, in our training sessions and being well-prepared in our next game. Game by game, little by little, work hard and continue.” — Atlético Ottawa head coach Carlos Gonzalez

“I work hard, and I’m proud of that. For me, it’s the higher the wall, the more I get out of myself. Right now, the sky is the limit for the Wanderers, and it’s not about just doing better than last year, we’re going to try and go and be the best we’ve ever been and represent our city and fans at its best.” — Halifax Wanderers head coach Patrice Gheisar