Atlético Ottawa climbed back into the playoff picture on Sunday afternoon, jumping into fourth place in the CPL with a narrow 1-0 away win at Pacific FC thanks to a first-half Ollie Bassett goal against his former club.

When teamsheets dropped for this game, both sides produced a couple of surprises, as an injury to Amer Didić meant Paul Amedume started at centre-back for Pacific, while Diego Espejo’s suspension meant local youngster Tyr Walker got his first professional start in the backline for Ottawa.

For long stretches in the opening phase of the game, the two familiar opponents remained patient and tried to feel one another out; it wasn’t until after the hydration break midway through the first 45 that the sides opened up a bit, with the two teams each generating a couple of good scoring chances around the half-hour mark.

The scoring at last began late in the first half, though, as Karl Ouimette won the ball back in Ottawa’s own half and sent it forward, where Pacific’s Manny Aparicio knocked it back toward his own goal and into the path of Ollie Bassett. The defending CPL Player of the Year took it down and managed to shake off a backtracking Aparicio with some good footwork before firing a good shot to the near post, beating Emil Gazdov to make it 1-0 for Atleti.

Leading at the break, Ottawa boss Carlos González opted to make a change at halftime, as left-back Macdonald Niba was swapped out for Noah Verhoeven, who entered to play in the middle of the park while Ilias Iliadis dropped to the left.

The Tridents, chasing the game, did all they could in the early second half to try and get back on level footing, and they generated a handful of very dangerous chances including some set-pieces that Ottawa only defended with some excellent last-ditch clearances and good goalkeeping from Nathan Ingham.

Atleti responded to the pressure of the first 20 minutes of the half with another pair of substitutions, as Walker and Rubén Del Campo came out to be replaced by Zachary Roy and Samuel Salter. Pacific boss James Merriman countered by bringing Steffen Yeates into his own midfield, in place of Sean Young.

Pacific continued to press, and continued to generate chances, but the goal did not seem to be coming — prompting Merriman to turn to his bench again, injecting Easton Ongaro, Djenairo Daniels and Bradley Vliet into the game late to try and find a different way through Ottawa’s block.

It was not to be the home side’s day, though, as Ottawa continued to fend off wave after wave of Pacific attack and, ultimately, held on for a clean sheet win on the road that made the race for positioning in the table even tighter.

BOX SCORE

Goals

38′ — Ollie Bassett (Atlético Ottawa)

Discipline

33′ — Yellow: Rubén Del Campo (Atlético Ottawa)
63′ — Yellow: Nathan Ingham (Atlético Ottawa)
69′ — Yellow: Josh Heard (Pacific FC)
90+7′ — Yellow: Emil Gazdov (Pacific FC)
90+7′ — Yellow: Samuel Salter (Atlético Ottawa)