Final Score: Pacific FC 0-1 Atlético Ottawa
Goalscorers: Bassett 38′
Game of the 2023 season: 77
CPL match: 444

Match in a minute or less

Atlético Ottawa will find themselves in fourth place after the weekend, as they took all three points from Vancouver Island on Sunday in a professional 1-0 win over Pacific FC.

Ollie Bassett found the net late in the first half for the visitors, jumping on a heavy touch and shaking his marker before slotting it coolly to the near post past Emil Gazdov to put Ottawa in front. After that, Atleti managed to shut things down in superb fashion, keeping Pacific’s dangerous attack at bay to see out the clean sheet.

The Tridents remain at the top of the table, but the gap between the top and sixth place has now shrunk to just six points as the title race heats up.

Three Observations

First-half lead allows Ottawa to get compact, organized defensively

There’s been considerable discussion recently about the way some teams choose — or are forced — to play at Starlight Stadium, where the pitch is slightly smaller than anywhere else in the CPL. It can be difficult to play tiki-taka build-up football at times when an opponent chooses to get compact and clog passing lanes, because it’s harder to go around or in behind them as well.

So, perhaps the worst thing that could have happened to Pacific early in this game was to concede first.

That’s what happened — and in frustrating fashion for the home side because of the giveaway, although Ollie Bassett’s footwork and finish were outstanding. After that, Ottawa were able to do something they can do better than any other side in the league: suffocate and frustrate an opposing attack.

Ottawa hovered around 35 to 40 per cent possession in the second half, sitting in their 4-5-1 defensive block — the central bank of five making it incredibly difficult for Pacific to play anything through them, either in the wide areas or through the congested middle.

“At the end of the day there are games and moments in games where the only thing you can do is roll up your sleeves and work,” head coach Carlos González said of his team’s resolve. “Be unbreakable and be solid. I think that if you’re not that type of team, you’re going to be a mediocre team. If you want to be a team that fights for everything, you have to be a team that bends in certain moments but doesn’t break.

“We were looking for that, I think we did it quite well. We adapted and we did quite a competitive second half, in which I didn’t feel that Pacific threatened us too much.”

Several players had to shift around to uncomfortable positions, including Malcolm Shaw playing a left-wing role that saw him drop back quite a lot for defensive duties — he won possession six times and went three-for-three on attempted tackles. Ilias Iliadis, having only joined the club a few weeks ago, started the game in central midfield and finished it at left-back.

Atleti, since González took over as coach, have been an extremely difficult side to play against when they have a lead, and they showed why in this game. All 11 players on the pitch have to be fully committed and aware of the shape they need to establish, and that was evidently the case on Sunday.

Changes in defence hamper both sides, young Tyr Walker steps up for Atleti

Thanks to a combination of injuries and suspensions, both managers were forced to shake up their defensive personnel for this match, creating a slightly different dynamic at the back for each side. Pacific, with perennial stalwart Amer Didić picking up an injury in training late this week, gave 20-year-old Paul Amedume just his third start of the season alongside Thomas Meilleur-Giguère playing the role of veteran centre-back.

Ottawa, likewise, have been dealing with some key injuries at the back — most notably, to first-choice fullbacks Maxim Tissot and Miguel Acosta, as well as Aboubakary Sacko — plus they were without Diego Espejo for this one due to his yellow card accumulation ban. So, Carlos González was forced to deploy a back four entirely composed of natural centre-backs — Karl Ouimette and Macdonald Niba playing the right and left fullback roles, respectively, while Luke Singh and Tyr Walker (making his first professional start) lined up together in the middle.

Atleti did have to play a little differently to their usual build-up with Niba and Ouimette on the flanks; they did, as usual, slide over into a back three in possession with Niba bombing forward as Tissot normally would, but he’s not as attack-minded a player as Tissot. He did overlap with left winger Malcolm Shaw a few times but not to much success in the first half — which may have been part of the thinking behind Niba’s removal at halftime, although Carlos González confirmed postmatch he’d also picked up an injury. González pushed Ilias Iliadis from midfield over to the left flank to provide a different, more ball-moving dynamic to that side, albeit perhaps sacrificing some of Niba’s ability to handle Josh Heard and Kunle Dada-Luke defensively.

Individual credit is due to Walker, who — as a 19-year-old — came in to start in defence against an extremely talented attack, and he didn’t set a foot wrong in his entire 65-minute outing. Even Ollie Bassett made sure to single Walker out in his postmatch comments on OneSoccer, crediting the youngster’s maturity in stepping into a difficult role.

At the other end, Pacific might have suffered without Didić, who could well end up a nominee for Defender of the Year in a couple months. His absence was felt on Ottawa’s goal, as the less experienced Amedume did not close down Bassett and gave him too much space, allowing him to pick a spot to shoot; Didić, who has played against Bassett plenty of times, might have been more aggressive in stepping to him.

Didić’s aerial supremacy was also sorely missed; he’s scored four goals this year, and the six-foot-four defender could certainly have been useful for any of the four attacking corner kicks Pacific had in this game.

That said, their coach James Merriman pointed out that Didić’s absence was not the reason they lost, by any means.

“To be honest, I think we need to be happy with the way that the back four performed,” Merriman said. “I thought Paul Amedume was excellent; I need to see the game again but I don’t think he made many mistakes. Cédric Toussaint was quite solid, Georges, Kunle, Tommy — I don’t think Amer was the missing piece today at all. For sure we need more from our midfield, from our two eights, and our front three to start and the forwards that came in. At the end of the day we need to score goals to win games.”

Missed opportunity for Pacific as attack fails to execute

Not for the first time this year, Pacific will leave their home pitch feeling like they had opportunities to get something out of the match, but have ended up with nothing.

The Tridents had 14 shots — 12 of them inside the box — and 1.49 expected goals, but they just could not execute the final ball they needed. Pacific’s 69 final third entries led to just 29 touches in the box, which may indicate just how much trouble they had playing through Ottawa’s block once they got into the attacking areas.

Of those 14 shots, only four were on target, as poor finishing and some ill-selected shooting opportunities doomed Pacific’s attack.

James Merriman was fuming postmatch, with his team now being held scoreless in two consecutive home games.

“We weren’t good enough,” he said. “We didn’t start the game right. We’re playing at home in front of our fans, and they deserve more from us. We need to be better.

“It can’t come from our defenders, it can’t come from our six; I thought our back four was quite good, quite solid, I thought Cédric Toussaint was quite good, quite solid. But our midfield and our attacking players need to be more aggressive. They need to be more decisive, more direct, more quality, more attention to detail in the final act. We really lacked that today.”

The biggest gut-punch from this weekend will be that Pacific squandered a fantastic opportunity to start locking down the regular season title. With Cavalry losing at Valour and Forge held to a draw by York United, Pacific could’ve gone five points clear at the top.

Instead, they’re just two points up on both those sides, and indeed only six ahead of York United, who sit outside the playoff spots in six. That’s how close the table is right now, and opportunities to stabilize a position — particularly at the top — are so incredibly rare that Pacific could very well look back on this game with a great deal of regret in a month or so.

“We are in the driver’s seat, and we’ve been sitting up there the whole season, but every time there’s an opportunity to really take away we’ve let it pass,” Merriman said. “This for me is mentality; we speak about what we want to do this year and we need to be honest about that. We need to start showing more personality and taking these opportunities. Today is a big disappointment.”

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Tyr Walker, Atlético Ottawa

The 19-year-old stepped up when his hometown club needed him most, getting his first professional start in the shoes of Diego Espejo. Walker led his team with six duels won (out of eight), also making three tackles and four clearances in an outstandingly mature 65-minute shift.

What’s next?

Atlético Ottawa will open the next matchweek on Friday, Aug. 18 as they travel to Winnipeg to take on Valour FC (7 p.m. CT/8 p.m. ET). Pacific, meanwhile, embark on a quick trip across the Salish Sea to take on Vancouver FC on Saturday, Aug. 19 (4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET).

Watch all CPL matches live on OneSoccer. In addition to its website and app, OneSoccer is now available on TELUS channel 980 and on Fubo TV. Call your local cable provider to ask for OneSoccer today.