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MATCH ANALYSIS: First-half explosion leads Atlético Ottawa to record-setting CanChamp rout vs. Valour FC
May 1, 2024
Canadian Premier League
Alberto Zapater Ballou Tabla Canadian Championship Ollie Bassett Rayane Yesli Rubén Del Campo TD Place TELUS Canadian Championship Valour FC

Final Score: Atlético Ottawa 7-0 Valour FC
Goalscorers: Bassett 14′ (pen.), 65′, Zapater 30′, 38′, Del Campo 31′, 69′, Tabla 63′
2024 TELUS Canadian Championship —  Preliminary Round

Match in a minute or less

Atlético Ottawa set a Canadian Championship record on Wednesday night, scoring the most ever goals by a team in one game and winning by the largest-ever margin in this competition as they defeated Valour FC 7-0 at TD Place to advance to the quarter-finals.

The damage started early for the home side as Ollie Bassett opened the scoring with a penalty, then three goals within 10 minutes — two by Alberto Zapater from a corner and once by Rubén del Campo in transition — put the game out of reach for Valour by halftime.

That’s not where the onslaught ended though, as Atleti came bursting out of the gates again in the second half, and further goals from Del Campo and Bassett, as well as one from Ballou Tabla, made it a full converted touchdown for Ottawa. They now move into the quarter-finals for the second straight year, and they’ll take on either Pacific FC or TSS Rovers for a place in the semifinals.

Three Observations

Atlético Ottawa dominate in statement first half

The first 45 minutes of this game were absolute one-way traffic, in one of the more dominant displays we’ve seen from a Canadian Premier League team in recent memory (aside, perhaps, from a simultaneous performance in Hamilton on Wednesday night). Atlético Ottawa set a new club record with four first-half goals, three of them coming within 10 minutes of each other between the 30th and 38th, and later made more team history by surpassing their prior record of five goals in a match scored against Vancouver FC last year.

Over the winter, Atleti made a statement with their squad transactions, signing a parade of big-name CPL veterans like Manny Aparicio, Matteo de Brienne and Amer Didić, among several others. On Wednesday, the club matched that statement with a more tangible one on the pitch, as they played some of the most lethal attacking football we’ve ever seen from Ottawa.

Valour were one of several clubs to lose multiple key players to Ottawa this year, and it will undoubtedly sting for them seeing De Brienne shine in this match, winning the penalty to begin the deluge and then providing a gorgeous assist for Rubén del Campo’s goal. Likewise, Valour’s former goalkeeper Rayane Yesli stood behind Atleti for a clean sheet, but didn’t have much to do on the evening as Valour couldn’t get near him.

The first half alone saw Ottawa with 62 per cent possession, 12 shots and 61 per cent of the duels won. They didn’t let up at all until well into the second half, when Valour began spending some more time on the ball in search of a consolation goal. By then, however, Ottawa’s point was made. Every player in their attack had shown how dangerous he can be, and almost all had been tangibly rewarded with a goal or assist.

Even in the early second half, after the visitors might’ve had some time to regroup, Ottawa came back out aggressively and looked for more. They were intent on using the advantage they’d found in this game to build up the form of individual players, which they’ll feel they did with Del Campo, Alberto Zapater and Ballou Tabla all scoring braces and six different players recording an assist. The confidence in this group will now be sky-high, and they’ve proven that they can play the attacking football they claimed they would in the off-season.

The fact that, in a cup game, Atlético Ottawa were able to take three star players — Aparicio, De Brienne and Tabla — off the pitch in the 66th minute, in order to rest them for a rematch with this same Valour side in league play on the weekend, felt like another statement of intent; Ottawa took care of business as early as possible in their first midweek match of the year, and put themselves in excellent position to do so again on Sunday.

PHOTO: Matt Zambonin/Freestyle Photography

Set-pieces dictate the game as Valour struggle with Ottawa corners

While Atleti are improving their ability to attack from open play, one area of the game they’ve been consistently strong under Carlos González is set plays. Three of their first-half goals came from dead ball situations, the first being a penalty (Ollie Bassett’s seventh from the spot for Ottawa) and two more being corner kicks that Valour could not defend.

On both of Zapater’s goals, the 38-year-old Spaniard was able to get his head on the ball far too easily. The first time, he was totally free at the front post while five Valour players were in the six-yard box marking nobody:

The second Zapater goal is a second phase, as Amer Didić — the player Valour would likely have been most focused on in this situation — still manages to get free and head the ball back across goal, where Zapater is again completely unmarked despite multiple defenders standing in front of him:

“From set-pieces, we looked dangerous; every time we got a corner there was a chance to score,” Atleti’s Bassett said postmatch. “That’s something that we’ve worked on in training and we have guys attacking the ball.”

Of course, Atleti are well known for being a strong set-piece team. Both Maxim Tissot and Ollie Bassett are among the CPL’s best corner takers, and their good deliveries were a factor in both goals, as was Zapater’s intelligence to track the ball better than anyone else around him.

However, there’s no denying that Valour coach Phil Dos Santos will be extremely frustrated watching back those moments and seeing how easy his side’s defence made it for Ottawa in those moments.

 

PHOTO: Matt Zambonin/Freestyle Photography

Forgettable night for Valour, but immediate chance for redemption in Ottawa

There are, in all honesty, few positives Valour can take from this match, beyond the fact that it’s now over. Falling behind so far and so quickly in the first half, as they did, is one of the more demoralizing feelings in football, and after the stretch of three goals in 10 minutes the visitors were probably longing for the final whistle.

On the whole, it was an all-around poor performance from Valour, and what might be most disappointing is that it puts them back to square one after some encouraging moments in their first three league games. It was easier to see improvement in those three losses and imagine that things will come together soon, especially considering how many new faces are in this team and acclimating to a new environment. Valour’s 2-1 loss at Forge on Saturday was a strong performance, where they probably deserved at least a point. After this loss, though, a lot of the progress feels to have slipped.

Head coach Phil Dos Santos was understandably morose after the lopsided defeat, pointing to a number of moments — set-pieces and transitions, in particular — that his side just didn’t manage well enough.

“A team gets some momentum, and then things fall apart,” Dos Santos said. “It’s not the first time in football, it won’t be the last. For me the most important is how the team’s going to react to this. In a knockout game, by one, by two, by three, doesn’t really matter. We have to look at where we are today and work to make sure we address the game on Sunday with a capacity to look back and say that we learned about this.”

Fortunately, as Dos Santos pointed out, Valour have a golden opportunity to earn some immediate redemption. They play Atlético Ottawa again, on the same pitch, this Sunday. Valour’s Canadian Championship campaign may be done, but they desperately need some points to turn things around after three defeats in CPL play. There’s no doubt that this team will be motivated for that rematch.

“I hope it’s not a, look at it and just brush it off; then I’m not doing my job,” Dos Santos added. “We need to look at it, we need to look at what went wrong, and make sure that we learn from it and we grow from it. … We need to be composed and pragmatic in our analysis and make sure that we address that and we learn from these types of mistakes. There’s a lot that we need to take from these types of moments if we want to grow. You don’t just grow in moments where you succeed; you absolutely need to grow from moments that are difficult, that could be painful, because I think that’s actually where you grow the most.”

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Ollie Bassett, Atlético Ottawa

Two goals, plus the corner delivery that led to Zapater’s second goal. Bassett also created four chances, had 70 touches and 92.5 per cent pass accuracy (all team highs in the match), and generally pulled the strings of Ottawa’s attacking onslaught.

Box score

Lineups

Atlético Ottawa: Yesli; Twardek, Didić (Walker 71′), Singh (Morer 85′), Tissot; Zapater, Aparicio (Salter 66′), Tabla (Antinoro 66′), Bassett, De Brienne (Sissoko 66′); Del Campo (Sacko 85′)

Valour FC: Murasiranwa; Samaké (Sánchez 34′), Chantzopoulos, Haynes (Ressurreição 70′); Sukunda, Verhoeven, Campbell, Antonoglou, Swibel, Binate (Hanson 86′), Hundal (Faria 64′)

Goals

14′ — Ollie Bassett (Atlético Ottawa) (Penalty)
30′ — Alberto Zapater (Atlético Ottawa)
31′ — Rubén Del Campo (Atlético Ottawa)
38′ — Alberto Zapater (Atlético Ottawa)
63′ — Ballou Tabla (Atlético Ottawa)
65′ — Ollie Bassett (Atlético Ottawa)
69′ — Rubén del Campo (Atlético Ottawa)

Discipline

26′ — Yellow: Abdul Binate (Valour FC)
36′ — Yellow: Dante Campbell (Valour FC)
39′ — Yellow: Haris Chantzopoulos (Valour FC)
42′ — Yellow: Amer Didić (Atlético Ottawa)

What’s next?

Atlético Ottawa now advance to the quarter-finals, where they’ll play a two-legged home-and-away series against either Pacific FC or TSS Rovers.

Back in the Canadian Premier League, these two sides will meet again this Sunday, May 5, also at TD Place (2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT).

Watch all TELUS Canadian Championship 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.