Atlético Ottawa were held in an enthralling draw with league leaders Cavalry FC as Ballou Tabla’s second-half goal allowed Carlos González’s men to keep pace at the top of the leader board. Head Coach González praised the personality of his team in a hard-fought draw against “one of the best defences in the league” but in his own words, he heads home feeling like Atleti could’ve taken a little more. “We played against a great team, with great players, with a great structure,” said the 35-year-old. “They are players that have experience together in the CPL and they’ve played together for many years.”

“We created more than them and I think that, in the details, we did a better game than them […] but the reality is we have a point against the leaders of the CPL and we’re ready to go again.”

Cavalry took a first-half lead through a wonderfully executed free-kick but struggled to fashion too many other goalscoring opportunities. Despite heading into the break a goal down, González was happy with what he was seeing from his team, making only minor adjustments which paid off within two minutes of the restart as Tabla combined with Zakaria Bahous and Malcolm Shaw to draw Ottawa level.

“I told them to simplify our football,” explained the Head Coach. “That was the key point, keeping the identity we had in the last 25 minutes and controlling more of the details in the defence and in the attack.”

Speaking after the game, Tabla revelled in the growing relationships with his teammates including rising star Bahous.

“I thought he was top this evening as you could see,” said the 23-year-old. “He’s a very good player in his first year as a pro. He’s taking his minutes and showing every day in training that he belongs at this level.

On the goal, Tabla added: “When I saw Bahous touch the ball down with his chest I already saw Malcolm so I just tried to lay it off like we have been doing in training – it happened just like we had been doing in training.”