Final Score: Atlético Ottawa 1-1 Pacific FC (3-1 agg.)
Goalscorers: Shaw 83′; Meilleur-Giguère 28′
Canadian Premier League Playoffs
Semifinal Leg 1

Match in a minute or less

Atlético Ottawa will host the 2022 CPL Final, as a 1-1 draw at TD Place on Sunday was enough to defeat Pacific FC 3-1 on aggregate in this two-legged semifinal tie.

The visitors entered the match trailing 2-0 after the previous weekend’s first leg at Starlight Stadium, and therefore knew they’d need to score at least twice to have a chance of advancing. Pacific came out fast, and before the half-hour mark they managed to find a goal, courtesy of Thomas Meilleur-Giguère who beat his man at the back post to head home a corner kick.

The Tridents would swarm forward in waves over the remaining hour of the match desperately seeking the equalizer they needed, but were continuously denied by Ottawa ‘keeper Nathan Ingham. Eventually, it was the hosts who broke through, as Malcolm Shaw cut toward the top of the box and curled a gorgeous strike from distance to set TD Place alight and give Atleti the breathing room they needed.

Three Observations

Atlético Ottawa bend, don’t break en route to first ever Final

The regular season champions will try to complete the double next weekend when they host the CPL Final at TD Place, and they looked worthy of it on Sunday at home.

Ottawa, by the admission of several players postmatch, weren’t necessarily at their best in this match, but the fact that they still managed to get the job done is a testament to the club’s resilience. The first half hour of the match was certainly nervous for them, right up until they conceded the goal to Thomas Meilleur-Giguère from a set-piece.

In that moment, they certainly could have panicked. Knowing that they’d have to spend the final hour of the match with absolutely no room for error changed the landscape of things considerably, as it made everything just a little tighter and higher-stakes.

With a back four of Maxim Tissot, Sergio Camus, Drew Beckie, and Miguel Acosta — a group not too dissimilar to their usual setup, though without Diego Espejo who sat out this contest with a suspension — Ottawa were well-organized as usual. This game required perhaps a few more individual defensive moments than the first leg as Pacific got into more dangerous areas, but they handled all but one of them well.

The centre-backs Beckie and Camus were particularly immense, with 11 and eight individual clearances, respectively. Ottawa suffered another major blow about midway through the second half, though, when Beckie clashed heads with Acosta and went down, ultimately having to leave the game, forcing Abdou Sissoko into the defensive line from midfield.

Still, though, Ottawa held firm. They stuck closely to the game plan they established heading in — absorb pressure and look for space to hit in transition — and ultimately they found their reward off the boot of Malcolm Shaw.

“This was a typical second leg playoff game,” Carlos González told reporters postmatch. “Lots of emotions, lots of intensity, lots of details. We were capable to maange them at the end of the game. Pacific did a great game today, they came with the correct intensity — in the first half they had an extra intensity and activation over us… We did it little by little, through the game they started to be a little more nervous, I don’t know, but we knew that this scenario of game would appear in some moment.”

Pacific attack finds better rhythm but second goal eludes

From kickoff in this game, Pacific’s energy and aggression took centre-stage. Trailing by two goals on aggregate, it was always obvious that they would have to come out and attack quickly, but they did so far more effectively than they did in the home leg last week.

The Tridents were far more fluid in their movement, with all four of Manny Aparicio, Marco Bustos, and Josh Heard behind centre-forward Kamron Habibullah given license to drift into a variety of passing channels across the final third. As a result, Pacific’s front four were better able to pull Ottawa’s defensive shape apart a little to create openings for passes into the box.

Pacific ended up with a staggering 27 shots on Sunday — nine of them on target, with goalkeeper Nathan Ingham denying them eight times — and they had 30 touches in the box, as they seemed far better able to get into the dangerous channels than they were the week prior.

Goals haven’t exactly come easily to Pacific in the last couple months of the season, but a well-designed set-piece run from Meilleur-Giguère was certainly the kind of goal that comes along often in knockout football, which isn’t always the most free-flowing version of the sport.

After that, Pacific did more than enough in terms of creating chances to score again, but it didn’t quite fall for them — a few open headers and loose balls near the penalty spot probably should’ve been finished — but it wasn’t by any means because of a lack of energy or effort.

By the end of the game, coach James Merriman truly had played all his cards in terms of attacking substitutions, and the Tridents finished the match with four forwards on the pitch after Jordan Brown, Gianni Dos Santos, and Djenairo Daniels had all come in off the bench. Dos Santos had a few good moments coming in from the left wing in the last five minutes, but it was not to be for the Tridents, despite an effort of which they should be proud.

“I think that’s all we can ask for. We wanted to open the game from minute one, all the way through, and that’s what we saw — at least, that’s what I saw,” Merriman said postmatch. “The players did everything we spoke about that we wanted to do, other than take chances and finish.”

Also of note: with Pacific’s season now over, so too is the illustrious career of their captain Jamar Dixon, who announced several weeks prior that he’d be retiring at the end of this campaign. The veteran midfielder with over a decade of professional experience thus didn’t see his career end in the happiest of circumstances, though he did finish where he started — in his hometown of Ottawa.

Merriman spared a thought for his skipper postmatch:

“I’m proud of him,” Merriman said. “We’re not gonna let him go too far; I think this is what the league’s for — players like Jamar Dixon, he [was] a young Canadian, I played with him at Victoria Highlanders, and then he had to go overseas and find his way and go through that, which a lot of Canadian players had to do, and then he’s able to come back and finish his career in the Canadian Premier League.

“He’s a captain, he’s a great example for our young players. This is what the Canadian Premier League is for, not just young Canadians but also Canadians that are gonna come back. I’m proud to have played with him, to coach him.”

Ottawa dangerous in transition, eventually find moment of magic from Shaw

Malcolm Shaw’s first Atlético Ottawa goal was one that secured their first-ever win back in 2020. On Sunday, he scored to secure their first-ever trip to the CPL Final.

Just as they did in the first leg, Ottawa were always going to need a little bit of individual magic in transition to score and kill off the tie, and that’s exactly what Shaw delivered with his effort to cut toward the top of the box and curl his shot from distance into the net.

As expected, Ottawa had quite a few decent opportunities to counter-attack, especially in the second half on the foot of Ballou Tabla, whose pace and footwork helped stretch things out a few times as his midfielders — Ollie Bassett especially — tried to pick out long forward passes into open space behind Pacific’s fullbacks.

Shaw entered the game at halftime in place of Brian Wright, who started as the lone number nine in Ottawa’s 4-5-1 setup. Shaw came into the match to offer a slightly different element up top, and he did on several occasions help create space in front of Pacific’s back four by running between and behind the centre-backs.

The goal itself wasn’t exactly a textbook counter-attack; indeed, the move stalled a little bit on the right flank, but when Shaw picked it up in the half-space and opted to cut in toward the middle he made a brave — ultimately, heroic — choice to take it on himself and shoot.

"All the hard work we've put in has come to pay off, it's really exciting"

After @atletiOttawa qualified for the Canadian Premier League final this afternoon, goalscorer @zaiahshaw spoke to @charliejclarke 🗣️#CanPL pic.twitter.com/iItoYOvWOY

— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) October 23, 2022

“It was a glorious moment,” Shaw said on the pitch postmatch. “It’s not just for me, but for this whole club, the fans, everything. The first two years, the things we went to, just to be here, it’s for everything. This is a really great feeling.”

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Nathan Ingham, Atlético Ottawa

The Ottawa keeper was a tremendous backstop behind a resolute defence on Sunday, making eight saves — several of them right off the goal line — to ensure his side didn’t break. Ingham commanded the box well and salvaged a few nervous moments for the home side.

What’s next?

Atlético Ottawa will host the CPL Final next Sunday, October 30, when they’ll take on either Forge FC or Cavalry FC.

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