Final Score: Halifax Wanderers FC 1-3 Atlético Ottawa
Goalscorers: Ferrazzo 89′; del Campo 39′, Aparicio 56′, Tabla 73′
Game of the 2024 season: 10
CPL match: 489

Match in a minute or less

Atlético Ottawa continued their unbeaten start to the 2024 CPL season on Saturday, as they defeated the Halifax Wanderers 3-1 to make it two wins and one draw from their first three games, leaving the Wanderers without a point from their first three matches of the season.

After a first-half red card to Halifax’s Lorenzo Callegari, Ottawa picked up a crucial goal right before half time, as Rubén del Campo slotted home from the edge of the box to give his team the lead.

From there, Ottawa did well to extend their lead in the second half, as Manny Aparicio slotted home with an acrobatic finish in the 56th minute to make it 2-0, before Ballou Tabla made it 3-0 with a finish from inside of the box in the 73rd minute.

The Wanderers clawed one back late, as Riley Ferrazzo curled home his team’s first goal of the season, but that’d be all his team would be able to muster up as Ottawa cruised to victory from there.

Three Observations

Ottawa shows ability to turn the heat up in key moments en route to win:

From Ottawa’s perspective, there’s a lot they’ll be pleased with from this game – namely the fact that they scored three goals, won on the road and kept their early unbeaten streak intact. For their first road game of the season, one played against the team with the second-best home record in the CPL in 2023, they’ll know how important this win is in the grand scheme of things, as well as in the present.

At the same time, Ottawa will feel that they’ve got room for improvement within their performance in this game. Of course, when playing on the road, sometimes the performance can be secondary to the result, but for an Ottawa team still gelling as a group as they integrate several new signings into their squad, they understand the importance of keeping an eye on how they play as they chase results.

Yet, that they’ve been able to now pick up seven points out of a possible nine is quite impressive, especially given that they’ll feel that they’ve got another gear to hit as a team.

That’s a credit to their mentality, however, as they’ve got a ruthless edge in their squad, one that they showed in this game. No matter the game state, or the environment, this Ottawa side seems to know when they need to turn it up, and they showed that in this game.

Having struggled to find their flow through the first 30 minutes despite the early Wanderers red card, they appeared to flip a switch right before half time, stepping up and taking advantage of their numerical advantage to then grab their lead.

Then, in the second half, once they went up 2-0, they returned to cruise control, but then turned that switch back on to put the game out of reach with the 3-0 tally after a flurry of Wanderers chances caught them by surprise right before that.

Therefore, while it might not have been their most complete performance, the win more than makes up for it, as it gives an idea of what they’re capable of as a group.

Now, their big goal will be to build on this start, turning those sparks into much more, but they’ll be able to do so while remaining confident in their ability to manage matches, which can go a long way for a team.

In a game of moments, this Ottawa team seems to relish knowing when to crank things up, which is a sign of their strong mentality.

“I’m very satisfied with the players that we have (in this group), Ottawa head coach Carlos González noted afterwards. “I think that we have a lot of players who are capable of finding that spark in certain moments of the game.”

“After the red card, we started to relax a little bit, we were not playing with the rhythm that the game demanded, but then in the last 10-15 minutes of the first half, we were better, we played faster, we found the correct spaces and the team connected again.”

Wanderers left searching for answers after third straight loss:

It’s far too early to press the panic button for the Wanderers, and they admitted as much after the game, but one can only wonder what is going through their collective minds after this loss.

Their third straight loss, they had good moments across the game, but sloppiness in both boxes ended up being their downfall.

Defensively, they allowed three similar goals, which appeared to be apart of a targeted strategy from Atlético, as they cleaned up some of the individual mistakes that hurt them in their first two games, but replaced them with breakdowns in their overall structure. Naturally, those will be much easier to fix, but for a side that had defended well aside from those mistakes in their first two games, that’ll be a point of frustration for them.

Then, offensively, they certainly generated enough chances to find more than just the late consolation goal, generating two big chances and hitting the woodwork twice, yet, that almost perfectly sums up their start to the season – things aren’t falling for them right now.

Of course, as a team, you create your own luck, and the Wanderers aren’t doing that, but it puts them in a tough position, as it can often be easier to turn things around as a team that’s struggling to play the way it wants to play. For the Wanderers, that’s not been the case, as Gheisar once again stressed after the game, noting that he was pleased with the effort and performance of his group, especially given the time they spent down a player.

“I don’t think we’ll give up,” Gheisar said. “We’re very disappointed with the result at home, but can look at our stats, you can look at our morale, the kilometres we’re putting in, we’re involved in every game in one way or the other, so we can’t go away from that and change things, we just got to keep going, and we just need to concentrate more.”

Now, however, it will lead to an interesting crossroads for this Wanderers team. Gheisar isn’t unfair in his assessment of his team’s play to say that they’re doing well to stick to their process, but at the same time, his team will have to find a way to win.

There, they face the dilemma that teams always face at a moment like this – do you stick with the plan and power through this stretch? Or do you try and tweak things up, looking for a spark in this group?

It looks like Gheisar will continue preaching the former, having remained steadfast in his belief of this group and the way that they’ve been playing, which is not an unreasonable approach, but one that will put a target on their backs as opponents will see them as a team ripe for the picking right now.

That will be their biggest challenge to overcome from this slow start, as they’ll have to find a way to stick to their process and not get caught up in the outside noise, which can often lead teams to turn to desperation, which is always a dangerous road to veer down early in a season.

“We have to keep pushing in training and then translate those performances that we’re putting in training to the games,” Wanderers midfielder Jérémy Gagnon-Laparé said of his team’s start. “We’ve got to work extra hard to correct those mistakes that we’re making, and keep believing as it’s still early in the season.”

“We have to remain calm, but still feel that urgency that everyone is feeling right now, so that we can believe that we can do this, but still take things one game at a time.”

Cutbacks prove to be crucial for Ottawa’s attack on all 3 goals:

Something happening once can be seen as a fluke. For it to occur twice can be still considered coincidence.

For something to happen three times, however, is an intentional act, such as Atlético Ottawa’s desire to employ the cutback when attacking, which as mentioned earlier, led to all three of their goals in this game.

On each goal, their strategy was clear – get the ball down to the byline, forcing the Wanderers to drop deep, and then cut the ball back the other way to a late runner, generating them a clear look at goal.

Likely employed as a counter to the Wanderers aggressive wing backs in possession, which can leave space on the flanks for opposing teams to attack, Ottawa seemed to find that space with ease, and were rewarded for it with their goals.

Plus, they arguably could’ve found even more goals via this route, too, generating some of their best chances from this avenue.

Thanks to the speed of wingers Matteo de Brienne and Ballou Tabla, and the ability of full backs Kris Twardek and Maxim Tissot to push forward, they were constantly flooding the wide channels in this game, making sure that Ottawa always had overloads out wide against Halifax’s wing backs.

Along with the excellent late runs of their striker, Rubén del Campo, and the midfielders behind him, they did well to find the space that the wide players created at the edge of the box with their play on the flanks.

That’s reflected in the numbers, too, as Ottawa sent 39.2% of its attacks down the left and 37.8% down the right, sending just 23% down the central channels.

Yet, that’s a credit to their gameplan, as they targeted a perceived weakness in the Wanderers defensive armor, and used it to their advantage with their aggressive wide play.

Now, however, the interesting thing will be to see if Ottawa continues to use this strategy going forward, as the Wanderers aren’t the only team in the CPL who likes to employ aggressive wide rotations.

Therefore, while González admitted this strategy was a targeted one for this game – he offered a wry smile when asked if the cutbacks were an intentional strategy, saying that his smile was his answer to that question – it could be a way to get more out of this Ottawa attack going forward.

“We worked all week to prepare for this Halifax team,” del Campo said. “So we knew some things that the coaches told us to do and improve during the game, and that (worked for us).”

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Ollie Bassett, Atlético Ottawa

For someone who always finds a way to get involved in the goals, it’s a surprise to see Ollie Bassett finish without a goal contribution in this game, yet, his impact went far beyond that in this game.

In a match that needed a tempo-setter, he was exactly that for Ottawa, shining with his play in possession. That’s reflected in the stats, as Bassett completed 52 out of 54 passes (96%), connected on all seven of his long ball attempts, created four chances, and had one shot, one dribble and eight passes into the final third in a solid offensive showing from the Ottawa #10.

What’s next?

Both teams will now get set for some midweek Canadian Championship action before returning to CPL play next weekend.

First, Atlético Ottawa will face Valour in their preliminary round Canadian Championship matchup at TD Place on Wednesday, May 1st (6:00 p.m. CT/7:00 p.m. ET), while Halifax hosts Ligue 1 Québec side CS Saint-Laurent in their preliminary round matchup at Wanderers Grounds the next day on Thursday, May 2nd (6:00 p.m. ET/7:00 p.m. AT).

Meanwhile, in CPL play, the Wanderers will head to Hamilton for a matchup against Forge at Tim Hortons Field on Tuesday, May 7th (11:00 a.m. ET/12:00 p.m. AT), while Ottawa will once again host Valour at TD Place on Sunday, May 5th (1:00 p.m. CT/2:00 p.m. ET).

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