Final Score: Valour FC 1-1 Atlético Ottawa
Goalscorers: Hundal 10′; Del Campo 77′ (pen.)
Game of the 2024 season: 87
CPL match: 571

Match in a minute or less

Valour FC and Atlético Ottawa each banked just one point each on Monday night in Winnipeg, as the two sides settled for a 1-1 draw at Princess Auto Stadium.

The hosts had the better of the first half, scoring just 10 minutes in thanks to a well-worked play that ended in Jordan Faria’s cross finding the head of Shaan Hundal. Valour couldn’t find a second goal though, and in the second half they saw their lead disappear.

Ottawa won a controversial penalty with just under 15 minutes to play, as a ball caught Dante Campbell’s elbow in the act of trying to turn away from the ball; the referee awarded the spot kick and Rubén del Campo buried it, levelling the score.

So, neither side made up much ground in their campaigns to move up the table, as they each settled for one point and Valour and Atleti remain four points back of fifth and first place, respectively.

Three Observations

Disjointed game leaves neither team satisfied in playoff and title races

At this stage of the season, a draw isn’t a lot more useful than a loss, especially between teams who aren’t fighting for the same position. Valour and Atlético Ottawa have different achievable goals right now: for Valour, it’s to get into fifth place and make the playoffs for the first time in club history. For Ottawa, it’s to leapfrog Forge FC and win the regular season title.

Both Valour and Atlético Ottawa were the same distance from their objective on Monday morning: five points. After a draw, they’re now both four points back — that is, more than a game away. Each team does have one game left this year against the club they’re chasing (Vancouver for Valour and Forge for Atleti), so if either had won this game and moved to two points back, they’d control their own destiny with a chance to beat their rival in the standings directly.

Instead, these two teams will now both need a favour from elsewhere if they’re to achieve what they want to in the next month or so.

Monday’s game was not the most free-flowing, outside of a few moments of attractive football from Valour in the first 15 minutes. There were plenty of fouls, some of them cynical; three players were booked before the hour mark for clumsy tackles, but at least two more could’ve been cautioned for fouls breaking up attacking motions — Amer Didic and Ollie Bassett, in particular.

Neither side had much success on the dribble (35 and 40 per cent for Valour and Ottawa, respectively), and neither was able to win the ball high up the pitch, with a combined four giveaways in teams’ own defensive thirds.

The start-stop run of play might’ve been more from Ottawa’s playbook than Valour’s; the visitors had 18 fouls to the hosts’ nine. Still, it prevented either team from getting into the kind of rhythm they might’ve needed to score multiple goals and put the match to bed.

Valour’s strong, decisive start earns advantage; unlucky to drop points

Having played Atlético Ottawa four times already this year, Valour had learned some harsh lessons about playing this particular opponent — especially in the first three meetings, where Ottawa outscored them 9-0.

Those prior memories certainly informed Valour’s pragmatic approach on Monday, which served them well. They started the game much stronger than Atleti and dictated their own tempo from the start. The home side had almost 75 per cent possession in the first 15 minutes, demonstrating a lot of patience in how they moved the ball around the back.

Themi Antonoglou was the key distributor, creating triangles between the back three and either Raphael Ohin or Safwane Mlah in midfield in an effort to pull Ottawa out to press. Although Atleti did not often step out of their block, Valour remained patient and looked for spaces, ultimately relying on the excellent ball delivery of either Antonoglou or Diogo Ressurreição to send longer switches out to space on the flanks or in transition.

The early goal came from such a moment; Antonoglou had tempted Ottawa to shift to his side of the pitch just enough that he could send a ball out to the right for Jordan Faria, who was quick and decisive in his step toward the box and cross to the head of Shaan Hundal.

Shaan Hundal opens the scoring for Valour FC 👀

What a goal 🤩#CanPL | 📺 @onesoccer pic.twitter.com/Ll93BdXw4K

— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) September 10, 2024

However, Valour leave the game frustrated that they don’t have more to show from that strong early showing. About midway through the first half Atleti settled in significantly and they ended the game with a slight advantage in possession.

Valour head coach Phil Dos Santos spoke after the game about the flow of play, commending his team’s effort. He was content with the way his side defended as well, keeping Ottawa largely out of the dangerous areas of the pitch, although they might’ve given up more of the ball to do so.

“I think we played the game we had to play,” Dos Santos said. “We got the goal, maybe could have been better on some breaks and keeping possession of the ball in moments where we were able to break the opposition’s counter press. After we got the goal and maybe the 20-minute mark of the first half we conceded a bit too much possession, but without allowing Ottawa to create any real danger chance.”

As one might expect, however, Dos Santos was dismayed at the penalty awarded against his side; even that play could’ve gone down as an excellent block by Dante Campbell had it not been deemed handball.

“In the run of play the way the game was, we could’ve been there for a few hours and not conceded the goal,” Dos Santos added. “Unfortunately, the goal comes the way it comes, and I think that was the only shot on target registered by Ottawa, who’s a team fighting for a title.”

Although they get little tangible advantage from this result, it still might add to their confidence as they head on the road to play York United on Friday. They desperately need to start picking up points in batches of three if they’re to get ahead of Vancouver (and Pacific FC, who also sit between Valour and the playoff line).

Atleti snatch point via timely penalty but not fluid in final third

As has been a theme in many of Atlético Ottawa’s most frustrating moments this season, an early goal on Monday left them chasing the game, and for a while it looked like they didn’t have the attacking impetus to find their way back in.

Before Monday night, Ottawa had five wins and 18 points away from home in 2024, but only once had they successful overturned a deficit — and that was a 1-1 draw at Cavalry where they conceded before two minutes were played.

This time, they also managed to get away with a point thanks to that late penalty kick, but they still might not be particularly happy with the chances they created in open play. Outside of the penalty, Ottawa had 0.62 expected goals from nine shots; the most damning stat is that they had a whopping 30 touches in the box, but just one shot on target.

There’s a certain decisiveness that’s missing in critical moments for Ottawa right now. They did improve in the second half, as Carlos González switched to a two-striker system by bringing on Sam Salter in place of left midfielder Gabriel Antinoro. That allowed them to play more through the half spaces and find runners in the box rather than speculative crosses, although the ball still rarely fell to attackers’ feet in positions to shoot.

“In the moment that we are in the season, every point you can you have to take it. It’s true that we came here to win three points, but we didn’t start with the gear that we should, and after that we did many things pretty good to win the game but it wasn’t enough,” González said postmatch.

“The last 20 minutes of the first half were quite good; we put that gear that the game needed and we were getting there, but we weren’t having enough presence in the box and we were lacking numbers. So we tweaked the system a little bit. I think we had chances in the second half to win the game, but in certain moments we lacked a little bit of precision and decision making in the last metres.”

Atleti have scored just one open play goal in their last five games; they’ve dug out a few results from set-pieces, in particular thanks to Ilias Iliadis’ pair of Olimpicos, but the run of play has not seen them producing as much free-flowing football as they might’ve at times earlier in the year.

With six games left to play, they’re still in quite a good position and, even if they can’t pass Forge, Ottawa have every reason to believe they could beat them in the playoffs and still host a CPL Final. However, they’re going to need to find more ways to score goals if they’re to lift silverware before the end of the year.

What’s next?

Valour have a short turnaround to head to Toronto, where they’ll play York United FC on Friday, Sept. 13 (8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT). Ottawa, meanwhile, get to rest until Sunday, Sept. 15, when they’ll be in Alberta to take on Cavalry FC (3 p.m. MT/5 p.m. ET).