2023 CPL Regular Season — Match #78
Valour FC vs. Atlético Ottawa
August 18, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. CT/8:00 p.m. ET
IG Field in Winnipeg, Manitoba
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Week 19 of the 2023 Canadian Premier League season kicks off in Winnipeg on Friday night, as Valour FC host Atlético Ottawa at IG Field.

Both sides are coming off wins last weekend — Ottawa on the road in Langford, and Valour at home against Cavalry FC. Both were character-building wins for the respective sides, with Ottawa looking to improve their road form, and Valour in near-desperate need of some points to keep themselves in the race for a playoff spot.

In Langford, Ollie Bassett scored late in the first half against his former side to pick up a result, while Valour’s win took some second half heroics. After William Akio scored early in both halves, they had their backs to the wall a bit down 2-0, but chipped away and ended up winning 3-2. Klaidi Cela scored from a corner moments after Akio’s second, captain Diego Gutierrez equalised from the penalty spot, and Walter Ponce scored the winner in what could be a pivotal moment for the club’s season.

The Winnipeg side are still on the outside looking into the playoff spots, sitting in seventh place and eight points back of the current fifth-place side entering the weekend, Halifax Wanderers FC. Phil Dos Santos’ team will have to chip away bit by bit, and most importantly of course, beat the teams ahead of them in those positions. Atlético Ottawa, meanwhile, enter the weekend in fourth place, tied on points with Halifax, but with one more win — the first tiebreaker. The standings are incredibly close at the moment, with just six points separating first and sixth, and Ottawa just four points back of the league leaders Pacific FC.

These two sides have met ten times in CPL action since Atlético Ottawa joined the CPL in 2020, with Valour having the slight advantage — winning four times to Ottawa’s three, along with three draws. Two of those previous encounters have come this season, most recently on August 9 at TD Place in the nation’s capital. Ollie Bassett opened the scoring from the penalty spot 25 minutes into that match, and Zach Verhoven doubled the lead in second half stoppage time to secure the three points for the home side.

The first meeting of the season came on April 22, with Diego Gutierrez and Gianni Dos Santos each scoring in the first half as a 1-1 draw was played out at IG Field. After Friday’s encounter, they will meet once more in the 2023 regular season, on September 24 back at TD Place.

Valour will be without an important part of their midfield for this match, as Dante Campbell serves the second part of a two-match ban for yellow card accumulation.

3 THINGS TO WATCH

• Both sides looking to build on important victories: Both Valour FC and Atlético Ottawa are coming off important wins last weekend, both for positions in the table and for team morale. For Valour in particular, being down 2-0 to Cavalry FC but coming all the way back to win 3-2 in what was probably a must-win game has boosted their confidence ahead of an uphill battle to get into one of the five playoff spots. “More important than just the win is the way you do it,” Valour boss Phil Dos Santos said to CanPL.ca this week. “For the guys’ morale, it was even bigger to come back from a 2-0 deficit than if we started the game winning and just closed the game. I think that it was very big for us.” Dos Santos added that he felt that his team played well, other than a few poor displays in critical moments. They will need to be sharper against an Ottawa side that has a reputation for making teams pay in such situations. Against Pacific FC last weekend, and throughout the past couple of seasons under Carlos Gonzalez, Ottawa have played a defensive style of football on the road where they try to get the first goal, and then sit back in a low block and defend for the rest of the game. Dos Santos said he expects nothing less against his side on Friday, so Valour will need to try and find the first goal of the game to open things up a bit.

• Can Valour start scoring consistently?: One of the reasons Valour FC finds themselves lower in the table than they would like to be this season is a lack of consistent production from their strikers. As a team, Valour have scored just 16 goals in 19 matches, with three of them coming in the aforementioned 3-2 victory over Cavalry FC last weekend. Ahinga Selemani was brought in recently to try and give Valour a boost, but has yet to find the back of the net in his first four appearances, two of which were starts. Anthony Novak hasn’t scored since the opening weekend of the season back in April, and Walter Ponce scored last weekend for his third of the season — something he and the Valour attack will be hoping to gain some momentum from in the coming weeks. Kian Williams and Diego Gutierrez share the team lead with three goals apiece, and defender Klaidi Cela also has a pair of goals this season, but otherwise nobody else has more than one goal in 2023. If Valour can get some of these players going at a higher level the rest of the way, they will give themselves a chance to make a late charge toward the playoffs, but that is of course easier said than done — the race is on for Phil Dos Santos and his staff and players.

• Can Tyr Walker build on impressive performance?: Against Pacific FC last weekend, young Atlético Ottawa defender Tyr Walker made his first professional start at centre-back, and was one of the best players on the pitch. Walker made five tackles, four clearances, won six of his nine duels, and completed 26 of his attempted 35 passes. Faced with a strong Pacific side that included the attacking trio of Ayman Sellouf, Josh Heard, and Easton Ongaro, the 19-year-old held his own in a backline alongside centre-back partner Luke Singh, Macdonald Niba on the left side and Karl Ouimette on the right. Walker was in the lineup due to Diego Espejo being suspended for one match, but with Espejo set to return this week, whether or not the young Canadian gets the start remains to be seen. He could play alongside Espejo in place of Singh perhaps, which would also help Ottawa pick up some valuable U-21 minutes as well. Whatever role he ends up playing, Ottawa know they have a young player they can rely on.

PROJECTED STARTING XIs

Valour FC (4-2-3-1): Yesli; Baquero, Cela, Samaké, Haynes; Polisi, Gutierrez; Niyongabire, Williams, Ponce; Novak

Atlético Ottawa (4-1-4-1): Ingham; Ouimette, Walker, Singh, Niba; Zapater; Assi, Bassett, Verhoeven, Shaw; Del Campo

ALL-TIME SERIES

Valour FC wins: 4 || Atlético Ottawa wins: 3 || Draws: 3

Last meeting:

July 9, 2023 – Atlético Ottawa 2-0 Valour FC