2025 TELUS Canadian Championship -- Semi-Final (Leg 1)
Vancouver FC vs. Atlético Ottawa
Aug. 13 at 7 p.m. PT/10 p.m. ET
Willoughby Community Park, in Langley, British Columbia
Watch Live: OneSoccer // Tickets available here
Having previously never reached the semi-finals of the Canadian Championship, Vancouver FC and Atlético Ottawa now sit on the cusp of history.
Pitted against each other in the semi-finals of this year’s Canadian Championship, one of them has the chance to become the first Canadian Premier League side to reach the final in a full tournament, giving an idea of why this matchup is so crucial for both sides.
All of a sudden, the side that reaches the final, which will be a single-game affair hosted by either the Vancouver Whitecaps or Forge FC, will feel more than capable of becoming the first CPL team to lift the trophy - an accomplishment that would forever etch them in tournament lore.
Before both sides look too far ahead, however, they can only reach that stage if they take care of business in the semi-finals, starting with the first leg this week.
Hosted at Willoughby Community Park, it’s a massive game for Vancouver, especially, who will want to make the most of the home-field advantage they carry in this first leg.
Unfortunately, they come into this game having struggled at home in the past 12 months, so they’ll need to bust a long-standing slump if they’re to get a win. In fact, after their recent loss to Salish Sea Derby rivals Pacific FC in CPL play, they’ve now gone over a calendar year without a win at Willoughby Community Park, with their last home victory being a 1-0 result over Pacific on August 11th of 2024.
Since then, they’ve now got a record of 0W-5D-9L in their last 14 home games across all competitions, showing why they’d love to pick up a win on Wednesday.
The good news for Vancouver? They’ve seemed to find a bit of new life in this competition. Despite struggling in CPL play, sitting last in the league with just 11 points from 18 games, 14 points out of a playoff spot, they’ve done well to hit a different level when playing in the Canadian Championship.
It started with a gutsy road win vs. Pacific in the preliminary round, as they triumphed on penalties after grinding out a 1-1 draw, and that continued vs. Cavalry in the quarter-finals, where they also won on penalties after picking up a pair of 1-1 draws across both legs.
In particular, the Cavalry tie was quite impressive given that Vancouver went toe-to-toe with a team that they’d never previously beaten in any of their meetings, generating more xG across both games (2.83-1.84) en route to dispatching the 2024 North Star Cup winners.
Yet, this serves as a good reminder that for all of Vancouver’s struggles in 2025, their place in the table isn’t fully reflective of what they’re capable of, as they’ve shown glimpses of being much better than their record indicates. Instead, they’ve been plagued by inconsistency, a lack of cutting edge in the final third and some big defensive errors, so they’ll want to put that all behind them in this tie, starting with leg one.
“I'm not going to change too much of the approach,” Vancouver’s interim head coach, Martin Nash, said ahead of this match. “We’ve just got to be solid defensively, first and foremost.”
“They're a very good team going forward - a fantastic team all around, really - so we know it's going to be a tough challenge. But we’re at home, so we’ve just got to go out and put our front foot forward, and we’ll see what happens at the end of these first 90 minutes.”
Meanwhile, Ottawa is looking to keep the good times rolling, as they’ve been putting together an impressive campaign to date, one that they’ll want to soon crown with some silverware. Given that they sit just one point behind first-place Forge in the CPL table, losing just one game all year, they’ll feel that they have what it takes to push for the CPL Shield and North Star Cup, but don’t discount their ambitions in this competition, either.
Plus, it doesn’t hurt that they’ve got some unfinished business to attend to in this tournament, too. Not only were they knocked out of the preliminary round in 2021 and 2022, along with the quarter-finals in 2023 and 2024, but they were eliminated by fellow CPL opposition each time, falling to Valour in the 2021 preliminary round, York United (on penalties) in the 2022 preliminary round, Forge (on penalties) in the 2023 quarter-finals, and Pacific in the 2024 quarter-finals.
Because of that, the last thing they’d want is to be eliminated by a fifth different CPL side, especially against a Vancouver side that they’ve gotten the better of by a significant margin in their head-to-head meetings.
Certainly, based on their performances in 2025, Ottawa are the favourite in this matchup, but that all goes out the window in cup competitions, so the onus will be on them to come out swinging. To be fair, given what they’ve shown this year, where they’ve led the CPL with 37 goals in 18 games (along with eight in three Canadian Championship matches), they’ve done a great job of taking games to opponents, and will look to do the same against a Vancouver side they’ve scored six times against in their two previous meetings in 2025.
One thing to watch, however, is that Ottawa let things get a bit too open in the quarter-finals of this tournament, in which they claimed a 6-4 aggregate win vs. York United. They’ve been one of the best teams in the CPL defensively, especially as of late, conceding just six goals in their last 11 games across all competitions - with four of them coming in that York tie. What that tie also showed, however, is that Ottawa can often outscore their problems, showing why it’s been so tough to stop them this year - they do a great job of controlling all phases of the game on the ball, and will look to continue that against Vancouver.
“It's a tournament where the team that wins is the team that commits the fewest mistakes,” Atlético Ottawa head coach, Diego Mejía, said this week. “It’s a mistake to say we can win this tie in the first game; we have four halves to play, so we need to be smart to play each half with the right intensity while respecting our model, so we’ll be focused on every ball and every pass, like we always do.”
In terms of roster availability, Vancouver will be without the recently arrived Jay Herdman, as the Cavalry FC loanee is cup-tied to his old club after appearing in the earlier rounds of this competition, in which he even made a start against Vancouver in leg one of the quarter-finals. As for Ottawa, they had no new concerns to note about their squad ahead of this clash on their end.
Canadian Championship History
Last meeting: May 30, 2025 -- Vancouver FC 2-2 Atlético Ottawa (Canadian Premier League)
Vancouver FC:
All-time record: 2W-1D-2L
Best finish: Semi-finals (2025)
Atlético Ottawa:
All-time record: 5W-1D-4L
Best finish: Semi-finals (2025)
Key Quotes
“I don't think it's a must-win, because if you can get it down to leg two with it all still there to play for, you just never know what can happen in a cup game, as it’s so different from the league. We’d like to go out and win, obviously, and we're going to play to win, but we know it's going to be difficult; it’s not going to be an easy tie, and we’re going to need 180 minutes of concentration. We're going to have to be solid against a very good team, and prepare the guys as much as we can to have a go at them tomorrow night.” – Vancouver FC interim head coach Martin Nash
“I’m excited for the game, it means a lot for the players, and it’s a huge opportunity for the club to write some history. I’m so excited as it’s the most important game of this year so far. We’re ready for it, and we’re excited, we’re going to fight until the end.” – Vancouver FC forward Nicolás Mezquida
“This was always one of our goals this season. We know that this competition is very tough, so I’m happy to be part of this tournament, and now we can start to dream. I’ve always said since I arrived here that I want to build a team that can live on for years, and I think we are doing that. It’s very important for us, and for the history that we want to build, to try and play in that final, as that final is just 90 minutes, and we have (every chance) to win it.” – Atlético Ottawa head coach Diego Mejía
“It's a great thing for the club. We are happy to be in the position we’re in right now, but the goal is to keep going to win this cup, so we’ll give everything so that we can achieve this goal.” – Atlético Ottawa forward Ballou Tabla
