We've got a battle of Ontario on our hands this Sunday, when Atlético Ottawa make their first trip of the year to Toronto for a matinee matchup with York United.
It's rarely been dull when these two sides meet. Case in point: the roller-coaster 3-2 Atlético win in Ottawa earlier this year, or the penalty shootout drama in last year's CPL quarter-final. York and Atleti have developed a strong rivalry over the past couple of years, which makes this Sunday's game a can't miss showdown.
York are back on home turf after an impressive comeback win at Pacific FC last weekend. They went into halftime losing 1-0, but stormed back in the second half to win 3-1 — the first time since September 2022 that they've won on the road after trailing at the break.
The Nine Stripes have been away from home for a while now, their most recent appearance at York Lions Stadium being a 1-0 win over Vancouver FC on May 25. Since then, they beat the Halifax Wanderers in Québec City, and lost to Cavalry FC in Alberta.
Entering matchweek 12, York occupy the fifth and final CPL playoff spot, with a 4-1-6 record and 13 points from their first 11 games. They have a solid five-point gap on Pacific in sixth place, there's another five-point gulf between them and the fourth-place Wanderers (who are level with third-place Cavalry on 18 points).
Way out in front of the pack are Atlético Ottawa, who have been atop the table almost the whole season. They're 7-3-1 and with 24 points, they have a four-point lead over second place.
They've scored twice as many goals as five of the other CPL clubs, having found the net 28 times in the first 11 games. Three of those came in last Sunday's win over Valour FC, where Atleti survived a somewhat sluggish first half to end up with a 3-0 win at home, their fourth of the season at TD Place.
Now though, Ottawa head on the road, where they've also been strong this season, with a 3-2-1 record. York Lions Stadium has been a difficult venue for them over the years, though. York have won their last four home games against Ottawa, going back to June 2023; last season, they outscored Atleti 5-1 in Toronto.
These sides are all too familiar with one another by this point; they played the first leg of their Canadian Championship quarter-final tie in Ottawa earlier in June, where Atleti took a 2-1 lead ahead of the decisive reverse fixture in a couple of weeks.
With this league meeting wedged in between, will the two teams be holding anything back? Or looking to establish dominance over the other ahead of that pivotal quarter-final decider?
3 THINGS TO WATCH
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Physicality always expected between these rivals: When Ottawa and York met earlier in the CPL season, the clubs set a new league record with 47 total fouls in the match between them. York alone had seven yellow cards. When they renewed acquaintances in the Canadian Championship earlier this month, it was a tamer affair: just 40 total fouls. Much of this stems back to last season, where a few heated matches and some comments flung around in the media revealed a mutual dislike. Now, York-Ottawa matches are can't miss television. There have been highlight-reel goals and drama at all stages in the games between these teams as well, so it's not all brawn; these two play some entertaining football, and seem to bring out the best in one another.
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York's new confidence growing: Back in May, when York were mired in a slump and hadn't won since matchweek one despite taking the lead over and over again only to squander it, the club did some soul-searching in an effort to find out what was going wrong. What exactly they discussed in those closed-doors meetings will remain known only to them, but they emerged to win 1-0 against Vancouver FC, then 2-0 against Halifax in Québec City. Last week's comeback win at Pacific was further evidence of a new belief in the York locker room, that they can come into a second half down a goal and blow the opposition out of the water. Now comes their greatest test yet: York haven't yet beaten Ottawa in two tries this year, but if they can topple the league leaders, they'll make an emphatic statement to the rest of the CPL.
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Atleti seek to establish midfield superiority: Atlético Ottawa have a lot of depth in central midfield, especially this week with Juan 'Coque' Castro returning from suspension. He'll likely play alongside Manny Aparicio in what has proved to be an excellent, well-rounded double pivot for Atleti. A key factor in Ottawa asserting themselves against York will be winning the battle in the middle of the pitch, especially against a York side that's somewhat undermanned in that area. Elijah Adekugbe is still dealing with an injury, and Steffen Yeates is away on international duty with Trinidad and Tobago. So, that leaves Kembo Kibato, who put in a team-of-the-week performance at Pacific; he lined up with Luca Accettola last weekend, but it's possible that Gabriel Bitar moves a little further back to play tehre. Either way, Atlético will be looking to overwhelm York's duo and refuse to allow them time or space on the ball.
PROJECTED STARTING XIs
York United: Pavela; Sturing, Singh, León; Ferrazzo, Kibato, Bitar, Botello; Jimoh, Altobelli, Ferrin
Atlético Ottawa: Ingham; Cloutier, Abatneh, Kozlovskiy; Antinoro, Aparicio, Castro, Dos Santos; Rodríguez, Salter, Tabla
ALL-TIME SERIES
York wins: 8 || Ottawa wins: 5 || Draws: 9
Last meeting:
June 12, 2025 — Atlético Ottawa 2-1 York United (Canadian Championship)
KEY QUOTES
"The last four games, I think we've been growing. The confidence right now is something we can see in the locker room; we can see the way that we train, even the way players are talking to each other about what we want to do and how we want to play, and it's a good feeling. Fair play to them and to my staff, even when things weren't going well we stuck to our guns, we stuck to our identity. We knew there were going to be bumps in this process of growing and creating something new." — York United head coach Mauro Eustáquio
"A lot of people maybe think being a coach in the CPL is too easy, because you play against the same rivals four times. But this is not easy, because you need to try to win all the matches, and you need to use another formation or other patterns to beat them. We'll have a very tough match, like the other matches we played against them. [York] try to press higher, and sometimes we play the same structure, so maybe we'll see a lot of individual duels." — Atlético Ottawa head coach Diego Mejía
