| Final Score: Atlético Ottawa 3-1 Vancouver FC Goalscorers: Rodríguez 30', Salter 40', O'Connor 80' (OG); Mezquida 25' Game of the 2025 season: 82 CPL Match: 677 |
Match in a minute or less
Atlético Ottawa have reignited the Canadian Premier League's title race, as they beat Vancouver FC 3-1 to cut the gap between themselves and first-place Forge to just three points, while also putting themselves in a position to book a playoff spot this weekend should Pacific drop any points vs. Valour on Sunday.
Vancouver got off to a good start to this game, as Nicolás Mezquida capitalized on an Ottawa mistake to score into an empty net in the 25th minute, but Ottawa did well to grab a lead before half-time even came around, as David Rodríguez tied the game in the 30th minute before Sam Salter put his side ahead in the 40th minute.
From there, Ottawa did what they needed to secure the win, as they forced an own goal out of Vancouver's Aidan O'Connor to go up 3-1, a result they'd hold onto the rest of the way.
Three Observations
Ottawa shows resilience to reignite title race:
Sometimes, navigating a title race is all about staying consistent and capitalizing on moments.
Ultimately, to win a title, you have to find a way to always be finding results, no matter how well or poorly you play.
At the same time, there are several games a year where you need to find a way to really step up and seize the opportunity. Most often, those matches are six-point battles between two sides at the top of the table, but despite this being a matchup between second-place Ottawa and eighth-place Vancouver, this was one of those 'must-win' matches for Ottawa in their quest for a second CPL Shield.
With Forge losing for the first time in league play this year earlier that Saturday, snapping a run of 20 matches without a defeat, including six straight wins, that allowed Ottawa to make up some ground after falling a bit behind Forge in recent weeks.
Despite entering this weekend with just two losses to their name, Ottawa sat six points behind Forge in the table, with a defeat to Forge a few weeks ago the key reason why that was the case. All of a sudden, that six-point gap seemed like a big mountain for Ottawa to climb, given the form that Forge have been in, too.
Because of that, when it was seen that Forge finally hit a roadblock this weekend, Ottawa knew that they had to capitalize on it, as it can't be understated how big a difference it is for them to be only three points behind first-place instead of six.
In the end, while they were made to work for this victory as Vancouver put up a good performance, they got the job done when they needed to. Despite going down 1-0 early in the first half off a big mistake from Ottawa goalkeeper Nathan Ingham, who gifted Nicolás Mezquida with a freebie for the opener, Ottawa showed why they've been in this title race all year long.
It has almost flown under the radar at times, with Forge's undefeated streak, but this Ottawa side is putting up a campaign for the ages, and what's remarkable is that they've found success despite playing with fire on several occasions.
To that point, with this victory, Ottawa have now rescued a remarkable 16 points from losing positions this season, which leads the league, as they've won four and drawn four of the 10 games this season where they've gone down a goal.
By comparison, Forge is yet to win when conceding the first goal, now sitting with a record of 0W-4D-1L when they concede first, as their big success has come from a remarkable ability to defend leads - they've won 13 and drawn two of the 15 games where they've scored first.
Naturally, what that shows is that Ottawa will want to play on the front more - they too have an impressive record when scoring first, picking up eight wins and one draw from the nine games where that's happened - but that they're not ones to let bad moments get to them, either.
That's huge, because over the course of a long season, and especially in the playoffs, it's not fair to expect that every game will go your way. Ultimately, when you're facing a lot of good teams, ones who know you quite well, there will be moments of adversity, including some that might put you down a goal or two in a big title-decider or playoff game.
Impressively, despite being quite a young team (Ottawa does still lead the league in U21 Canadian minutes), they continue to navigate those moments of adversity quite well, as seen in this game, and will hope to do so as the big games start to come fast and thick over the next few weeks and months.
"When we lost against Forge, many thought that Forge would be the CPL Shield winners this year," Atlético Ottawa head coach, Diego Mejía, said. "With eight games still to play, that's tough to hear, but the most important match for us right now was this match."
"The consequences (of our) good results give us this opportunity to still lift the Shield, which is amazing, as it's one of our goals, we want to fight for that Shield."
Vancouver trades blows with Ottawa, but finishing touch proves elusive:
As mentioned earlier, Vancouver did well to push Ottawa in this game, to their credit.
The numbers back that up, as they actually outshot Ottawa 16-15, which isn't something that happens very often, especially not at TD Place. Plus, it's worth noting that a lot of those shots were of high quality, too, as Vancouver took 11 shots inside the box, hitting the woodwork twice.
Just to get an idea of how good their opportunities were, OPTA ranked four of their shots as big chances, showing that they probably should've scored more than the one goal they got on the day. That they had 1.6 xG further backs up that sentiment, too.
Ultimately, where Vancouver were let down was by the way they took those chances - somehow, only two of their 16 shots found the target, which, even when considering the two shots that hit the woodwork (which don't technically count as shots on target), still indicates that it was a poor finishing performance from them.
Of course, for a team that is still desperately hanging on to their playoff hopes, that won't do them much good to see that they had a good performance in a losing cause, but to say that also ignores context.
In particular, the big thing that Vancouver will point to is that this game was a big dress rehearsal for them, as they get set to return to Ottawa in September for the second leg of their Canadian Championship semi-final, which they currently lead 3-1 on aggregate.
Given that this was Vancouver's first visit to TD Place, where Ottawa is yet to lose this year, this offered a good taste of what the visitors can expect in that second leg matchup, one that could erase a lot of the frustrations of Vancouver's season, should they advance to a final.
Now, it's worth pointing out that they'll want to avoid getting this same result in that second leg, as this would've sent that game to penalties, but that's a whole other story.
For a team looking to build momentum under an interim head coach, with Martin Nash brought in to see out the rest of this season, these are the sort of performances that bode well for the future, be it that semi-final or next season.
At the moment, that's Vancouver's big focus, the future, so that's why they'll be pleased with what they showed against a team jostling at the top of the CPL Shield race.
As has been the case all season long, little details hurt Vancouver once again, in both boxes, but they'll hope to just keep chipping away at weeding those out of their game, especially in that semi-final, one where they'll know Ottawa will be coming out strong as they try to overturn a two-goal deficit.
Plus, for what it's worth, the better Vancouver plays between now and that semi-final, the better their odds are of winning, further showing that there's some value in putting up good performances like this one, even if it didn't end the way Vancouver would've hoped, so look for them to build on this.
"Every time you step on the field as a football player, you're putting your pride on the line," Vancouver's goalkeeper and captain, Callum Irving, said afterwards. "So for us for the rest of the season, we have to focus on protecting that pride and trying to fight for points to get off the bottom of the table and start moving up as much as we can, right?"
"So as much as it's a motivating factor to have the Canadian Championship semi-final, I think there's a lot of other motivation, week by week, that we can latch onto."
Ottawa return to attacking principles in three-goal outburst:
This was a big game for Ottawa, who scored three goals in a game for the first time in a while - July 8th vs. York United in leg two of the Canadian Championship quarter-finals was the last time it happened in all competitions, while a 3-0 win vs. Valour on June 15th was the last time it happened in CPL play.
For a team that has now scored 42 times in 21 CPL games, a rate of exactly two goals per game (along with nine goals in four Canadian Championship games), this is a big confidence booster for them at a good time.
While Ottawa have done well to improve their defensive game quite significantly over the course of this summer, sitting second in the league in goals conceded with 22, this is still a team that seems to be at its best when its scoring goals for fun - such as the stretch in mid-April to early-May where they won five straight games in CPL play, scoring three or more goals in every match for a total of 18 across that five-game stretch.
Naturally, though, it isn't always easy to maintain that sort of attacking prowess throughout a season, especially in a league where teams are a lot more familiar with each other, which is why the three-goal games have slowed down for them.
In this one, however, they were back to their usual service in attack, and what will please them is that this game was a prime example of what this team can do when at its best offensively, too.
That was shown by the three goals they scored, of course, but by the fact that it felt like they could've had even more goals on the day, too, as they squandered a few dangerous chances with some haphazard shooting. Still, that they had 2.04 xG on their 15 shots, eight of which they put on target, gives an idea of the sort of output they put up.
Then, further to that, it's also worth noting that they did a great job of attacking the sort of spaces where they're most dangerous. In particular, where they really hurt Vancouver was with their ability to overload their backline, which created some big gaps in the half-spaces for their front five to attack into.
For example, their second goal might've been as close to a prototypical '2025 Atlético Ottawa' goal as they've scored this season, as they did well to drag Vancouver's defenders out of position before carving them apart in a swift attacking move.
Now, of course, it's worth noting that they were playing a Vancouver team that has conceded 46 goals in 21 games this season, so it's not as if they ran rampant against a defensive juggernaut.
Plus, to that point, it stands out that they had success playing against a Vancouver side that defended with a back four, as a lot of teams have started to play a back five in matches against Ottawa lately, a goal designed with limiting space for that Ottawa front-five (which consists of their two wing-backs jumping up to support their front three in their 3-4-2-1), who do a great job of overloading defences.
Because of that, it'll be interesting to see if this game reinforces the idea that teams will want to play with a back five against Ottawa, at least if they want to avoid scorelines like this.
At the same time, when Ottawa is playing like this, there isn't a lot that will slow them down, formation or personnel, so look for them to build on the confidence they'll have gained from a performance like this, too.
On a day when Sam Salter tied the league record for goals in a single season with 14, and Rodríguez jumped up to nine goals and six assists on the season, it's a credit to Ottawa that those individual successes emerged due to what they were able to achieve when attacking as a team, spefically.
"We're a pretty attacking team," Rodríguez offered. "We have really good players, starters and subs, and it's always been like this. It doesn't matter who starts, who plays and who comes off the bench; it's always the same mentality, and today was a great team effort."
What They Said
"The team always has moments (in a season) where you are up or down, so I think that the most important part for us is that we keep the pace with which we play, that we create a lot of opportunities to score, and that all players understand the model, even the new players. But even though it's important for the team that we score a lot of goals, it's also important to win and get all three points, even if you only win 1-0." -- Atlético Ottawa head coach Diego Mejía
"We're still in the battle for first. We're only three points back (of Forge), so that game we have against them is going to be a final. It's going to be very important for us, we've been pushing for that first place, our big goal is to finish first." -- Atlético Ottawa forward David Rodríguez
"We've got to be good in transition in those moments when we win the ball, and decide whether to go forward or not. Then, when we have those moments when we go into their half, we can still decide at any moment that we're not going to go all the way, that we're going to keep the ball. (...) You've got to be good in those moments, because otherwise you're going to give the ball away, and then you can do a lot of running if that happens, and then you're going to have to deal with a lot more
pressure." -- Vancouver FC interim head coach Martin Nash
CanPL.ca Player of the Match
David Rodríguez, Atlético Ottawa
As he often is, Rodríguez was crucial to Ottawa's success in this victory, putting together another strong offensive performance. Not only did he score an important tying goal and assisted what eventually stood as the winner, but he also chipped in with three shots and two chances created, while also completing one dribble, making three passes into the final third, completing one long ball and winning one foul.
Then, for good measure, he was also lively defensively, making three tackles, two interceptions, and seven recoveries, while also winning six out of 14 duels, helping him mark a complete performance.
What’s next?
Atlético Ottawa will remain at home for their next match, as they welcome Pacific FC to TD Place on Saturday, September 6th (4:00 p.m. PT/7:00 p.m. ET). Meanwhile, Vancouver will return to British Columbia for their next matchup, as they'll take on Valour at Willouhgby Community Park on Friday, September 5th (7:30 p.m. PT/9:30 p.m. CT).
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