PREVIEW: Nashville SC vs. Atlético Ottawa (Leg 2) | 2026 Concacaf Champions Cup

Atlético Ottawa find themselves on American soil this week, where they'll play their first ever match outside of Canada in the Concacaf Champions Cup.

The Canadian Premier League champions have a hill to climb in this second leg against Nashville SC, needing to overturn a 2-0 deficit on aggregate to stand any chance of advancing from this first-round tie.

Atleti made a solid debut in the continental competition last week in Hamilton, but they're certainly aiming to improve in Leg 2. To start with, they'd like to score their first Concacaf goal — and make this tie as competitive as possible.

In order to do that, Ottawa know they need to be a little sharper than last week. The signs of a team that hadn't played in over three months were evident, with some sluggish passing and poor execution in the attacking half, but they showed flashes of ability.

Last year in the CPL, Ottawa were incredibly effective at creating chances, so it was frustrating that they could only generate five shots (one on target) last Tuesday. Head coach Diego Mejía will be keen to see his team start much better than in Leg 1; since the pressure is on Atleti to score, they cannot waste time trying to feel out their opponent.

Mejía will have some tough choices to make when assembling his lineup in Nashville. He is likely to stick with the 3-4-2-1 formation that delivered so much success in 2025, but he may choose to tinker with the personnel.

The attack seems the likeliest place to tinker. Nashville were very well organized defensively last week, which made it tough for Ottawa to break them down or find space in the attacking third.

The most effective substitute for Atlético in last week's game was Emiliano Garcia. The Mexican attacker came on a little before the hour mark and added new energy and aggression up front. There's a good chance he gets the nod on Tuesday after showing well on his debut.

Mejía has said in no uncertain terms that he does not want to compromise his team's tactical identity in favour of short-term solutions. So, he won't be changing the style of play, regardless of the aggregate score. That said, they do need to be more effective with the ball, and move faster on the counter-attack.

Unfortunately for Mejía, he won't be able to draw on any reinforcements in his side, with all of Richie Ennin, Jean-Aniel Assi and Joaquim Coulanges injured. However, he could potentially turn to Norwegian striker Erling Myklebust in attack.

On Nashville's side, B.J. Callaghan's team is likely in good spirits after winning their MLS season opener 4-1 over New England on Saturday. They proved both against Ottawa and on the weekend how good their star attackers are: when Hany Mukhtar, Cristian Espinoza and Sam Surridge checked into the game last week, they instantly raised their team's level of quality and combined eventually to score the second goal.

Surridge scored twice against New England and Mukhtar had one; all of Nashville's star Designated Players are thus off to a flying start in 2026.

It's unlikely all three will start against Ottawa; Nashville have to head on the road to play FC Dallas next Saturday, and will feel safe in rotating a little with a two-goal aggregate lead. Woobens Pacius, formerly of CPL side Forge FC, is likely to get the nod again on Tuesday after scoring his first goal for Nashville in Leg 1.

Quite a challenge sits in front of Atlético Ottawa, who would need to win 2-0 at Geodis Park to force extra time and penalties. Any other two-goal win would actually send Atleti through because of the away goals rule.

Any form of Nashville win or draw, or a one-goal Atleti win, would give Nashville the ticket to the round of 16.

Nashville only lost three out of 21 games at home last season, so Ottawa have their work cut out for them. 

If they can score once early, though, anything can happen.

NEWS & NOTES

• The first leg last week saw six players make their club debut for Atlético Ottawa, including two (Garissone Innocent and Jonantán Villal) in the starting XI.
• Nashville kicked off their Major League Soccer campaign on Saturday, defeating the New England Revolution 4-1 with two goals from Sam Surridge plus markers from Hany Mukhtar and Warren Madrigal.
• Surridge, who scored for Nashville last week against Ottawa, signed a new Designated Player contract with the MLS club over the weekend.
• Defender Roni Mbomio remains absent for Atlético Ottawa due to a work visa issue. Richie Ennin, Joaquim Coulanges and Jean-Aniel Assi will be unavailable due to injury.

PROJECTED STARTING XIs

Atlético Ottawa: Innocent; Kozlovskiy, Abatneh, Cloutier; Antinoro, Aparicio, Castro, Aguilar; Garcia, Tabla, Myklebust 

Nashville SC: Schwake; Knight, Palacios, Maher, Lovitz; Muyl, Yazbek, Qasem, Corcoran; Espinoza, Pacius

KEY QUOTES

"It's a really good chance for us as a team, and even as a league, to show the real level of Canadian Premier League teams and Canadian players. For us, we committed some easy mistakes in the first match, but I think this team is capable to do great things. We're going to fight tomorrow to try to have a good result for us."  — Atlético Ottawa head coach Diego Mejía

"The scoreline can be a scoreline, but some of the challenges they presented to us, with and without the ball specifically — their really good compactness defensively — we have to find new ways to disorganize that group. That's something we've continued to look at and will continue to prepare on." — Nashville SC head coach B.J. Callaghan