Another busy matchweek of Canadian Premier League action will kick off on the West Coast, as Vancouver FC hosts Atlético Ottawa at Willoughby Community Park on Friday.
Their second meeting of the season, as Ottawa defeated Vancouver 4-1 at Willoughby Community Park on April 13th, this should be a vastly different clash than what transpired on that day, however.
Certainly, Vancouver are hoping that’s the case. After conceding six goals in their first two matches of the season, they’ve conceded just six in the five CPL games they’ve played since, and have conceded eight goals in seven games in all competitions across that span, as they’ve made some key defensive improvements.
Unfortunately, they haven’t been able to capitalize on that defensive improvement, as their offence hasn’t quite been firing at the level they’d like it to. Having scored just six goals in seven CPL games and eight in nine matches in all competitions, they’re still looking for the right formula offensively.
Between Alejandro Díaz and Terran Campbell up front, they’ve got two players who can find the back of the net, but they’re still figuring out the best way to get them service.
No better way to find a way to change that in this game. Given that they’re still looking for their first home win of 2025, having been outscored 9-2 in their four league games at Willoughby Community Park, they know that this would be a good opportunity to turn their home woes and offensive struggles around in one swift coup.
"It would be massive," Vancouver's head coach, Afshin Ghotbi, said of a potential home win. "We recognize the importance of the psychological impact of victory, and the first one is always the hardest. I believe the group is in a very good place (...) now, it's about finding that few percent more of concentration, a few percent more creativity, and then a few percent more from every player to get us the victory that we need."
Meanwhile, for the visitors, they’d love nothing more than a repeat performance of what occurred on their last visit to Langley, as they scored early and often en route to that commanding victory.
Tied for first in the league after a strong start to the year, thanks to a high-flying offence that has seen them score a league-high 22 goals in eight games (no one in the CPL has more than 15), they want to keep those good times going.
Coming off their first loss of 2025, a 2-0 defeat to the now top-of-the-table Halifax Wanderers, Ottawa will want to put that behind them in this one quickly. In particular, that they were shut out for the first time in 2025 will sting, so look for them to try to find some early goals in this one.
“We work for the process, not for the results,” Ottawa’s head coach, Diego Mejía said this week. “Wins and losses are part of a game. It wasn’t our best game, for sure, but all of those defeats give us an opportunity to learn, so the team is ready to compete and to try and win this next match.
In terms of player availability, Vancouver will welcome back Kunle Dada-Luke after he served a three-match ban, while Nicolás Mezquida also looks set to return to the lineup after dealing with a minor injury. As for Ottawa, David Rodríguez is back after serving a one-match ban of his own, but they remain without Amer Didic, Johnny Grant, Noah Verhoeven and Kevin Ortega due to injury, while Sergei Kozlovskiy is away with Canada’s U17 National Team.
3 THINGS TO WATCH
- Can Vancouver get Díaz, Campbell firing? When it was announced that Terran Campbell would join Vancouver FC this offseason, reuniting with former strike partner Alejandro Díaz, it was expected that the two leading all-time CPL top scorers would give Vancouver a nice 1-2 punch up front. Yet, despite that, through seven CPL games, it’s not Campbell or Díaz, but Nicolás Mezquida who leads the team in goals, having scored twice, with Campbell and Díaz each sitting with one goal in league play. Granted, Díaz also has one marker in the Canadian Championship, but Vancouver will know that they can get more out of their strikers. It’s not a bad thing that Mezquida has led the way so far - he, Campbell and Díaz have the potential to be a devastating attacking trio - but with Mezquida missing the last two games with injury, that served as a reminder that Díaz and Campbell are still finding their feet as a duo together. Because of that, look for them to find some form as they enter the second quarter of Vancouver’s season. With an improved defensive record, the pressure will be on the pair to ensure that those good defensive performances aren’t going to waste, so they’ll be hungry to find their top goalscoring form going forward.
- Rodríguez looking to bring chances, goals back with his return: There’s no doubt that through the first quarter of the season, David Rodríguez has been the early favourite to be named CPL Player of the Year, as he’s scored four goals and added four assists in his first seven games of CPL action. On a high-flying Atlético Ottawa team that already has 10 different goal scorers in league play, he’s been the straw that has stirred the drink, and that Ottawa failed to score in their last match vs. Halifax, which he missed after being sent off for two yellow cards the match prior, shows that. Not only did they fail to score after finding the net an average of three times per game in their first seven CPL matches, but they also generated just 0.37 xG, the third-lowest single game total of any team this year - for context, Ottawa have the two highest single-game xG totals, as well as four of the top nine. Plus, they failed to generate a shot on target, the first time they’ve ever done that in their history, as they struggled to generate quality chances. Because of that, Rodríguez’s return won’t be as much about helping his team find the net again, and instead will be about helping them generate opportunities at the same rate they were doing so earlier in the year. For an Ottawa team that wants to play on the front foot, pressing high and overwhelming teams with their offensive game, all of that starts their attack, and against Halifax, they were missing that usual punch.
- Youngsters continue to shine for both teams: Despite being so early in the season, these two teams have done an excellent job of playing youngsters - they’ve already become the first two sides to reach the minimum 2000 U21 Canadian minutes each team must hit, with Ottawa sitting at 2351 minutes and Vancouver at 2021 after this past weekend. That’s huge, as Ottawa is in the CPL Shield race, while Vancouver has shown significant defensive improvement and are making a run in the Canadian Championship for the first time in their history, as these young players have played a key role in their teams' respective success. Ultimately, that’s a big goal for the CPL - to be able to develop Canadian youngsters - and the best way to do that is to earn significant minutes in high-pressure situations. Because of that, look for both of these teams to keep pushing these youngsters forward, with Ottawa so far playing six U21 Canadians, with four (Noah Abatneh, Gabriel Antinoro, Loïc Cloutier and Sergei Kozlovskiy) sitting with more than 450 minutes each, and Vancouver playing seven U21 Canadians, with two of them having played more than 550 minutes (Thierno Bah and Matteo Campagna), and two others sitting with over 200 minutes under their belts (Emrick Fotsing and Henri Godbout). “It’s super exciting,” Ottawa’s veteran defender, Brett Levis, said. “This is what the league is for, this is what it's all about. It's exciting to see a lot of young players coming through, and Canadian players, as this is why we have this league, to produce more top talents. The fact that we've hit those minutes already speaks to those players, it’s not like our coach is just giving out minutes because we're trying to hit that mark early on, it’s because they deserve to be playing, and they're playing well.”
PROJECTED STARTING XIs
Vancouver FC: Irving; Dada-Luke, O'Connor, Norman Jr., Enyou; Essoussi, Fry; Campbell, Mezquida, Bah; Díaz
Atlético Ottawa: Ingham; Cloutier, Abatneh, Duhaney-Walker; Antinoro, Aparicio, Castro, dos Santos; Rodríguez, Tabla; Salter
ALL-TIME SERIES
Vancouver FC wins: 1 || Atlético Ottawa wins: 6 || Draws: 2
Last meeting:
Apr. 13, 2025 — Vancouver FC 1-4 Atlético Ottawa
KEY QUOTES
“I'm confident the goals will come. I've been involved in many teams, and I've worked with a lot of strikers, and scoring goals always happens in bunches. You go through periods where you don't score, but at the end of the season, when everything is said and done, the numbers will speak for themselves“ – Vancouver FC head coach Afshin Ghotbi
*“I am waiting for more from my team. I’ve set a deadline at round #14 that we all need to wait for, as that’s the deadline to see the best performance level of this team. At this moment, we are at three-quarters of our best level. We have only had 70 training sessions with the team, so we are the newest team in this league, with a new model. All of the players in this team have a lot of work to do to keep improving, so that we can see the best level of the team.” **– Atlético Ottawa head coach Diego Mejía
