Match in a minute or less
Vancouver FC and Atlético Ottawa were forced to share the spoils at Willoughby Community Park on Friday, as they kicked off a busy weekend of CPL action with an entertaining 2-2 draw.
At first, it looked like Vancouver might find a victory early, as they went up 1-0 after an Ottawa own goal from Loïc Cloutier in the 13th minute, before Emrick Fotsing put them up 2-0 with a header on a corner for his first professional goal in the 45th minute.
In the second half, however, Ottawa would come roaring back, as Sam Salter scored a beautiful volley in the 55th minute, before David Rodríguez made it 2-2 in the 64th minute, but despite a late push for a winner, one that saw a disallowed Ottawa goal and a couple of big chances squandered by both teams, the match would finish as a draw.
Three Observations
Vancouver finds important home breakthrough, but Ottawa spoils the show with second-half heroics:
Heading into this one, Vancouver knew that they needed to find a way to take a step forward at home. Having not won a game at Willoughby Community Park since August 11th of last year, they wanted to desperately send their supporters home with the taste of victory in their mouths, especially against an Ottawa team that had gotten a big 4-1 victory in their other visit to Langley back in April.
After 45 minutes, the hosts were on the right track, too. Not only were they up 2-0, but they had scored two goals in a home game for the first time since May 25th of last year, showing how vital those two goals were to them.
A big reason for Vancouver's home woes has been a lack of offence, so they'll have felt quite good to have gone up 2-0, especially when considering that they'd only conceded eight goals in their last seven games (all competitions).
Unfortunately, however, they faced a tough task, as Ottawa has proven to be a tough team to put away. Often, going up a goal or two isn't enough - they always finish matches incredibly strongly.
Because of that, it wasn't surprising to see them rescue a point out of this one with a 2-2 draw, as they've now got a record of 2W-2D-0L when trailing at half time, and have rescued a league-high 13 points from losing positions.
For whatever reason, the first half of matches has not been so kind to Ottawa, especially defensively - the seven goals they've conceded in the first 45 minutes are only behind last place Valour - but then, in the second half, they become an entirely new team.
Yet, that shows why Vancouver will be even more frustrated with letting their lead slip, as they'll have known that Ottawa was going to push hard in the second half.
After defending very well in the first half, keeping Ottawa to just 0.78 xG on nine shots, they perhaps got a bit over-excited once they had the lead, feeling that they could've put this game away at 3-0. Unfortunately, they sacrificed the defensive discipline that they had early, having done a great job of sitting back in a compact 4-3-1-2 designed to limit space, as they started to push forward in the chase of that third goal.
Knowing that, Ottawa left their front three up the pitch, as they noticed that Vancouver's full backs started to drift forward more and more, and that's where they found their breakthrough, as they started to pump the ball long to their front three every time they won the ball back. Because of that, they started to feast in transition, as they racked up 3v2s, 4v3s and all sorts of dangerous counter-attacking situations late, and Vancouver wasn't able to adjust until the game was already 2-2.
In fact, the second half stats tell the story - Ottawa generated 1.44 xG from 15 shots in those last 45 minutes, as they made Vancouver pay for their second half sloppiness, although credit must be given to Vancouver for then getting back into the game late after giving up their lead.
Vancouver hoping draw a sign of important progress:
Of course, it shows how funny this sport can be sometimes when seeing Vancouver's reaction to this draw, as before the game, they would've gladly taken a draw against an Ottawa team that beat them 4-1 in their last visit to Willoughby Community Park.
Yet, it wasn't surprising to see Vancouver pick up a draw, as they've been trending on the right path towards results in recent weeks, and this was another good performance for them to build off, especially in terms of that first half.
To be able to go toe-to-toe with an Ottawa team and come out on top the way they did was quite impressive, as they were excellent defensively, and ruthless when their chances came - because their first tally was an own goal, they technically only had 0.19 xG from six first half shots, although one can imagine that own goal would've been a high xG chance had it come off one of their players given how close Cloutier was to his own net.
Now, however, the next step for Vancouver is to start getting some of these results over the line. These last six CPL games have been about as good a run of games as they've had in their history, as they've found a solid defensive identity, but all they have to show for that is one win and three draws to go along with two losses.
That's not a bad return, but there have been moments in each of those games where they've left frustrated with their own mistakes, and after this one, they'll bemoan how they approached being up 2-0, as they would've felt that was a big enough lead for them to get a victory.
This shows the challenge they're facing going forward, however, as they continue to develop their young group, sitting as the team with the second most U21 Canadian minutes under their belt in the CPL (only behind Ottawa). They continue to show incredible flashes from game to game, as young teams do, but are not quite seeing out their results as they feel they should.
They continue to have important milestones worth celebrating - that the 17-year-old Fotsing scored his first professional goal with CanMNT head coach Jesse Marsch in the building is a special moment he won't forget anytime soon - but the next step is turning those flashes and special moments into memorable victories.
Unfortunately, that can sometimes be the hardest step to take, as experienced players will tell you, but it can help to learn these lessons. Certainly, Vancouver will feel that they've done their work in the classroom with the way the learning moments have racked up for them - now, it'll be about putting all of that into practice going forward.
Rodríguez's return sparks Ottawa's offence back to life:
After missing last week with a suspension following a sending-off, David Rodríguez made the most of his return to the Ottawa lineup in this game, scoring to give himself five goals and four assists in eight games so far this season, as he continues to be the hottest attacker in the CPL.
Seeing that he was coming off a break, it was going to be interesting if that forced rest might halt his momentum, and while it looked like that might've been the case in the first half of this game, he quickly soothed those worries with how he ended the match.
The numbers speak for themselves - he had seven shots and created three chances in a lively performance. That benefitted someone like Sam Salter, for example, who scored his league-leading seventh goal and had eight shots in this game, after having generated just two shots without Rodríguez underneath him against Halifax, where Ottawa fell 2-0 in their first loss of the season.
That just shows the impact Rodríguez has had, however, with Ottawa yet to be shut out with him in the lineup, scoring 24 goals in those eight games, with that Halifax game being the only time they failed to score. Not only does he rack up goal contributions as the play flows through him, but his presence seems to elevate those around him, too.
Just look at someone like Kévin dos Santos, who put in a player-of-the-match performance at wing back, as he certainly benefited from having Rodríguez draw in defenders centrally, and the same goes for fellow wing back Gabriel Antinoro, who was also quite bright offensively on his flank.
Yet, when Rodríguez is on the pitch, he's commanding a certain gravitational orbit right now, one that pulls opponents in, and creates space for his teammates, which is then allowing them to thrive offensively.
Now, the big challenge will be for them to start coming out stronger in games, while tidying things up defensively (their 15 goals against are second-worst in the league), but they'll be pleased to be back to their usual performance offensively, as that was the biggest thing missing for them against the Wanderers, even despite conceding two goals.
Given that their entire game model seems to depend on how aggressively they play in attack, with a team philosophy of "score more than the opponent', that they looked more like themselves in Rodríguez's return will encourage them as they try and clean up the other areas of their play such as that defensive game.
What They Said
"I do believe that this will help our team, we recognize that the first time we played Ottawa, we lost 4-1, and we fast forward to today and play that same fantastic Ottawa team, and we led 2-0, and with a little bit of more discipline defensively and structurally next time, I think we can come away with a victory." -- Vancouver FC head coach Afshin Ghotbi
“It was bittersweet. We came back from down 2-0, and I thought we played great in the second half. We created a lot of chances, especially at the end, but couldn't finish them all. The reaction was good, but in the end, we think we could have deserved more." -- Atlético Ottawa forward Sam Salter
CanPL.ca Player of the Match
Kévin dos Santos, Atlético Ottawa
Right from the first minute, dos Santos was dangerous on the ball, leading to a deserved second half assist on Salter's goal. Yet, it was a strong night for him offensively, as he also generated four chances created, had two shots (including one that rattled the woodwork), completed two dribbles and completed three long balls.
Then, for good measure, he was pretty good defensively, too - he also finished with three tackles, five clearances, four recoveries, and won six out of 11 duels.
What’s next?
Vancouver will head out on the road for their next match, as they travel to Winnipeg to face Valour in a midweek School Day Match at Princess Auto Stadium on Wednesday, June 4th (9:00 a.m. PT/11:00 a.m. CT). Meanwhile, Ottawa will stay on the west coast for another clash, as they get set to face Pacific FC on Saturday, June 7th at Starlight Stadium (3:00 p.m. PT/6:00 p.m. ET).
Watch all CPL matches live on OneSoccer. In addition to its website and app, OneSoccer is now available on TELUS channel 980 and on Fubo TV. Call your local cable provider to ask for OneSoccer today.
