York, Ottawa fight out scoreless stalemate | MATCH ANALYSIS

Match in a minute or less

York United and Atlético Ottawa fought out a scoreless draw in sweltering heat on Sunday afternoon at York Lions Stadium, as neither side managed to solve the other in a cagey, gritty contest.

The home side had a handful of good chances in the first half, especially from set-pieces, but Ottawa found a better rhythm in the second frame, holding an overwhelming amount of possession but not able to get into box.

So, the two teams ultimately had to settle for just one point each.

Three Observations

Humid conditions make for sluggish, cagey affair as two sides can't solve each other

Although matches between these sides have typically been high-scoring, fast-paced affairs, that wasn't on the cards for this one on Sunday. Intense humidity and temperatures in the high 30s at midday in Toronto made for difficult conditions, hindering either team's ability to play with energy.

In fact, Atlético Ottawa head coach Diego Mejía suggested postmatch that he's never encountered conditions quite like that, and thus thanked his players postmatch for their effort.

While neither team is fully satisfied with a scoreless draw, both will be fairly content with the clean sheet and not faltering in a game where each was just hoping for a lapse of concentration from the other.

York and Ottawa are very familiar with one antoher by now, having already played each other twice before this game. They've got another meeting coming soon, with the second leg of their Canadian Championship quarter-final tie slated for early July.

So, perhaps it's not surprising that the two teams have found a way to cancel each other out. In a game like this, where both teams know going in that the conditions are unlikely to allow for wide-open transitional attacks at speed, the plan would have been to stay focused and refuse to give the other side anything easy. In that sense, it was a game of survival, where not losing was a key objective.

To that end, both sides did a good job of sticking to their plan, and not getting pulled too far out of their shape. Both were well organized and compact, which meant that there was very little space between the lines for attackers.

Although there were a few good chances for both sides, there was no deluge of attacking moments; the clean sheet on both sides is a testament to the two teams succeeding in their primary mission, even if they couldn't quite find the goal that would've been a cherry on top.

Ottawa overwhelm with possession play, defend well but lacking final touch

Atleti have typically been the most ruthless team in the CPL this year, punishing opponents with their speed and aggressive forward play. When they're at their best, they're playing past teams directly, overlapping on the wings with David Rodríguez and Ballou Tabla cutting in toward the box.

That didn't quite materialize for them on Sunday, mostly because the slow pace of the game didn't allow them to properly open up. Instead, they went for a different strategy, choosing to control the ball and dictate how the match was going to proceed; Atleti finished with 65 per cent possession and 94 per cent passing accuracy, indicating how careful they were moving the ball around the park.

Ten of the 16 players who stepped on the pitch for Ottawa in this game had an individual passing accuracy above 90 per cent; Noah Abatneh alone attempted 104 passes, and missed only one of them.

"Our best defence is trying to play the whole match on the ball," Diego Mejía explained postmatch. "The numbers don't lie, this is our best defence. If you have the players that we have in defence, if you have the best goalkeeper in the league, if you have some of the best centre-backs in the league, you don't suffer a lot."

Until the beginning of June, Atlético Ottawa had not yet kept a clean sheet in a CPL match this year. Now, they have three in a row, having blanked Pacific, Valour and York in succession.

With all three of their centre-backs on Sunday being U-21 players, the way Ottawa defend and hold onto the ball is truly remarkable.

Pavela growing in confidence, making case for number one job

At the beginning of this season, it wasn't immediately evident who would be York United's first-choice goalkeeper, with Diego Urtiaga arriving on loan to compete with 20-year-old Ivan Pavela, who had previously been with York on a U-18 development contract.

With Urtiaga currently out injured, though, Pavela has now started three consecutive games, and he made a strong case for himself to be the everyday starter even when Urtiaga returns.

Pavela made three saves in Sunday's game, all of them quite difficult; he did remarkably well to deny Sam Salter twice in the space of a minute, first making a good kick save on a low shot before diving to palm away a higher attempt on the following play.

The real strength of Pavela's performance was more than his shot-stopping, though. He was remarkably confident coming off his line to claim balls in the end or cut off passes across goal. He commands his penalty area well, and he's able to out-muscle attacking players to get to the ball, whether in the air or on the ground.

Mauro Eustáquio gave credit to York goalkeeper coach Camilo Benzi for originally scouting Pavela and helping polish him into a professional.

"It's a kid that's full of confidence," Eustáquio added. "Obviously clean sheets bring that, but he's a good shot-stopper. I think he can control his box more, but at the end of the day, we look at him, he's [20] years old, and he puts a performance out like this in tough conditions against a good opponent."

What They Said

"Fair play to both teams, they came and did what they had to do, but it's tough. It's extremely tough. ... I think we can talk about a game taht had a half for both teams. First half we were better, we created some chances, they were better than us in the second half and had a little bit more possession." -- York United head coach Mauro Eustáquio

"It was hard to keep a high rhythm in terms of running around and pressing, so I thought we handled it well. We were able to move the ball well and tire them out. It was unlucky that we couldn't score at least one goal, but I'm happy we could keep the clean sheet." -- Atlético Ottawa defender Noah Abatneh

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Kembo Kibato, York United

The York midfielder was in a good rhythm on Sunday, especially in the first half. In his 90-minute performance, he did not misplace a single pass, completing a team-high 47 passes (including 10 in the final third) with 100 per cent accuracy. He also had three successful dribbles and won possession four times.

What’s next?

Both sides head on the road next weekend, beginning on Saturday, June 28 when Ottawa visit Alberta to take on Cavalry FC (6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT). York, meanwhile, have a shorter trip, as they head to Hamilton for a derby match with Forge on Sunday (4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT).

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