A big match looms on Vancouver Island on Saturday, as Pacific FC hosts Atlético Ottawa at Starlight Stadium.
Two teams in different form, the stakes couldn’t be different for both teams, yet the goal remains the same - a win would be massive for either side.
Certainly, for the hosts, Pacific, a win will almost feel like a necessity, as they look to keep pace in the playoff race. With just four points separating fifth place and last place, they’ll want to push up from their current position, which sees them locked in a tie for sixth place.
Unfortunately for Pacific, however, they enter this game in less-than-ideal form. Having failed to win in their last three games, in which they drew one and lost two others, what will worry them is that they failed to score a goal in any of those three games.
After finding a 2-1 win vs. York United on May 10th that looked to be something they could build off, given that it was just the second time all year that they’ve scored twice, the goals have completely dried up for them in the matches they’ve played since.
Not all is bad - in their most recent match vs. Valour, in which they picked up a 0-0 draw in Winnipeg, they got their first clean sheet since their season opener on April 5th - something they’ll look to build on as they get set to face the best attacking team in the CPL right now.
"We're back home for a couple of weeks, we know that, so it's nice to be in our environment and in front of our fans," Pacific's head coach, James Merriman, said this week. "We know about the goals that Ottawa have been scoring this season, we know the way they've been attacking games and playing attacking football, we need to be at our best without the ball and put in a big defensive performance, but at the same time, they're conceding goals, so when we win the ball, we need to attack quickly and be efficient."
Speaking of Ottawa, however, while they’ve continued to score goals and sit atop the CPL table, they know that they’ve still got plenty of work to do.
Still not feeling that they’re at their best as a group yet, they’ve got a few goals that they want to accomplish over the next couple of games.
First, they want to start games better, as they’ve struggled in the first half of a lot of matches, forcing them to play from behind a lot more than they’d like.
Secondly, they want to be better defensively, as the 15 goals they’ve conceded are tied for the third-most in the league.
They’re extremely pleased with their goalscoring, having found the net a whopping 24 times in nine games, but they’ll look at their record of 5W-3D-1L and think of the points they’ve missed out on due to some of those defensive woes.
"It's not easy, in soccer or life, to change some behaviours and habits," Atlético Ottawa head coach Diego Mejía said this week. "But I am very happy with the mindset of the players, because when they receive a kick, they always recover, and have the ability to then go into the match and get results. I am very happy with the mindset of our players, and I am very happy with the behaviour that the team has."
In terms of player availability, Pacific had some good news on Daniel de Pauli, who left their match vs. Valour with an injury, noting that he’s available for this match. Meanwhile, Ottawa will welcome back Noah Verhoeven and Kevin Ortega, but will be without Brett Levis after he suffered an injury vs. Vancouver last week.
Photo: Philippe Lariviere - Atletico Ottawa
3 THINGS TO WATCH
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Maximum concentration required for Pacific: The toughest part of facing Ottawa this year? That they don’t seem to go away, as they’ve recovered 11 points from losing positions this year. Pacific were on the end of one of those comebacks, too, as they went up 1-0 on Ottawa at TD Place on May 3rd, taking that lead into half time, but were then swept away by a second-half Ottawa surge that saw them win that game 3-1. Because of that, the challenge isn’t as much about Pacific ensuring that they give Ottawa their best game - they know that’s a bare minimum in a game like this against the CPL’s first-place team. Instead, Pacific wants to ensure that they put in the most balanced and consistent 90-minute performance, one that limits mistakes and maximizes their opportunities. In particular, if there are any moments where Ottawa starts to rock Pacific, it’ll be up to the hosts to ensure that they still stay solid defensively and not start to leak chances. They do that, and they’ll give themselves their best shot at winning, as Ottawa have been far from impenetrable defensively, something they’ve got away with due to their high-flying offence.
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A strong start is a must for Ottawa: In their last five matches ahead of this one, Ottawa have scored first in a match just once, doing so against Forge on May 13th, as they’ve otherwise had to deal with going down in each of the other four matches. Not only that, but their lead against Forge was short-lived - they conceded just a minute later. Yet, that shows the challenge for Ottawa - score early and often, instead of leaving it late. For example, they’ll look to use their match from April 26th against Cavalry as an example of what a perfect road game will look like for them - there, they made it until the 59th minute without conceding, allowing them to open the score on an own goal, and then cruised to a 3-1 win there, with Cavalry’s goal only coming when Ottawa was already up 3-0. For as dangerous as Ottawa have been offensively this year, they’ve only been able to show the best version of their attack when chasing games - because of that, one can only imagine what they’d look like if they started pouring in the goals to gain a multi-goal lead like they did against Cavarly. Against a Pacific team looking to get out of a slump, this would certainly be a good time for Ottawa to find a strong start.
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Can Ottawa overwhelm Pacific on a smaller pitch? With their high-flying wing backs and fluid offensive system, Ottawa have enjoyed playing on bigger pitches, as they seem to constantly create overloads in wide areas, which they then use to cause chaos centrally. Because of that, this Pacific game will be a good test for them, as they get their first taste of the smaller Starlight Stadium pitch, which is slightly narrower. Yet, that could prove to be a huge advantage for the hosts, who will look to limit space in those wide areas, and perhaps use that space to their advantage offensively. With Ottawa employing aggressive, offensive-minded wing backs, they do their best work going forward, and because of how their team plays, it means they don’t have to do much defending. This is where Pacific could use someone like Josh Heard to their advantage - his speed on the counter-attack might prove useful if Ottawa’s wing backs play too aggressively in search of that space in the final third. Both of Pacific’s wins this year have come at Starlight, so they’ve shown that they can use their pitch to their advantage - they’ll hope this can be one of those games where that can be the case once again.
PROJECTED STARTING XIs
Pacific FC: Anchor; Chung, Machado, Ndom, Greco-Taylor; de Pauli, Young, Browning Lagerfeldt; Bustos, Montejano, Heard
Atlético Ottawa: Ingham; Cloutier, Abatneh, Duhaney-Walker; Antinoro, Aparicio, Castro, dos Santos; Rodríguez, Tabla; Salter
ALL-TIME SERIES
Pacific FC wins: 7 || Atlético Ottawa wins: 7 || Draws: 7
Last meeting:
May 3, 2025 — Atlético Ottawa 3-1 Pacific FC
KEY QUOTES
"We need to focus on ourselves, we need to focus on our attack. We need to take more risks to try to play and forward quicker, drive into spaces, take our 1v1 opportunities, and put more crosses in the box. We've just got to be more dangerous with the ball, and have urgency to get into the attacking half and to attack the final third. That's something that I think we had in the preseason and at the very start of the season, we were very much on the front foot and aggressive, but since maybe the goals haven't consistently come for us, we've lost a little bit of confidence there, so we need to just keep working." - Pacific FC head coach James Merriman
"The guys in the locker room, this is all the closest we've been, so it's just about transitioning that onto the field and working for each other on the field to get three points, and to get results whenever we can. This league's tough, the travel is tough, but I think if we can push on the field as a team, then the results will come." - Pacific FC defender Christian Greco-Taylor
"We know that travel is tough in this league, so we ned to manage our weeks well, we need to manage our micro cycles to try to get the players ready to compete for the next match. I am very happy with this week's micro cycle, the players have done well, they had a lot of time to rest, so we are ready to go to compete vs. Pacific." - Atlético Ottawa head coach Diego Mejía
"That's how we train, we train to have the ball, we train to attack, we train to score goals. I think we do have to improve defensively, as much as we do offensively, but we know that if we go down two goals, we can still come back, because we create a lot of chances. So if we're able to capitalize on them, we know that we're going to have a chance to win the game." - Atlético Ottawa midfielder Gabriel Antinoro