On Sunday May 12th, Vancouver FC played host to Atlético Ottawa at Willoughby Community Park, where the two clubs would play to a 1-1 draw.
It was matchweek five in the Canadian Premier League, as Vancouver FC was looking to shed memories of the past couple weeks, returning home to Langley.
Entering the match, Atléti sat in second place in the league table, boasting a record of 3 wins and 1 tie, with a +5 goal differential. Ghotbi and his team, meanwhile, couldn’t have been happier to return to their home field after a dismal road trip. To start their season off, The Eagles won their first two games by a combined score of 6-1; however, when you start to climb high, there’s always a risk of falling down, and that’s what happened to VFC. Heading out on the road for their last three games, one of which was Canadian Championship, they failed to earn a result in each of those, losing by a combined score of 7-1.
With all that having been said, Vancouver entered this game with a fair chance to get themselves back into the win column and return to better form. For Carlos González however, this match provided the opportunity for Ottawa to continue their unbeaten streak in all competitions for 2024.
Atlético have been in prime form recently as they dispatched Valour by a combined 9-0 in back to back games, and they even looked the better side in their nil-nil draw to Pacific FC in the Canadian Championship. With González’s side playing a skilful game, the Eagles would have a tough match cut out for them from the start.
There were a number of players missing from Sunday’s matchup, as David Norman Jr and Matteo Campagna were both out with injuries that they sustained last week. And to make matters worse, club staple Rocco Romeo was also out of action with the flu. Luckily for Ghotbi’s side, the new Ugandan-international loanie Allan Enyou, coming from CD Leganés B, was ready to make his first CPL action in time to fill in for Vancouver. Beside him, 20-year old Anthony White would start and also see his first minutes of the 2024 campaign. Kadin Chung was also fit enough to make his first appearance since coming back from injury, and he would line up in the back of the park along with Paris Gee and Callum Irving who would occupy their natural positions.
As for the rest of the squad, they were lined up in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Vasco Fry and Renan Garcia occupied the double pivot in the midfield, while Cantave was rewarded with his first start of the season on the left side of the field. Bitar and Fisk would fill out the rest of the three, and Moses Dyer would get the nod to play up top. González would set his side up in the 4-4-2 formation that has been fruitful for his club this season.
The first half was an open but reasonably low event affair in which Ottawa would get the majority of the shots, but didn’t necessarily look like the more dangerous side. Although Callum Irving did have to come up with a couple big saves against Balou Tabla, VFC managed to play a solid defensive game in the first half and only allowed 3 shots on target. Other than that, Atléti would pick up a couple of first half yellow cards, as Mikaël Cantave would twice draw hard fouls from both Manny Aparicio and Ballou Tabla on separate occasions. As both teams went to the dressing rooms, there wasn’t much to separate them after 45 minutes. The Eagles looked better than they had in weeks before, but that wasn’t quite enough to get the better of González’s side in the first half.
The second half would start with Alejandro Diaz coming into the game for Ben Fisk, and then shortly afterwards, Cantave would receive a yellow card of his own as he fouled Aparicio in Vancouver’s half. Ottawa came into the second half with some energy, as after pressing hard for the first 10 minutes, they were rewarded when Anthony White would make a mistake and give up possession just outside the eighteen-yard box. Tabla took the ball from White and would find Ollie Bassett running into the box, who would take a shot that was saved by Irving, but the rebound would fall to a waiting Rubén del Campo, who would tap it home for the first goal of the match.
After Ottawa would make it 1-0, the Eagles responded well, and would come close on a few chances. In the 64th minute, former Atléti man Zach Verhoven, would come on against his former club and make his first appearance for his local side. Then shortly afterwards in the 68th minute, Kadin Chung would receive the ball while running down the wing, and he would cross the ball over to the far post, where Diaz would connect with his head, and put the ball in the top corner of the net.
With the game now tied up at one a piece, both teams would make final pushes to try and secure the winning goal, but neither team could find what they were looking for. VFC would make a couple more substitutions, as Elage Bah would come on for Cantave, and new signing, Sebastian Dzikowski (2023 U Sports player of the year) would get his first appearance for the club as he came on for Moses Dyer. A slew of yellow cards would get dolled out in the last 15 minutes of the game, but alas, it would finish tied between the two clubs.
Vancouver will have to be happy to come away with a point against Ottawa, who now sit tied in first place in the league with Pacific. The captain had to come up big for his club multiple times throughout the match, as Irving did his best to secure at least one point for his club. Enyou also had a good showing to start his CPL campaign, perhaps we’ll see some more of him in the future. Next week, on Saturday May 18th, Vancouver will have to make the trek out to Hamilton as they take on Forge FC, who are lurking right at the top of the league table as they always seem to be.
(Image Credit: Beau Chevalier)