Atletico Ottawa played to its strengths in a tense but entertaining affair, defeating the Halifax Wanderers 1-0 to earn a huge three points, leapfrogging Halifax for sole possession of fourth place in the Canadian Premier League.
With its first home victory of the season, Atletico improves to a 2-1-3 record (7 points).
Despite having 12 days off since their last game, a stunning 3-1 upset over MLS side Toronto FC in the preliminary round of the Canadian Championship –courtesy of a Ballou Tabla second-half hat-trick– Atletico Ottawa started this game hot, dominating the majority of the possession, creating quality chances, and playing fluid, attacking football.
Atletico played to its philosophy: on the front foot, controlling the possession and tempo, and catching out the opponents with their crisp ball movement. Against Halifax’s attempted aggressive high line, it worked wonders.
That said, despite all the possession in the attacking third, it took Ottawa half an hour to break Halifax’s resolve.
Atletico San Luis loanee Jonantan Villal received a pass from Manu Aparicio, before turning and clinically finishing a swift Ottawa counterattack with a low, powerful strike into the far side corner to give the home side a 1-0 lead in the 31st minute.
At halftime, the match was tilted completely in Ottawa’s favour. Ottawa outshot Halifax 5-0 (2-0 on target), won the xG battle 0.35-0, had 10 touches in the opposition box to the visitor’s one, and recorded 26 final third entries vs Halifax’s 16.
Halifax did not attack much in the first half; when they did, Halifax lacked a cutting edge, failing to pick the right pass to unlock the hosts. It led to several turnovers in the midfield and extra possession for the home side.
They knew Ottawa was going to have a lot of the ball; their game plan was to sit back in a compact defensive shape and break out in transition accordingly, using their accurate long-balls and blistering speed. They executed their transition game efficiently looked dangerous at times.
Their best chance of the half came in the 15th minute, on a breakaway in transition. Cyprian Kachwele got on the end of a beautiful long ball that Ryan Telfer launched from inside Halifax’s own penalty area, yet failed to even register a shot after taking a heavy touch in Ottawa’s box.
Halifax have struggled all season with being clinical in big moments; once again, it cost them.
“We stuck to our game plan, let them have the ball and picked our moments,” said Wanderers full-back Marcus Godinho. “I think that goals change games, and at the moment we’re not taking our chances. I felt that they had a half chance, we’ve had much better chances than that, and they punish us, and just a difference of quality up top at the moment.”
“We had chances that are clear chances that you have to score… there’s no excuse. For me, it’s more on us than them [defending well]. When you’ve got an open net and hit the post, you can’t say anything about the defending; there’s no one in front of you. If we’re not scoring, we can’t win games, Godinho emphasized.
Ottawa attacked with intent and probed for an insurance marker before the break, knowing that Halifax would not be a team that would roll over.
Atletico created numerous quality chances, but were unable to find the all-important second goal, not for the lack of trying. On several occasions, it nearly cost them.
Atletico Ottawa assistant coach Diego Campos, filling in for the suspended Diego Mejia, said Ottawa’s philosophy will always be to keep playing an attacking style to increase their lead, even against opponents who make it difficult.
“We always want to score the second goal. Our identity is to [control]the ball and try to create chances. But some matches you can do it more than others because the other team can make this style of play hard when they start to press and [create turnovers], which makes the final minutes of the match harder to control than we want. But not sitting back and always attacking for the second goal is our intention.”
The second half was much more even, and Halifax came out of the locker room with intent. They were much more fluid on the ball, regained some ground in the possession game and created a flurry of chances; the only thing missing was a clinical edge.
In the 71st minute, Ryan Telfer was on the receiving end of a sensational through ball. He controlled the pass nicely, but was not able to generate much power on Halifax’s first shot on target. Ottawa keeper Tristan Crampton deflected it out of harm’s way to maintain his side’s 1-0 lead and his first-career clean sheet.
Arguably, the biggest moment that had all 5,000 Ottawa fans holding their breath came in stoppage time, when a misplaced clearance over the head of Crampton fell onto the feet of Wanderers’ forward Victor Akinwale, who had the entire goal to shoot, yet he rattled his effort off the woodwork.
Halifax head coach Vanni Sartini was proud of the team’s performance and progression, despite only winning one of seven matches in all competitions this season, coming on opening day.
Knowing Atletico likes to play in possession, Sartini instructed his team to maintain possession and be extremely patient with the ball to frustrate Ottawa.
“We kept the ball, but it is a paradox, because even though we had the ball for much of [the latter stages]of the first half, they scored in transition, and it was our fault because we forced the ball,” Sartini said.
“I leave the game… with a different sensation, because I think we are on the right path.”
On the balance of play, Ottawa will feel like they deserved to win given the number of chances they created, especially when trying to double its advantage. In the 68th minute, Aparicio attempted to dribble past a second Halifax defender, took an extra touch, but failed to even register a shot attempt. In the 80th minute, Aparicio lunged but could not make contact with Gabriel Antinoro’s pinpoint cross toward the goal line. Ottawa were inches away from a 2-0 lead.
Had Halifax equalised, it would have felt like two huge dropped points for Atletico.
Even though Atletico’s philosophy has always been to never stop attacking, both of their league wins so far have been 1-0: today and a last-minute winner against FC Supra on April 19.
Halifax falls to 1-2-3 (5 points) and sits in 7th place. Their next match is a home tilt against Inter Toronto FC.
Ottawa’s next match is a massive battle of Ontario, at home to league leader Forge FC, which defeated Ottawa 2-0 on opening day.
Coming off two consecutive important wins in the Voyageurs Cup and league, Villal believes this is the turning point for Ottawa’s season.
Atletico will aim to extend its unbeaten home run to 26 matches in all competitions, a league-leading streak dating back to August 2024.
