Atletico Ottawa took a page from boxing’s book and used the rope-a-dope to tremendous advantage. Two stunning late against-the-grain goals gave Ottawa a 2-0 victory over Pacific FC in a Canadian Premier League playoff semifinal game Saturday before 3,759 fans at Starlight Stadium.
The fourth-seed Tridents dominated the game territorially and in terms of possession against the regular-season champions from Ottawa, whose parent club is La Liga giant Atletico Madrid. But a lack of finishing haunted PFC.
“This was a tough one. We dominated the game but they sit back, sit back, sit back and hit you on the counter,” said PFC defender Nathan Mavila.
“We were quality today other than those two goals. They [Atletico] were patient and waited their time and they got their time. We lacked quality in the final third of the field. We had our chances and didn’t finish them.”
Those thoughts were echoed by PFC head coach James Merriman.
“I thought by far we were the better team but they walk away 2-nil. It’s frustrating,” said Merriman.
“We had the ball in great areas. It’s the final act that [let us down]. We beat ourselves. We are not clinical and ruthless enough in the final third [of the pitch]. When you don’t score, you will not win games.”
A dissenting opinion, naturally, came from Atletico Ottawa, and who’s to argue with their method – or their result?
“It’s easy to say they [PFC] dominated. Some people don’t like our style. But it works for us,” said Atletico Ottawa goalkeeper Nathan Ingham, who was nimble when needed to record the clean sheet.
“We executed our game plan close to perfection. It was a really good road performance. We are very good defensively. We don’t mind defending. We embrace defending. We bend but don’t break.”
A decision by PFC’s Callum Irving, one of the three nominees for CPL goalkeeper of the year, to charge a bouncing ball was punished severely at 79 minutes. Atletico Ottawa forward Ballou Tabla showed, with an exquisite chip-shot goal over Irving’s head, why he has two caps for sa国际传媒 and was once a Barcelona prospect.
“Callum [Irving] is one of the best and there was a bit of mis-communication there,” said Mavila, of the opening goal.
To further hush the shocked crowd, former PFC midfielder Zach Verhoven scored on a fluke deflection in injury time to make the Tridents’ task that much harder in the second game of the two-legged semifinal set next Sunday at TD Place Stadium in the nation’s capital. The second goal probably hurt more than the first and leaves the Tridents’ run as defending CPL champions hanging by a slender thread.
“It hit off my shin and there’s nothing I can do,” said Mavila, of the second goal.
“It was a stroke of luck for them. Nine times out of 10, that ball goes wide. This time it goes in.”
Leaving the Tridents to mull over their task of now having to score two or more goals on the road next week against the best defensive team in the league.
