2024 CPL Regular Season — Match #110
Atlético Ottawa vs. Vancouver FC
October 19, 2024 at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT
TD Place in Ottawa, Ontario
Watch Live: YouTube & OneSoccer.ca // Tickets available here

On Oct. 19, all four CPL matches in The Outcome! presented by TonyBet will be played simultaneously at 4 p.m. ET/1 p.m. PT, and will each be available to watch for free at YouTube.com/OneSoccer.

There’s only one order of business on Saturday for both Atlético Ottawa and Vancouver FC in their final match of the 2024 regular season: win.

Nothing less than three points would help either side, as the two teams still have a lot to fight for in this weekend’s finale, as part of The Outcome! presented by TonyBet.

The hosts Ottawa have already secured their spot in the playoffs, but they still have a chance of finishing in second place, which would mean they take on regular season winners Forge FC in a qualifying semi-final for the right to host the CPL Final. Entering the weekend, Atleti sit third in the table after 27 games, with 43 points. They’re two points behind second-place Cavalry FC, which means that for Ottawa to finish second, they need to beat Vancouver, and they need Cavalry to fail to beat Valour FC.

Atlético come into this game riding a bit of confidence, having beaten Forge 2-0 at Tim Hortons Field last Saturday in one of Ottawa’s more impressive performances of the season.

Meanwhile, Vancouver’s playoff hopes remain intact, but the margin is thin. VFC sit in sixth place with 29 points, two back of Pacific FC for the fifth and final playoff spot. So, for Vancouver to make the playoffs, they absolutely have to win in Ottawa on Saturday, plus they need Pacific to lose or draw at home against Forge FC.

The Eagles fell out of a playoff spot last weekend when Pacific beat York United, and they couldn’t climb back into it as they drew 1-1 with Valour FC.

Since neither side has any control over what happens in the other simultaneous matches on Saturday afternoon, they will each be fully focused on securing all three points at TD Place.

This will be the fourth time Ottawa and Vancouver have met in 2024, and Atleti have had the upper hand. They drew 1-1 in their first matchup, but Ottawa won the next two, including a 3-0 triumph in Langley and a 1-0 win at home in early September, where Ilias Iliadis scored directly from a corner in the second minute of the game.

At this late stage of the season, no team is ever fully healthy, and both these sides are missing a couple of pieces. Ottawa will be without both Liberman Torres and Luke Singh due to suspension, while Alberto Zapater continues dealing with an injury. Tyr Walker also missed the game at Forge with a knock, but Carlos González will be hoping to get him back — especially since Atleti still need to record another 48 U-21 minutes.

One Ottawa player to expect to see make an appearance off the bench is Maxim Tissot. The Gatineau native will be honoured prematch as he plays his final regular season game before retiring at the end of this campaign.

Meanwhile, Vancouver will get both Elage Bah and Austin Ricci back from suspension, and Mikaël Cantave back from international duty with Haiti. They seem to have a fairly clean bill of health, especially after Kadin Chung and Ben Fisk returned from injury as substitutes in last week’s game.

The entire CPL regular season all comes down to this weekend, when all eight teams will be playing simultaneously and, in the end, we’ll finally know the five playoff teams, and each side’s path to the North Star Cup.

All four games on Saturday have something interesting to keep an eye on, but with these two sides both desperate for a win, Ottawa-Vancouver might be the most exciting of them all.

All CPL and Canadian Championship matches will be broadcast live on OneSoccer, available as a linear channel on Telus’ Optik TV (Channel 980) as well as online at OneSoccer.ca, through the OneSoccer app and on the fuboTV Canada platform.

3 THINGS TO WATCH

• How will must-win mentality change each side? Part of what makes this game so compelling is the fact that a draw would do absolutely nothing to help either side. That means there won’t be much runway for a cagey period at the start of the game; both these teams need to score, and ideally score again, to take the pressure off themselves early. Since these sides have already seen each other three times this year, both Carlos González and Afshin Ghotbi should have a decent idea of how the other likes to play. Naturally, both managers might try to throw a couple of curveballs at the other, and it’s possible that whoever adds the more impactful tactical wrinkle will win the game. Ghotbi mentioned that he sees an advantage in a game where his opponent might have to come out aggressively in search of goals: “When Ottawa sits back in numbers and defends with basically a human bus of 11 players, they’re difficult to crack, they’re difficult to find space in danger areas,” he said. “But when Ottawa has to come out and play — when they play at home, they’re a different team and have different results than when they play away. They’ve been much stronger in away games than home games; in home games they try to win, they play more open, they attack teams more, and I’m hoping they play to win because if they do then it gives us opportunities to try and attack them and find gaps in transitional moments.”

• Head-to-head Golden Boot battle: The fascinating B-plot to this particular match is that the CPL’s Golden Boot race is still yet to be decided, and two of the top candidates are squaring off in the same match. Ottawa’s Rubén del Campo currently leads the league with 11 goals, but just behind him with 10 goals is Vancouver’s Alejandro Díaz (and Cavalry’s Tobias Warschewski). There’s no tiebreaker for this award, so if Díaz scores and both he and Del Campo end up with 11, they would share the Golden Boot — the second straight year an Ottawa player has done so, after Ollie Bassett tied with Myer Bevan last year. Both Del Campo and Díaz should be key parts of their side’s game plan this weekend, considering each team needs to go out looking for goals; obviously, the individual accolade is secondary to winning the game, but if either team does come out with three points, it’s reasonably likely that it’s because one of these two found the back of the net.

• Raucous TD Place atmosphere to provide playoff feel: It seems there’s always a strong crowd in Ottawa, but for this final regular season contest there should be a phenomenal atmosphere — and not only because the current forecast is calling for a warm, sunny afternoon on Saturday. It’s a game that means a great deal for the home side, and fans in the capital can typically be counted on to show up when their team needs it. Expect an engaged, vociferous crowd at TD Place that should give this match the feeling of a playoff game — consider it a warmup for the real playoff match Ottawa hosts. Plus, many in the stands will be on hand to pay tribute to club captain Maxim Tissot, who has been an outstanding character for football in Ottawa over the course of his career. The good news for Vancouver is they have a decent away record this year — their 13 points on the road is fifth-most in the league, including wins away at Forge, Valour and Pacific. Atleti haven’t necessarily been unshakeable at home, with a 5-5-3 record that’s only fifth-best in the league. “We have to try and build momentum from last game. I am very proud of the image that the team gave at Tim Hortons Field, and this is what we’re trying to do: take care of ourselves, of what we’re doing good, and repeat it,” Ottawa coach Carlos González said. “It’s very important that we are hungry for this game. We want to end the regular season in the best way, because we’re fighting for second position in the standings, and also at the end of the day, the people here in the fanbase deserve a win to end the cycle of the regular season.”