2025 CPL Regular Season — Match #7
Vancouver FC vs. Atlético Ottawa
April 13 at 3 p.m. PT/6 p.m. ET
Willoughby Community Park in Langley, British Columbia
Watch Live: OneSoccer // Tickets available here

Vancouver FC and Atlético Ottawa clash on Sunday afternoon, both in search of their first victory of 2025 as the CPL’s second weekend of the season concludes in Langley, B.C.

Atleti kicked off the year with a 2-2 home draw against the Halifax Wanderers this past Saturday, while Vancouver FC look to rebound from a 2-0 home loss to York United in week one.

The capital club heads on the road for the first time in 2025 looking to further its hard-earned reputation as the league’s best away team. Under the three-year tenure of previous Atlético Ottawa manager Carlos González, no club had more wins away from home than Ottawa’s 19. They outscored opponents 65-44 in that time, best in the league in both goals for and against on the road.

A big part of that was the club’s defensive identity and comfortability without the ball, as they have also kept the least possession of any away team over the past three seasons, at 42.88 per cent. Under Diego Mejía’s new attacking system, that mentality has dramatically shifted, and it will be interesting to see what sort of impact that has on the club’s away form in 2025.

Atlético Ottawa’s new attacking blueprints were already laid out clearly in week one. The 3.50 expected goals they managed against the Halifax Wanderers were the most in a CPL match in club history (4.07 expected goals against Valour in a 7-0 Canadian Championship victory being the only higher total in all competitions), and 40 touches in the box was the second most.

By contrast, Vancouver FC will be desperate to end a horrible run of home form. In fact, they have not defeated an opponent that is not B.C. rival Pacific FC at home since week two of last season.

While a result eluded them in week one, Vancouver did see multiple exciting professional debuts, including that of 17-year-old midfielders Emrick Fotsing and Kevin Podgorni, as well as CPL-U SPORTS Draft second overall pick Henri Godbout. Godbout, in particular, looked impressive in his 30 minutes off the bench, attempting five dribbles and making seven touches in the box as he added speed and creativity to the final third to the Vancouver attack.

Their talented group of young Canadians is getting some international reinforcement, however, with the club announcing at half-time of the York match the high profile signing of former Vancouver Whitecap Nicolás Mezquida. This past weekend, the club also revealed the signings of Brazilian midfielders Juan Bautista and Michel Cavalcante and French midfielder Abdoulaye Ouattara, while Senegalese defender Ndiaya Pathe joins loan from Spanish club CD Leganés.

Secure your Seat 💺

Come see Nicolás Mezquida make his return to B.C. at our match this Sunday April 13th @LangleyEvents against Atletico Ottawa 🏟️

Get tickets here 🎟️
🔗: https://t.co/wBEWquX4vO#VancouverFC #CanPL pic.twitter.com/ghqnoMNk9S

— Vancouver FC (@vanfootballclub) April 11, 2025

The club is still waiting for the latter four to arrive, but Mezquida is available for selection this weekend, with Vancouver FC head coach Afshin Ghotbi saying he will be an important piece for the club this season. Vancouver will be without midfielder Vasco Fry, who was issued a two-match suspension by Canada’s Soccer’s Incident Review Body following a challenge on York United’s Steffen Yeates in week one.

Atlético Ottawa, meanwhile, are also dealing with a suspension this week as central defender Tyr Walker was sent off in the 86th minute against Halifax after receiving his second yellow card.

All CPL 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.

A FEW THINGS TO WATCH

• Can Vancouver get Díaz, Campbell more involved?: After being shut out by York in week one, Vancouver will look to find an attacking spark — and particularly crucial in that is better utilizing their most dangerous weapons. In his Vancouver FC debut, Terran Campbell made just 14 touches in 71 minutes, just one of which was in the York box. Díaz was a bit more involved, firing two shots on target and creating a chance, but he himself only made 24 touches. This is despite possession being almost exactly evenly split between the two sides. The pair also took up a lot of the same positions throughout the match, allowing them to be too easily marked out of the game, especially with York deploying a back three — as Atléti is expected to as well on Sunday. Re-igniting their partnership will take time, but Campbell and Díaz are the two most prolific strikers in the league’s history and their teammates need to do a much better job of getting the ball to them, especially in dangerous areas.

• Dada-Luke and Levis face off in battle of two of the league’s best full-backs: The battle on Vancouver’s right flank, and Atleti’s left will be a particularly intriguing part of this match as it pits two of the league’s most dynamic and exciting fullbacks: Vancouver’s Kunle Dada-Luke and Atleti’s Brett Levis. In their respective systems, both are encouraged to get forward, particularly with Levis playing as a left wing-back. Dada-Luke played six crosses in Vancouver’s season opener, creating two chances. Levis attempted the same number of crosses getting up the left flank for Atlético Ottawa against Halifax. Both strong defenders, they will look to get the better of one another on both sides of the ball.

PROJECTED STARTING XIs

Vancouver FC: Irving; Dada-Luke, Campagna, Norman Jr., Gee; Essoussi, Fotsing; Bah, Díaz, Godbout; Campbell

Atlético Ottawa: Ingham; Didić, Abatneh, Cloutier; Dos Santos, Aparicio, Sissoko, Rodríguez, Levis; Salter, Tabla

ALL-TIME SERIES

Vancouver FC wins: 1 || Atlético Ottawa wins: 5 || Draws: 2

Last meeting:

Oct. 19, 2024 —  Atlético Ottawa 0-0 Vancouver FC

KEY QUOTES

“Especially in the second half, I was very impressed with the way [Atlético Ottawa] pressed the opponents. They went forward, they created a lot of chances for themselves, they overturned a 0-2 deficit into 2-2 and even had chances to win the game. So I think it’s going to be an entertaining game, we also have a mentality that we want to play attacking football. We want to press opponents. We want to engage very high and try to create chances and hopefully our young players adapt to the tempo and the speed.” — Vancouver FC head coach Afshin Ghotbi

“I know a few of their players, Kevin dos Santos, lethal in attack, and he’s got a good strike on him. And I played also with Noah Abatneh back at York and I guess we’ve just gotta see what they line up with this weekend and come with a strong game plan.” — Vancouver FC full-back Paris Gee