October 13, 2022 – Canadian Premier League (CPL) – Atletico Ottawa News Release
Atlético Madrid have long cultivated a reputation among the biggest clubs in world football for being intensely difficult to break down. Only once in the last 10 years have they finished worse than second place in La Liga in terms of goals conceded.
So, when affiliate club Atlético Ottawa allowed more goals than any other Canadian Premier League team in 2021 and finished bottom of the table, work began quickly to address the defending.
The club brought in a new manager in Carlos González and overhauled the squad in hopes of establishing a new, defensively-sound identity. A handful of key defenders from the previous year stuck around – Drew Beckie and Miguel Acosta remain pivotal to the backline today – but the newcomers may have put them over the top.
Work began in preseason at the Atlético Madrid facilities in Spain. González set about imprinting a new tactical identity on a new group of players – an identity that drew inspiration from how the parent club plays against some of the world’s best.
“I think we started to build in Madrid an important mindset, a mentality in the players, and one of the keys was that the club brought hungry players, ambitious players that in the past season it probably wasn’t an easy season for them,” said González. “This was a great first step to begin with, since the preseason when we started to play against strong opponents over there”
One of those new faces, Spanish-born Atlético Madrid academy product Diego Espejo, arrived in Ottawa on loan from the parent club and almost immediately – at 20 years old – has been one of the most dependable centre-backs in the CPL.
He came to the league with a strong résumé: Two caps for Spain’s U-17 national team, and the pedigree of Atleti’s storied academy, of which he’s been a part since 2016. Espejo’s loan to Ottawa came simultaneously with a contract extension at the Spanish club until 2024, indicating how Atleti values the players they send to Canada for such sojourns.
The six-foot-two centre-half is one of the league’s most forceful presences as the last line of defence before the goalkeeper, taking care of business by breaking up attacks and protecting the penalty area.
Despite hailing from the vacation destination Canary Islands, Espejo is truly a no-nonsense defender. He finished second in the league this year with 114 clearances with 12 blocks and 18 tackles won, and he wasn’t charged with a…
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