Atlético Ottawa Dominate During Club Record 5-0 Victory over Vancouver FC

May 14, 2023 – Canadian Premier League (CPL) – Atletico Ottawa News Release

After an ugly loss to Pacific FC at home last weekend, their fourth match without a win to start the 2023 CPL season, Atlético Ottawa responded in a big way with a club-record 5-0 victory over Vancouver FC on the road at the Langley Events Centre.

Ollie Bassett, Samuel Salter, Noah Verhoeven, Zach Verhoven and Zakaria Bahous all got on the scoresheet, while at the other end, Ottawa didn’t allow a single shot on target to keep their first clean sheet of the season.

For Vancouver FC, it was the first time in club history that they had been scored on multiple times by an opponent in what amounted to a soul-searching loss for the expansion side in front of their home fans.

Three Observations

Early goal allows Atlético Ottawa freedom in attack during a historic offensive performance

For the first time in seven matches in all competitions in 2023, Atlético Ottawa managed to score the opening goal.

That was the catalyst for an explosive offensive performance, in which for the first time in CPL action this season they scored more than a single goal in a match – five to be exact. For once in 2023, Ottawa didn’t have to attack an opponent who had the luxury of sitting back and defending a lead.

This led to significantly more space than they have been used to in the final third. Within that space, Ottawa especially did a good job of using their wide attackers to cut in centrally and create overloads in the middle of the park, as seen when dos Santos drifted inside on the opening Atleti goal.

“I’m really happy for them,” said Atlético Ottawa head coach Carlos González of his team. “I think that they understood really well where the other team had their weakness. Today we were clinical, today we were solid. So great individual performances, and great team performance.”

After a frustrating start to the year where Ottawa has often seemed disconnected in the attacking third of the field, they were finally able to connect in a big way in Vancouver. The chart below shows just how many chances (totalling 1.88 xG) they created during the match (yellow dots are goals, the bigger the dot the bigger the xG rating), and especially note how many of them came from dangerous areas inside the Vancouver box.

Atlético Ottawa chances vs. Vancouver FC (Courtesy: Opta)

It was a collective performance that delivered this result, but there are still a few individual performances that are worth highlighting. Sam…