Iliadis Finds More “Olimpico” Magic to Push Atlético Ottawa to Crucial 1-0 Win Over Vancouver FC

September 1, 2024 – Canadian Premier League (CPL)
Atletico Ottawa News Release

Atlético Ottawa continue to keep pace in a hotly contested Canadian Premier League title race, as they defeated Vancouver FC 1-0 at TD Place on Saturday to remain within two points of first-place Forge.

It didn’t take long for Atlético Ottawa going in this game, as Ilias Iliadis opened the scoring for the hosts inside two minutes, as he curled the ball directly into the net off a corner kick for an Olimpico, his second such goal in the last three games.

Then, they nearly doubled their lead in the 55th minute, as Ollie Bassett stepped up to take a penalty won by Aboubacar Sissoko, but his spot kick attempt would be nicely saved by Vancouver’s Callum Irving.

From there, however, Ottawa would do what they needed to in order to grind out a victory despite a late Vancouver push, picking up a win that could prove to be valuable in a tight CPL title race.

Three Observations

Ottawa uses strong defensive showing to ride early goal to win:

It’s always the big question when a team scores early – will they be able to build off that and find a few other goals, or will they settle back into more of a defensive posture?

Naturally, the latter is usually always going to manifest itself early – one of the most dangerous things teams can do is to push too hard for more goals after scoring, rendering themselves vulnerable to conceding them at the other end.

Despite that, it’s also important to not sit too deep and to just invite pressure, either, ensuring that the opponent is made to work for space in the final third.

No doubt, after scoring as early as they did, one thing was for sure – the hosts were always going to be able to dictate the terms of the match, and they chose to sit back a bit deeper and let Vancouver bring the game to them, while offering strong resistance in the form of their defensive mid-block in their 5-4-1.

Given that a large reason for Vancouver’s success on the road this season has come from their ability to hit teams in transition, it was a smart decision from Ottawa, and they reaped the rewards of it early on. Not only did they limit Vancouver to just one first-half shot, a long shot from Gabriel Bitar that went nowhere near their goal, but they did so despite letting Vancouver hold 59.5% of first-half possession.

Of course, the big challenge for Ottawa was going to be to see if they could maintain such a formula after the break, as Vancouver was always going to try to finish the…