@J_ames well, we took it this season too hahaha
CANADIAN PREMIER LEAGUE - Semifinals
For reasons I fail to fathom, we were set to play HFX at Halifax in a single match semifinal, even though we had a better campaign. One of the greatest challenges of our match preparation was to fend off the feeling of injustice, which I thought could hinder our concentration coming into the game.
After the beautiful one-two between Kacher and Reartes getting us the first goal of the match in the 11th minute, we had to do our defending. Fortunately, our goalkeeper and defenders had a good match and we went home qualified to the finals.
HFX Wanderers 0-1 Atlético Ottawa
Forge FC 3-0 Pacific FC
CANADIAN PREMIER LEAGUE - Grand Finale
We advanced into the finals and we would play away from home one more time. This time, in a match that made sense, given that Forge FC scored 1 point more than us throughout the regular season. The travel, however, would be shorter, as we would not leave Ontario.
Again we would start off well, as Jayden Nelson profited from a good cross from Kacher and headed home our opener, 17 minutes into the match. Joy would be doubled at the 29th minute, when Nelson took the rebound off a long shot from Reartes to score the second. This joyful sensation wouldn’t last long, as the linesman found Nelson to be offside and called off our second goal.
Our bad day with the refs would get worse in the next play, as the referee used his creativity to find a penalty for Forge after the ball was in the air off a long free kick. Krutzen, a solid Belgian defender who is close to his Canadian nationality, took the penalty and made it all even: 1-1.
Atléti started the second half all out attack, and with only 7 minutes played after the break, Viti found a pornographic cross from ¾ of the pitch. Nelson anticipated his marker and buried another one, a sensational aerial performance scoring a brace with his head even being only 1,75m tall.
In the 82nd minute of an intense match, Krutzen found a long through ball and Woobens Pacius beat our defenders in pace, having only the job to put it behind Felizzola to find another equalizer. Turns out that Pacius had not only beaten our defense in pace, but he had himself a head start. The linesman, the same one who called off our goal in the first half, has also seen that, and the goal didn’t count.
CANADIAN CHAMPIONSHIP - Grand Finale
The Forge FC vs. Atlético Ottawa event would be repeated at the final of the Canadian Championship. If you remember our last episode (or if you had just scrolled up a little), we defeated Toronto FC at the semifinals on home turf, whereas Forge traveled all the way to British Columbia to knock out Vancouver Whitecaps. So the final will be against the same club, at the same venue.
Forge knew that they had to break the pattern in order to triumph. Same rival, same club, same result? They wouldn’t want that.
Pattern was not broken when Nelson got the first goal of the game.
Pattern was A LOT broken when Nelson got the first goal of the game on his own net. In a beautiful triangulation from the left to the centre between Tissot, Sabak, and Choinière, Forge got a clear cut chance in front of Felizzola. Choinière squandered his opportunity so badly that the ball hit Nelson and went in.
Two minutes later we had our greatest chance in the first half, but Hamilton missed a penalty kick. In the 39th minute, Sabak got a cross to the goalkeeper area, in goalkeeper territory, in a way that our goalkeeper should have jumped to get the ball. But he didn’t, and Pasquotti buried their second.
One does not want to go to the dressing room with 2-0 down. Period. But one REALLY does not want to go to the dressing room with 2-0 down with Fred Gagnon. Fred never goes physical, but his mixture of angry tone, heavy accent, and bad grammar (although his grammar in French is even worse; long story), is intimidating, even more so when he gets angrier because he forgot a word that was at the tip of his tongue, which makes he think that people see him as silly.
But Fred Gagnon is no silly man.
Nothing changed immediately, and Nelson, perhaps shaken by his own goal, was playing terribly. After 12 minutes of still playing terribly in the second half, he got sacked for Telfer.
Then something changed.
In minute 62, after some minutes of innocuous ball possession, Diatta sent a “fuck it” straight to the penalty box, where Hamilton had to battle the defenders to control the ball and find space to send a left-footed rocket into the net. 2-1 and game on.
In minute 68, Viti recovered possession in the midfield and Verhoven sent it straight to Hamilton, who again successfully fended off the defenders and got the equalizer from a well placed mid-range shot.
In minute 70, Reartes found Viti, who got it back to Reartes, who got a diagonal shot that turned the game on its head. Just like that. In 9 minutes, Atléti went from 0-2 down to 3-2 up.
Forge tried to shift up the gears and get back into the game, but after a turn around like that, one just doesn’t. Atlético Ottawa champions of the CPL and the Canadian Championship, and qualified to the CONCACAF Champions League 2022/23.
Canadian Championship Rewiew | CPL Review
2022 WORLD CUP
Canada’s expectations in the World Cup were not exactly great, as the sheer fact of being there was already enough reason to celebrate. For the first time in a World Cup since 1986, the Canadian flag would wave, “Oh, Canada” would be played, and Canada would have the chance to just be there and be a part of it. And two players from Atlético Ottawa would be part of history.
The tight 2-1 over Kuwait, a nation that did not come close to participating at the event, after 90 minutes of the single prep friendly, showed that Canada have still a long way to trail before becoming great at anything. The group stage, however, brought some firsts:
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Group Stage
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Knock-out Stage
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Interesting events:
When in North America, play-offs
4th Trimester 2022CANADIAN PREMIER LEAGUE - Semifinals
For reasons I fail to fathom, we were set to play HFX at Halifax in a single match semifinal, even though we had a better campaign. One of the greatest challenges of our match preparation was to fend off the feeling of injustice, which I thought could hinder our concentration coming into the game.
After the beautiful one-two between Kacher and Reartes getting us the first goal of the match in the 11th minute, we had to do our defending. Fortunately, our goalkeeper and defenders had a good match and we went home qualified to the finals.
HFX Wanderers 0-1 Atlético Ottawa
Forge FC 3-0 Pacific FC
CANADIAN PREMIER LEAGUE - Grand Finale
We advanced into the finals and we would play away from home one more time. This time, in a match that made sense, given that Forge FC scored 1 point more than us throughout the regular season. The travel, however, would be shorter, as we would not leave Ontario.
Again we would start off well, as Jayden Nelson profited from a good cross from Kacher and headed home our opener, 17 minutes into the match. Joy would be doubled at the 29th minute, when Nelson took the rebound off a long shot from Reartes to score the second. This joyful sensation wouldn’t last long, as the linesman found Nelson to be offside and called off our second goal.
Our bad day with the refs would get worse in the next play, as the referee used his creativity to find a penalty for Forge after the ball was in the air off a long free kick. Krutzen, a solid Belgian defender who is close to his Canadian nationality, took the penalty and made it all even: 1-1.
Atléti started the second half all out attack, and with only 7 minutes played after the break, Viti found a pornographic cross from ¾ of the pitch. Nelson anticipated his marker and buried another one, a sensational aerial performance scoring a brace with his head even being only 1,75m tall.
In the 82nd minute of an intense match, Krutzen found a long through ball and Woobens Pacius beat our defenders in pace, having only the job to put it behind Felizzola to find another equalizer. Turns out that Pacius had not only beaten our defense in pace, but he had himself a head start. The linesman, the same one who called off our goal in the first half, has also seen that, and the goal didn’t count.
Forge FC 1-2 Atlético Ottawa
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CANADIAN CHAMPIONSHIP - Grand Finale
The Forge FC vs. Atlético Ottawa event would be repeated at the final of the Canadian Championship. If you remember our last episode (or if you had just scrolled up a little), we defeated Toronto FC at the semifinals on home turf, whereas Forge traveled all the way to British Columbia to knock out Vancouver Whitecaps. So the final will be against the same club, at the same venue.
Forge knew that they had to break the pattern in order to triumph. Same rival, same club, same result? They wouldn’t want that.
Pattern was not broken when Nelson got the first goal of the game.
Pattern was A LOT broken when Nelson got the first goal of the game on his own net. In a beautiful triangulation from the left to the centre between Tissot, Sabak, and Choinière, Forge got a clear cut chance in front of Felizzola. Choinière squandered his opportunity so badly that the ball hit Nelson and went in.
Two minutes later we had our greatest chance in the first half, but Hamilton missed a penalty kick. In the 39th minute, Sabak got a cross to the goalkeeper area, in goalkeeper territory, in a way that our goalkeeper should have jumped to get the ball. But he didn’t, and Pasquotti buried their second.
One does not want to go to the dressing room with 2-0 down. Period. But one REALLY does not want to go to the dressing room with 2-0 down with Fred Gagnon. Fred never goes physical, but his mixture of angry tone, heavy accent, and bad grammar (although his grammar in French is even worse; long story), is intimidating, even more so when he gets angrier because he forgot a word that was at the tip of his tongue, which makes he think that people see him as silly.
But Fred Gagnon is no silly man.
Nothing changed immediately, and Nelson, perhaps shaken by his own goal, was playing terribly. After 12 minutes of still playing terribly in the second half, he got sacked for Telfer.
Then something changed.
In minute 62, after some minutes of innocuous ball possession, Diatta sent a “fuck it” straight to the penalty box, where Hamilton had to battle the defenders to control the ball and find space to send a left-footed rocket into the net. 2-1 and game on.
In minute 68, Viti recovered possession in the midfield and Verhoven sent it straight to Hamilton, who again successfully fended off the defenders and got the equalizer from a well placed mid-range shot.
In minute 70, Reartes found Viti, who got it back to Reartes, who got a diagonal shot that turned the game on its head. Just like that. In 9 minutes, Atléti went from 0-2 down to 3-2 up.
Forge tried to shift up the gears and get back into the game, but after a turn around like that, one just doesn’t. Atlético Ottawa champions of the CPL and the Canadian Championship, and qualified to the CONCACAF Champions League 2022/23.
Forge FC 2-3 Atlético Ottawa
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Canadian Championship Rewiew | CPL Review
2022 WORLD CUP
Canada’s expectations in the World Cup were not exactly great, as the sheer fact of being there was already enough reason to celebrate. For the first time in a World Cup since 1986, the Canadian flag would wave, “Oh, Canada” would be played, and Canada would have the chance to just be there and be a part of it. And two players from Atlético Ottawa would be part of history.
The tight 2-1 over Kuwait, a nation that did not come close to participating at the event, after 90 minutes of the single prep friendly, showed that Canada have still a long way to trail before becoming great at anything. The group stage, however, brought some firsts:
- by holding South Korea to a 0-0 tie, Canada got their first ever World Cup point;
- by heading the ball to the back of the net off a cross from Jonathan David, Lucas Cavallini got Canada's their first ever World Cup goal. Sadly, thanks to a 90th minute goal by Fabián, Canada did not make history by getting a point off Spain.
2022 WORLD CUP - QATAR
Group Stage
Knock-out Stage
Interesting events:
- remember our goal of beating Mexico’s 1986 campaign and finishing at least 5th, beating CONCACAF’s best ever World Cup finish? Well, this goal has just got updated to 1st, as Mexico finished 2nd;
- for the first time since Italy in 1982, a country wins the World Cup after finishing group stage in 2nd place;
- for the first time since 1982, Poland reaches a semifinal;
- for the first time since 1990, Brazil is knocked-out before the quarter finals;
- for the first time since 2002, Argentina fails to make it into the knock-out stage;
- for the second World Cup in a row, Germany is knocked out at the group stage;
- in their first participation with the new name, DR Congo didn’t overcome the group stage, but at least they managed to finish in front of Belgium;
- Mexico becomes the first country ever not from Europe nor South America to be in a World Cup final.
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