It was a beautiful springtime Sunday afternoon in Langley, and the crowd was hoping for Vancouver’s first win of the season.
Atlético Ottawa plays a positive brand of soccer, so it had the makings of an exciting game with plenty of scoring opportunities.
Ottawa nearly opened the scoring in the fourth minute when Callum Irving stopped Gabriel Antinoro's hard low cross, then bounced off the post before being cleared by the Vancouver defender.
In the 14th minute, Vancouver came close to taking the lead when a goal-mouth scramble was almost struck home by Henri Godbout, but his point-blank shot was knocked off the line by Atlético’s Noah Abatneh.
It would have been an exciting moment for Godbout to score his first CPL goal in his first game.
Ottawa opened the scoring with a great individual effort by David Rodriguez, who picked up the ball near the midfield line and raced past four Vancouver defenders before sliding the ball inside the post from the top of the box.
In the 37th minute, Atlético added its second goal. Rodriguez again split the Vancouver defence with his dribbling skills and played the ball to the left side of the box for Dos Santos, who curled his shot into the right corner of the goal.
Ottawa’s ability to stretch the Vancouver defence with long crossing balls to spread the field, combined with quick short passes and strong runs up the seam, seemed to confuse the Vancouver defenders, who resorted to falling back and letting the play come to them rather than pressuring the Ottawa attackers.
While Vancouver had some offensive thrusts in the first half, they were resorting to long balls down the wing, hoping their attackers could get under it before the Ottawa defence regrouped.
The visitors extended their lead to three with a long ball up the middle of the field that the defenders left for the goalkeeper to clear, but a miskick by Callum Irving left Ballou Tabla with an easy tap-in into the open goal.
With a 3-0 lead in the second half, the game started to slow down as Ottawa put less effort into their offensive push, but even then, multiple Vancouver blunders on the back line gave Ottléti two glorious opportunities to shoot in the first ten minutes of the second half.
In the 67th minute, Vancouver scored on a great through ball from Bah to Campbell, who beat the last defender and tucked it past the Ottawa goalkeeper.
The 24-year-old reached the 40-goal mark in the Canadian Premier League, becoming the first player in the competition's history to do so.
Even with changes to the defence during the off-season, sloppiness still seems to be the norm in Vancouver. If it weren't for Callum Irving, Ottawa could have easily scored seven or more goals.
Vancouver is in its third season in the CPL, and the weaknesses have remained the same since their inaugural campaign. Now, the challenge is maintaining fan interest and support.
