Atletico Ottawa (5th place) vs York United (6th place)
York Lions Stadium
Sunday, October 1, 2023; 1 p.m. EST kickoff
Huge playoff implications are involved, the winner essentially punches their ticket, loser is all but eliminated
Win and in the playoffs for Ottawa (9-6-11, 33 pts)
A draw or loss favours York (9-5-12, 32 pts) for the final playoff spot as Ottawa is 0-1-2 vs York this season
The last time these two teams played it ended in a 3-3 draw at TD Place; Haworth had two goals, Espejo found a late equalizer to steal a point in a back-and-forth game
Ottawa is winless in its last 6 matches (2 draws, 4 losses)
York is winless in its last 3 matches (3 losses)
Defending CPL Player of the Season, Ottawa midfielder, Ollie Bassett is the top scorer in the CPL with 11 goals and he leads CPL Golden Boot Race. Bassett also has 3 assists.
Atlético's second top scorer is striker Sam Salter with seven goals, along with one assist.
Ottawa has lost 4 of the last 5 matches by conceding a stoppage-time winner.
Carlos Gonzalez says it's because their poor start to the season has them playing catchup; as a result, draws aren’t enough, so Ottawa presses offensively for late winners, and as a result, they are susceptible to transition attacks from their opponents. “The pressure of always needing to go for late winners leads to mental lapses,” Gonzalez said.
Atlético striker, and Trinidad and Tobago international, Malcolm Shaw is the joint top scorer in this fixture with four goals (all-time).
York forward Brian Wright also has four goals in this match-up (all-time).
Wright, the former Atleti striker, netted three goals against York before scoring his first goal for his new team against Ottawa earlier this year.
Gonzalez knows the team’s next game will be critical to their playoff hopes; he even called it a cup final.
“They have the same need as us, the need to win,” he said. “The emotions of the last few games are going to be the key aspect of the game. How we deal with the emotions, how we control the details, how we can be a little bit better (especially in the game’s final stages) will be essential to the result.”
Ottawa’s all-time head-to-head record vs. York: 1W-9D-4L (12 of 42 possible points); 25 goals scored, 27 goals conceded.
