Atl茅tico Ottawa defeated Vancouver FC 1-0 at TD Place on Saturday, Aug. 31, to remain within two points of first-place Forge.
It didn鈥檛 take long for Atl茅tico Ottawa to get what would be the winning goal, 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.
Ottawa 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 was saved by Vancouver鈥檚 Callum Irving.
It was the seventh time VFC were held scoreless in 21 CPL games this season, meaning they鈥檝e been shut out an average of once every three games, despite scoring an average of 1.85 goals per game in the 14 games they鈥檝e found the net in.
鈥淭hat first goal, it was a kindergarten error,鈥� Vancouver鈥檚 head coach, Afshin Ghotbi, said. 鈥淚t was 100 per cent our problem, it wasn鈥檛 a great corner, so I don鈥檛 know what happened on that play, we were in the wrong position and we reacted the wrong way.鈥�
鈥淲hen the other team is playing in a block of three central defenders and then with another three good (defensive players) in midfield, that鈥檚 a wall of six players (centrally),鈥� Ghotbi explained. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no space (in the middle), so you have to look for space out wide, as the side of the midfield will always be free, and if you can get to those spaces quickly and then create 2v1s in the side channels, then that鈥檚 where the opportunities will come from.鈥�
鈥淚 was disappointed that we didn鈥檛 find those gaps in the first half, but in the second half I thought that we we did a little bit better, and we can still improve in that part.鈥�
Vancouver will return home to host York United at Willoughby Community Park on Friday, Sept. 6 at 7 p.m.
