| Vancouver FC vs. Atlético Ottawa
August 1 at 3 p.m. PT / 6 p.m. ET
The Stadium at Langley Events Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia
Watch Live: OneSoccer
Tickets available here |
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It's a battle of third versus fourth place in the Canadian Premier League table this weekend, as fourth-place Vancouver FC hosts third-place Atlético Ottawa at the Stadium at Langley Events Centre on Saturday.
Heading into their third meeting of the season, Vancouver has so far gotten the upper hand in this matchup in 2026, earning one win and one draw from those previous two matches, including a crucial 2-1 victory in Ottawa's last visit to Langley on June 5th.
In fact, that victory proved to be quite the catalyst for Vancouver, as it kickstarted the run of form they're currently on - they enter this match having won five of their last CPL matches, including four straight at home.
As a result, Vancouver have comfortably carved out a playoff spot at the halfway point of their CPL season, sitting with 20 points after 14 games.
For context, this Vancouver side earned just 21 points from 28 games all of last season, which shows the growth they've had in Martin Nash's first full season as head coach.
"We've been able to grind out some results, which is nice," Nash said this week. "Yeah, we've won a couple by big scores, but we've also grinded some wins out. Teams that can win in multiple ways are always difficult to beat, right?"
"I feel that we're becoming another team that can win dirty; we can win ugly."
Ottawa, meanwhile, is continuing to go through a transition period of their own.
Their manager, Gustavo Leal, is making just his third appearance in charge of the club, with this being his first match away from Ottawa.
He's off to a good start to life in the CPL, as his team drew Inter Toronto in his opening match before beating Pacific FC in dramatic fashion last weekend, so he'll hope that they can build on those results in this game.
While Ottawa would've liked to be pushing for a top two spot at this stage, given their status as defending North Star Cup winners, they'll be pleased that despite all of the turnover they've dealt with on and off the pitch in terms of the departures of key players and head coach Diego Mejía, they still sit third at this stage.
Now, though, they'll want to take a big step forward in the second half of the season, as they don't just look to cement a playoff spot, but perhaps even push Cavalry and Forge at the top of the table.
"It'll be my first (road) trip, and it's a really hard trip," Leal said. "It will be a new experience for me, but the players and the club have done it a lot of times before, so we have all the support to do a good trip. Vancouver is in a really good sequence now; they won their last two matches against Supra and Cavalry, so we know that will be a really hard challenge for us there."
"But we need to keep the focus on our team, we need to keep the focus on our idea, and if (we do that), we will do a good match there."
Beating an in-form Vancouver side on the road would be a nice way to do that - similarly, however, Vancouver will view this battle against the defending North Star Cup winners as a good test of their credentials.
What that all shows, however, is why this is expected to be another good matchup between these two teams.
NEWS & NOTES
- Vancouver FC will be without midfielder Marcello Polisi, who is serving a one-game suspension for yellow card accumulation.
- Each side are without players due to their participation in the U20 Concacaf Championship with Canada - Vancouver is without Emrick Fotsing, who is captaining that Canadian U20 team, as well as Marsel Bibishkov, while Ottawa is without Sergei Kozlovskiy.
- Atlético Ottawa announced on Thursday that they've signed experienced CPL midfielder Diego Gutiérrez, who won the North Star Cup with Cavalry in 2024.
PROJECTED STARTING XIs
Vancouver FC: Irving; Doner, Campagna, Field, Proctor; Ssewankambo, Pecile; Bah, Mezquida, Amissi; Mousset
Atlético Ottawa: Kalongo; Assi, Mbomio, Cloutier, Timotéo; Antinoro, Aparicio, Castro, Coulanges; Tabla, García
KEY QUOTES
"I want to challenge the players to step up. We all talk about wanting to be a playoff team, and we feel that we're a playoff team, but these are games you've got to win, right? In the last two performances, I think we've started slowly, so I want to start quicker, more on the front foot, and just be a bit more positive in our start. We've grown into games well, but we want to start well, especially. So I think our starts have got to be better than it has been, but I think our performances overall have been good." -- Vancouver FC head coach Martin Nash
"We are in a transition period. I arrived here two weeks ago, so we need a little bit of patience to make some adjustments. I'm the same way as Diego Mejía; we have a similar style of game. In the last two matches, we played (well). In the first one, we had a lot of control and created a lot of opportunities, but we didn't score the opportunities that we created. Then, in the last match, we scored more goals from the opportunities that we did, but we also conceded some opportunities to the opponent. So I think that now we need to find this balance between the offensive moments and the defensive moments." -- Atlético Ottawa head coach Gustavo Leal
