CCSG Player Ratings: 2024 CPL Semi-Final @ Forge FC
You ride for six hours each way in the back of the bus, only to be provided with disappointment after disappointment. This is the life of a football fan. It's not even the performance in this case (which it was the last four times I've been unfortunate enough to make my way to the GTA) but just the frustration of the result that has always felt inevitable in this horrid back half of the 2024 season. But it's still worth it. The core community that exists around this club is going to survive whatever product is on the pitch. We will commiserate together just like we would celebrate together. That's what support is all about. Lending our voice to an idea, a symbol, and joining those who wish to embody it with us. For some on that pitch on Saturday, it will be the final time they wear our crest. For others, they will come back next year, hopefully with the fire required to get the results they can and not the ones they did. So before we start the long, dark, offseason, let's review the series of missed opportunities that was the 2024 campaign.
#19 Rubén Del Campo
Game Rating (6.3), Season Rating (6.79)
One open-play goal from the final 12 games isn't good enough. Yes he may have stepped up and converted from the spot on two occasions, but you still need more from your #9. Yet, you really can't ask for much more because he scored more goals this season than any other ATO player has in a single year. He shattered our expectations for him, and yet it still feels like he came short of what he should have shown. No shots on target tonight encapsulated the end of his 2024. He needed to be there when it counted, and unfortunately, he wasn't. With his status as a free agent looming, the front office is going to have to figure out where our goals are going to come from next year, and fast.
#13 Ballou Tabla
Game Rating (6.2), Season Rating (6.47)
Coming into the season, everyone was convinced that Ballou Tabla was going to be the player that revitalized a putrid Atlético Ottawa attack. By that standard, his whole season was a missed opportunity. Chance after chance wasted, and an effort level that vacillated between the bare minimum and zero. His last goal was July 12th against Vancouver, the exact halfway mark of the season, and he ends the year with six games sans a goal contribution. All this after we thought he found himself in early September, only to revert back to his early season form with the snap of a finger. He's here for another two years, he absolutely has to be better.
#9 Sam Salter
Game Rating (NR), Season Rating (6.67)
Despite being tied for second in goals on the team, Sam Salter's 2024 was just as frustrating as his 2023. He could never string performances together when he was given the task of starting, and looked dangerous but still clunky whenever he came off the bench. His first touch remains, to put it kindly, unpredictable, and while his nose for goal seems to have remained, the full package isn't there for a striker and as such he works better playing off the wing. But when he does, the pace isn't there. I'm not sure what role he needs to be put in to have any consistency, but if he's here next year that will be one of the biggest tasks for whomever is in charge.
#7 Kevin dos Santos
Game Rating (NR), Season Rating (INC)
Injured just minutes into his second appearance, and having his only start ruined 25 minutes in by a red card, this whole season was a missed opportunity for a signing from whom I expected a lot. Limited to bench minutes, and even then very few of them, KDS was never able to work his way into any of the games he played this year. There's no possible way next year could get worse for the Portuguese winger, could it?
#10 Ollie Bassett
Game Rating (6.5), Season Rating (6.88)
A missed penalty in the dying minutes of a June game against Pacific is probably the stand-out “missed opportunity” for Ollie this year, but it's mixed into a run of games through the middle of the year where he just lost all sense of who he was. He salvaged it, like last week against York, but it leaves a sour taste in your mouth knowing that so many games could have been transformed by a great Ollie Bassett performance. He ends 2024 as Ottléti's all-time appearances, goals, and assists leader, and with it potentially his Atlético Ottawa career. My attitude on Ollie has certainly been all over the place, but I've got a pit in my stomach thinking that's how his time here comes to an end. I wouldn't blame him for going back home to take a chance on himself, but when he's near his best, he's certainly the best we've had.
#34 Manny Aparicio
Game Rating (7), Season Rating (7.05)
Hitting the crossbar from inside the six-yard box is a missed opportunity that will stay in your mind for a long time. Even thinking to criticize Manny's season after what he did feels preposterous. Sure, he had an off game every now and then, but Manny's aggression and persistence generated far more positives than negatives in the opponent’s half. No one else on this team is made to play that way, and, as such, the midfield flowed through him the entire season. With the 29-year-old under contract for another year, the heart of this team, both literally and figuratively, seems like he'll be sticking around. If he doesn't? I shudder at the thought.
#33 Abou Sissoko
Game Rating (7.3), Season Rating (6.83)
Much of this column has focused on the season as a whole. This section is going to be a direct criticism of Carlos González selection and substitutions, for Abou Sissoko was the best player on the pitch for Atlético Ottawa when he was in the middle of the park. Yet, rather than have a player to replace Dani Morer at right wing-back in their natural position, he chose to take Dani off and move Abou out wide. I don't understand how you would consider doing this, minutes after Sissoko literally dribbled through the entire Forge team and had his attempt saved by Koleilat. He truly was an unsung hero this year, and maybe for fitness reasons he couldn't play full 90s frequently, but he should've done it more. He won 3 free kicks in the first 10 minutes of the game, and he was integral in disrupting the Forge midfield. It took me too long to truly praise him for this season, and I've tried to make up for it the past couple of weeks, because he's been that good.
#6 Liberman Torres
Game Rating (NR), Season Rating (INC)
Missing the first two months of the season because of visa issues, and then missing three of the final four games of the season due to a bone-headed red card, the season began and ended pretty similarly for Liberman. I struggle to see the point of having him on the roster, as despite a few decent games in the middle of the season, his roles were better filled by better players, and a loan could've been used more strategically to fit needs at the midway point of the campaign. His season with the team was certainly not the tragedy that other loans have been, but he didn't make much of a mark either.
#22 Matteo de Brienne
Game Rating (7.5), Season Rating (7.01)
How Matteo didn't score once this season has left me absolutely baffled. It can certainly be attributed to being forced to left back to cover for an injured Max Tissot at the end of May, which clearly limited his ability to display his full range of attacking talents. Some of it can also be attributed to bad luck, with a couple of posts being hit and well-struck volleys skimming just wide or high of the goal frame. None of these failings however, can be attributed to a lack of heart. This kid has the biggest one in the league, and the effort on display every second he's on the pitch is noticeable from even the farthest part of the stand. His block in the first half is the epitome of this commitment. If the football world has any semblance of justice in it, he'll be getting a chance across the Atlantic in 2025.
#3 Jesús Del Amo
Game Rating (6.5), Season Rating (INC)
After hearing the frustrations of Carlos González regarding the process of making Jesús’ signing official, it's a missed opportunity that he wasn't introduced into the rotation sooner. Would it have achieved much? I'm not so sure, as Ilias Iliadis filled the position Jesús played with aplomb despite not being a natural centre-back. Not much about Jesús’ short time with the team stands out, though what will likely be his final game did see him get outmuscled by Malik Olawabi-Beluwu for the Forge goal. He'll want that back, and he might want back these last couple months too.
#55 Amer Didic
Game Rating (7.3), Season Rating (7.1)
The missed opportunity for Amer Didic is different to everyone else's, as there's nothing I can point to on the pitch as a miss. For him, I can't imagine what it must have felt like to have a potential transfer to Europe fall through his fingertips. For us, it would have been the missed opportunity to see a defender so capable that it stabilized a unit that seemed set for pure chaos. He mentored, whether directly or indirectly, the first true, local, Atlético Ottawa product in Tyr Walker, and somehow wasn't nominated for defender of the year in what was a clear case of voter fatigue from having Didic do exactly what he's done since he entered the league. With an option year on his contract, it remains to be seen what his plan is. Selfishly, I hope he stays. For him, I hope he gets his chance in Europe, I would hate for that to be a final missed opportunity in this collection.
#4 Tyr Walker
Game Rating (6.6), Season Rating (6.86)
Perhaps the only real missed opportunity for Tyr Walker was that he didn't play a full season. It was fairly clear that Tyr wasn't trusted to work as one of two centre-backs in a back two, as it wasn't until July that he started to feature heavily next to Amer Didic. Once the back five became the staple, Tyr's presence next to Didic was only interrupted by a knock picked up in the early October fixture against York United. Otherwise, the young defender made the kind of strides you need to see from a 21-year-old in what was only his second professional season. He still has areas for improvement, mostly on the mental/tactical side, but technically, he's beyond the CPL, and it's difficult for me to see how a 21-year-old on this trajectory wouldn't get interest from afar.
#8 Dani Morer
Game Rating (5.9), Season Rating (6.62)
With the season now firmly in the rearview, Dani Morer's trajectory flattened like Saskatchewan by the end of the year. This felt like a byproduct of his lack of physicality and a mind that tried to overcomplicate when involved in play. What's most frustrating is that Kris Twardek and Zach Roy suffered as a result, not being able to find minutes and instead having Abou Sissoko seemingly be the second choice by the time playoffs rolled around. Dani will head back across the pond, his loan expired, with a few assists to his name, a potential equalizer in this one cleared off the line, and a weird legacy as a one-hit wonder with Atlético Ottawa's supporters.
#29 Nathan Ingham
Game Rating (6.4), Season Rating (6.8)
Finding a way to concede the first shot on target in four of the last five games in which the opponent scored is the kind of stat that just doesn't sound like it should make sense. It is, in Ingham's case, not his fault that these goals happened, but still the result of a defence constructed rather to prevent opportunities from even happening than one that allows one or two extra chances that would be ridiculous to allow. Nate feels poised to remain as the number one next season, even with Rayane Yesli breathing down his neck for playing time, but given the confidence Carlos González had in Nate down the stretch, it feels wrong to suggest it would go any other way.
The rest of the rotation does deserve some further discussion, particularly given Carlos González only used three substitutions on Saturday, as they equally fit into the larger narrative of the season. For Maxim Tissot, it goes without saying that his final season did not end the way he would've wanted. Between an injury that saw him miss significant time, and a lack of silverware, there were plenty of missed opportunities. Similarly, Alberto Zapater may have also kicked his last ball this season. On the verge of turning 40, there's a non-zero chance he does return to play, in my mind, as he too chases a trophy at the end of his career, but it looks slimmer by the moment. Kris Twardek's homecoming started off well, but he was left out of the rotation for most of the back half of the year, owing to injury concerns from what I understand. Gabriel Antinoro couldn't quite execute, and while Zach Roy did play well in his limited opportunities, neither of our other two young players ingratiated themselves with the manager enough to earn playing time. Luke Singh lost out to Tyr Walker for minutes, like Ilias Iliadis did with Jesús Del Amo, and Rayane Yesli did with Nathan Ingham, which must have been frustrating for the loanees given the expectation that they’d be playing coming from MLS rosters (and having featured so heavily last season).
Most of this roster should look back on their year with some positives, but mostly about how there were chances to transform it beyond what it was. Serious reflection for those returning is necessary, and we've got the longest offseason in the world to do it. Speaking of that, I'll be off to Europe in just over a week, so you won't hear from me for a while, even if some big news drops. Fun isn't the right word to describe what it's been like doing this for the second year, but I've certainly enjoyed it. At the end of the day, would I be doing it if I didn't? Until 2025, all the best.
Additional Ratings:
Maxim Tissot: Game Rating (N/A), Season Rating (INC)
Alberto Zapater: Game Rating (N/A), Season Rating (6.84)
Kris Twardek: Game Rating (N/A), Season Rating (6.85)
Gabriel Antinoro: Game Rating (N/A), Season Rating (6.46)
Zach Roy: Game Rating (N/A), Season Rating (INC)
Luke Singh: Game Rating (N/A), Season Rating (6.56)
Ilias Iliadis: Game Rating (N/A), Season Rating (INC)
Rayane Yesli: Game Rating (N/A), Season Rating (6.78)
About Patrick
Having joined CCSG in 2022, Patrick started his footie career playing at the age of 4 and began watching the pros around the same time. While the first pro team he supported was Manchester United, as soon as Atlético Ottawa came to town, he was immediately on board. His wealth of footie knowledge has been a constant asset, along with his role as caretaker for Atléti Wikipedia pages.
