CCSG Player Ratings: Matchday 7 vs. Forge FC (13/5/25)
Frustration. Every season is going to bring it at some point, and we’ve been fortunate to largely avoid that emotion through the first quarter of the season. Tuesday morning/afternoon against Forge, that frustration was felt through the individual, collective, and organizational level of fans, players, and coaches alike as Atlético Ottawa surrendered two separate leads to Forge and walked away with just one point and down one key piece for their next match against Halifax in 11 days. In a vacuum, this is certainly a result that any Atlético Ottawa fan would take coming off fewer than three days rest against a side who last played over a week ago, but the games do not take place in a vacuum.
Before we get further into this, I want to be explicitly clear, the circumstances that surrounded this game were not the reason for this result. The players on the pitch did not execute in key situations and that is why this team did not walk away with three points. To approach it in any other terms, despite the clear ineptitude that surrounded the 22 players at all levels on the day, is a disservice to growing as a team and seeing out the rest of the regular season. Forge is a good side that took advantage of weaknesses in our lineup, and those need to be shored up in order to be able to beat them at the next time of asking.
Two Steps Forward, Two Steps Back
It was perhaps a bit premature to have leveed all that praise I had for our young back line. In watching how this team plays, I do still think that the three who started this game are best suited to be the starters in the present context, but that doesn’t prevent them from being faultless by any stretch. I’ll start with Loic Cloutier, whom I was praising most effusively last week. At a number of points in this game, the young defender was ball watching and leaving players time to roam in and around the 18-yard-box. Forge’s first chance of the game was as a result of this, as Cloutier watched the cross come in and lost Noah Jensen around the penalty spot. Fortunately, the Forge midfielder skied the incoming cross well over the bar and the blushes were spared.
In the case of Noah Abatneh, he was positionally and physically outmatched on a number of occasions against Brian Wright. In a one on one matchup, there likely isn’t a more difficult striker in the CPL to deal with in terms of physical strength, but the positioning from Noah that led to him needing to take a yellow is something that needs to improve. Additionally, Noah got caught out in a transition moment, and with his pace not being his strong suit, he was unable to limit Brian from getting off a dangerous shot. Once again, that big chance was not taken as the Forge striker sent the ball well to Nathan Ingham’s left beyond the far post. That said, I do think Noah was effective more often than he wasn’t on the defensive end, making key clearances and marshalling the defence when in possession.
The other issue is more of a team defending issue than it is on any individual and might not be something that can altogether be overcome. The back post header that Nana Ampomah won for Forge’s first goal was indicative of how we might be overmatched without a commanding aerial presence like Amer Didic in the box. I’m not saying that Didic would’ve been responsible for that specific instance, given how he has lined up this season, but taller players at the back post whether they be opposing wingers or defenders will be difficult to match up against for our, relatively, shorter wing backs at this time. If Levis moves back to a starting role, this sort of thing should not be too much of an issue, but it means Nate Ingham needs to be more confident in his approaches on crosses of that nature, and shouldn’t always rely on his defenders to get rid in case he gets caught in between decisions.
The Circumstance
All that said, I do still want to go on about the overarching context under which this game took place. To those that were able to make it to the Glebe Central Pub along with me, you will have already heard more than you will ever need to about what I think about Yusri Rudolf. Given the nature of my comments, most of them will not be reiterated here in text to avoid self-incrimination. However, there is still plenty to say about the refereeing in this match, and none of it is positive. I’ll start first with the sending-off of David Rodríguez. Without knowing anything about how the first yellow was obtained, quelle surprise, the second yellow feels exceptionally harsh as a sequence of dissent that feels like it never ended. I’m upset at David for not keeping his composure in that situation, but given he’d gotten away with it on at least two separate occasions with different officials, it speaks to the inconsistency of the application of rules in this league across its officials, which is frankly a problem the world over.
The actual issues with Rudolf start with the challenge made by Brian Wright against Nathan Ingham in the 30th minute. This now marks the second consecutive Canadian Premier League game in which a player has gone in studs up against a goalkeeper and made contact high and late with their studs and somehow not received a straight red card. On Saturday, the impact was likely a bit more obvious as the cleat of Julian Altobelli dragged across the chest and stomach of Sean Melvin, leaving a sizable bruise. On Tuesday, Brian Wright chasing a somewhat loose back pass from the Atlético Ottawa defence came with a similarly forceful challenge with his right foot well off the ground and making contact well up Nathan Ingham’s right leg. Fortunately for the Atlético Ottawa goalkeeper, that leg was the one he had just used to clear the ball and as such was a bit off the ground making the impact seem lesser than it was. Any player with their leg on the ground in that situation would have been contacted by Wright’s foot somewhere around their knee-cap rather than the shin.
For that to have been shown only a yellow, especially given the two challenges that Forge committed in the midfield which most would deem yellow-card offences given they were both forceful and late, shows a clear inability to manage the game from Rudolf. That doesn’t even mention the inconsistency that Rudolf demonstrated in the fouls he did end up calling. Ticky tack fouls from attackers on defenders getting called in some instances, but not others, on both sides of the pitch. Rudolf allowing play to continue when Rezart Rama put two hands on Kevin dos Santos, shoved him without touching the ball, is just one of many examples. Heck, on the play that led to the first Forge goal, a number of referees would have probably given a foul for Brian Wright’s pullback on Loic Cloutier that allowed Brian to recover the ball before the cross came in. Watching it back, Cloutier slipped equally as much as Brian pulled him back, but weaker fouls have certainly been given and certainly were given in this game.
Ultimately, poor officiating is par for the course in the Canadian Premier League, but it’s something that through the first six matches we had been able to avoid. Perhaps Mario Alayass got a little over eager in calling as many fouls as he did in our match against York, but given the reputation York has developed thus far in 2025, that large number might seem reasonable. Great teams are able to overcome these sorts of issues, and managing a draw away despite everything I’ve mentioned above is the mark of a team that can be great.
Despite how frustrated I clearly was, and evidently still am, with the officiating, my main source of ire is still that this game was scheduled in the manner that it was. To have a league match scheduled fewer than 72 hours after another while one of the participants happens to have a bye week is an unconscionable decision that flies directly in the face of competitive integrity. This would be the case if it was any team that received this benefit, but it hurts even more knowing it was Forge. No other league on the planet would purposefully build this into their league schedule. Stuff like this of course happens as a result of other competitions forcing midweek games, but never as a result of the league’s purposeful scheduling. The fact that this did not take place on a Friday to at least give some semblance of rest between fixtures for Atlético Ottawa is, simply, a joke.
It boggles my mind, and it really shouldn't, given the decisions that have been taken with regards to this league’s direction through six years, that the league would kowtow to a club for nothing more than a short-term PR benefit disguised as community outreach and integration. There are plenty of ways to do the groundwork and build sustainable relationships with the schools in your community rather than just throwing money at them and saying, “Hey come to a game that you’ll only actually be able to watch half of”. I’ve seen plenty of school groups come out to games ON WEEKENDS at TD Place and still have an absolutely great time. In fact, I’d argue that those who came in those instances were probably more focused on the game because they all wanted to be there. It wasn’t a field trip that they were afraid to miss out on, or class to skip, it was something they wanted to do, and almost certainly would want to do again for the simple reason that it was organic. And here’s the thing: ATO didn’t have to run their entire operation at a huge loss to get that done, because there’s no way the kids sitting at midfield in the front row of this match paid the full $60.95 that it would normally cost.
What’s funny about all this is that the PR boost they’ll get from setting the “highest paid attendance in CPL history” is only ever going to be captured in still photos taken in a 20 minute or so period. The logistics of getting all those school buses in and out of Hamilton Stadium meant that almost none of the kids that were there actually saw the whole game. In fact, you could see certain sections empty out as early as the 60th minute as a result of logistics. All this to squander an opportunity to highlight two elite teams playing against one another for the first time. It’s a minor league move from a league that consistently tries to market itself as a premier sporting product. They want to have their cake and eat it too, but it’s this mentality that, and it gives me no pleasure to say this, will stunt the growth and potentially kill the league when it’s no longer needed for us to host next year’s World Cup. Oh, and just to put the cherry on top of this scheduling nightmare, this game is the first in a sequence where six of our next seven league matches are away from home. Just in case you thought it couldn’t get any dumber.
I’ve ranted enough in these preceding paragraphs to satiate everyone until the next game. Hopefully everyone can enjoy their May 24 weekend in peace knowing Atlético Ottawa have gone unbeaten in 8 competitive fixtures to start the season and will sit atop the Canadian Premier League until at least May 24th. There is certainly plenty to be frustrated about concerning those 90 minutes, but otherwise, I think we can all be very happy about what’s to come for the remainder of the season.
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 ATO's Wikipedia pages.
