CCSG Player Ratings: Matchday 8 @ HFX Wanderers (24/5/25)
Defeat. It was bound to happen, and it’s always difficult to tell if you’d rather it occurs as a result of a bad performance or as a result of just not being able to convert when you’re the better team They each have their respective lessons that can be taken and built upon, whether that’s on how to improve or on what things you can continue to do going forward. This result was far more the former than it was the latter. A team that has been full of life going forward looked absolutely listless with the ball at their feet - no one was willing to take on defenders or use the space that had been offered to them. This, of course, comes with the caveat that David Rodríguez was suspended for this match. In his place was Abou Sissoko, and the difference between the two of them was stark. Sam Salter, who has looked phenomenal so far this season, was isolated at the tip of the spear and could not get himself involved at any point. Combine all of this with the youth at the back making critical unforced errors and you end up with Saturday’s Atlético Ottawa performance.
Initiative
The constant push forward that this team has played with in its previous eight games was totally absent on Saturday. There was no speed, no impetus, nor anyone who looked to take charge of the ball as it came into the final third. No shots on target through a full 90 minutes is far more reminiscent of the 2023 version of this team than anything the first quarter of the season had shown us. Yes, the Wanderers are an organized team that, especially with the addition of Thomas Meilleur-Giguère, can close off the space that opposing teams look to attack, however, to not register a single shot on goal given the attacking talent on this team is bordering on unacceptable. Adding on to the misery is that of the shots which were directed at Rayane Yesli, the best came from well outside the area from Sam Salter and Coque and were never remotely threatening to the former ATO keeper.
This malaise in attack is very easily attributable to, as mentioned earlier, the absence of David Rodríguez. Despite him missing this game due to suspension, I had held out hope that the rest of the team would be able to find a way to pick up the slack. Rather than attributing the success of the system to one player, I was hoping it would be the inverse. A system that highlighted David’s best qualities and allowed them to be on full display which would do the same for whomever else was able to step into that role. Now, expecting Abou Sissoko to immediately arrive for his first start and have the same confidence to dribble through entire defenses is tremendously naïve, though, I did expect him to have a more concrete impact on the game going forward, serving as an outlet for Sam Salter, but this was absolutely not the case.
The success of Salter this year has been because he has reliable outlets around him to feed the ball when he holds up play. Against Halifax both Sissoko and Tabla were nowhere to be found when required and that’s even with Salter doing as much as he could to try and find these players. I want to highlight the ball he played into Tabla midway through the first half which was eventually seen behind for a corner kick. This ball shows how much Salter can impact the play when he’s not forced into isolated situations: he is talented enough to work with his teammates and create chances for others, he just needs his partners in attack to be able to do the same thing for him, which is why David Rodríguez has provided us the best version of Salter in attack.
What I really had hoped for, though, was that Ballou Tabla would take it upon himself to fill the hole in David Rodríguez’s absence. I had seen an intent in Ballou that was absent at the beginning of last year through the first seven games of the CPL season. I wanted to see a Ballou that was confident enough to take on Adam Pearlman or Kareem Sow as the two wide centre backs in Halifax’s back three. I wanted to see a Ballou that connected with Sam Salter in a way that he used to be able to connect with Ollie Bassett in 2022. Instead, Ballou didn’t live up to the task. I’ve tended this year to avoid relying on statistics to drive home my point, but Ballou’s two of ten success rate on ground duels is simply not good enough. Sometimes you can overcome a poor showing on that front with other offensive areas, but Tabla did not manage that either. His first real attempt to take on his man was in the 70th minute, and he is seemingly unwilling to do that unless he’s below or in the 18-yard box. If Ballou is unable to come even close to what David can provide as one of the dual 10s, I struggle to see who else on this team can. If so, it means that the player is enhancing the system rather than the other way around, which is concerning if injuries come to fruition.
Movement
Before I get into more of the negative, I do want to highlight the two positives from this game. Firstly, Manny Aparicio was an absolute hound in the middle of the park. This game could have easily gone off the rails much earlier without his work rate. His nine recoveries were indicative of how quickly he was able to sniff out potential counter attacks from Halifax when the attacking five lost the ball or when long balls forward were snuffed out. There’s an argument to be made that Manny might be the best option to be the third person that rotates in either of the dual 10 roles but given what he showed on Saturday he has to be in the pivot for this team to be competitive.
The other player I would like to give their flowers is Loïc Cloutier. I was pretty critical of him last week, especially in relation to his defensive capabilities despite having been fairly positive in my opinion through the rest of the season prior to the Forge match, however Loïc certainly returned to form against Halifax, serving as the best defender on the pitch for Atlético Ottawa. He made a couple of key slide challenges prior to Halifax opening the scoring, and the rest of his defensive stats back up what my eye test saw. Six clearances, four interceptions, and a 75% win rate on duels all add up to a successful individual day at the office despite the collective issues that seemed to plague the team.
The biggest collective issue manifested on the opening Halifax goal. In what was some of the most calamitous set piece defending I’ve seen in this league, a long ball from Giorgio Probo found its way to the back post where two Halifax players had the whole of Dunrobin’s worth of space and Thomas Meilleur-Giguère headed the ball home calmly. TMG is among maybe three players in the CPL that should never end up being that open on any set piece. The entire team seemed confused as to how they were planning on defending this particular free kick. The back post defenders seemed to be playing for offside, while towards the middle of the pitch seemed to want to follow their matchups. Combine that with Nate Ingham once again getting caught in two minds and the players up the pitch not communicating properly as to how they wanted to contest the taker, and you have the calamity that ended up with Halifax’s first goal.
Looping back to the attacking play, one other thing I want to talk about is the pitch. The way a wet pitch acts when it’s turf and a wet pitch acts when it’s turf could not be more different. That feels like it should go without saying, but I bring it up to contextualize why I feel like the team was poor offensively. Everything they were trying to do from a passing perspective felt like a team trying to attack on turf. The passes that they attempted would have benefitted from a faster playing surface, particularly Gabi Antinoro’s cutback attempt that was the first real chance Atlético Ottawa mustered, and as such the ball was getting caught up in the wet grass more than they’ve been used to. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming the pitch for the result, I’m more concerned about our players not being able to adapt to the game conditions to try and facilitate the offensive flair that we’ve seen thus far. Our long balls out from the back, particularly from Sergei Kozlovskiy who once again had a learning experience matching up with Bahamboula and Giorgio Probo, were much poorer than they had been as well. With these circumstances against a talented Wanderers side, the team needed to play out of their skin for a chance at three points, and they very much did not do so.
All of this needs to be better, that much is obvious. What has emerged through the early part of this season is that there is a distinct top four and bottom four in the CPL. How we play against Halifax, Cavalry, and Forge is going to determine if we are able to host a playoff game at the end of the season. These are games where our best players are going to need to be available in order to take these very important points. Other than that, though, even in nonideal circumstances, players are going to need to step up and fill shoes when called upon. The defence is trying their best to do so, but I still feel like they need a veteran piece to provide a little bit of leadership and a little bit of fire to get the best out of these kids with Amer Didić on the sidelines.
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.
