CCSG Player Ratings: Matchday 10 vs. York United
Most football games boil down to a couple of moments. It is Carlos González’s biggest buzz word, and unfortunately for ATO against York United, they found themselves on the wrong side of the game’s biggest moments to spoil a lovely June afternoon in the nation’s capital. Atlético Ottawa were in control for a significant majority of this game, but as so often happens against York at home, the nine stripes capitalized on the chances that ATO afforded them. It was a loss that was bound to happen given the parity in this league, and I’d much rather the loss be one where we can take positives than a loss where nothing good happened whatsoever. That said, there are still things that need to be addressed, and hopefully I can do so below:
#9 Samuel Salter
(6.6): A player can play well individually but still end up being a net negative on the team’s performance, and the 61 minutes Sam Salter played against York was exactly that phenomenon. He held the ball up much better than he had done in previous weeks, and that helped to contribute to Atlético Ottawa’s success in maintaining control of the game in the 15 minutes prior to the first York United goal. Despite that, Salter is still not able to connect with his teammates effectively in the final third. This is a death sentence for a striker, and nothing from this game exemplified it more than the dangerous cross Matteo de Brienne played to the back post with no one there to receive it. Salter was hanging harmlessly in the middle of the box and made no effort to try and get into a dangerous space.
There’s a lot of talk about how strikers get service, but the striker themself has to work to make themselves available. When I watch Salter play, the service he gets feels forced. This feels especially true when he’s receiving the ball from the wing. He’s never trying to run off his man in the box to tap a low ball across the goal or going to the back post to catch a deep cross. He’s either trying to win a one-on-one aerial duel or he’s forcing a severe cutback by staying at the penalty spot and giving the defenders time to recover by taking a touch after receiving the pass. That Del Campo came on and within 30 seconds played Tabla through on goal with a flick on header doesn’t serve Salter well in this case.
#19 Ruben Del Campo
(6.8): It should say something that Ruben del Campo had 40% pass accuracy while Sam Salter had over 80% and I’m still coming away from this fixture with a more positive outlook on Ruben’s ability to connect with the rest of the team. There’s a bit of extra pep in everyone’s step when the Swiss striker enters the game, and it was something the team desperately needed given they were down two goals. Yes, the numbers don’t reflect it, but Ruben’s presence, combined with the necessary urgency to try and erase the deficit, helped to galvanize this team when they needed it. The connectivity that was shown in the first half never really threatened to amount to much because the tip of the spear wasn’t as lethal as it needed to be. Sure, rotation needs to happen over the course of the season, but it’s still clear as day to me that Ruben should have priority up top.
#13 Ballou Tabla
(7): Ballou Tabla needs a rest. I don’t think he is playing badly as an individual, but much like Sam Salter, he is not connecting with the rest of the team in key positions in the final third. The fact that he took the ball off a streaking Ollie Bassett to harmlessly fire the ball into the legs of a York defender exemplified that. On top of that, he is still stopping the ball in transition phases and killing momentum. This is especially frustrating with Matteo de Brienne behind him down the left making aggressive, confident overlapping runs to try and pierce through the defence. This would, in most cases, result in some rotation to try and find a different piece for the puzzle. As it stands, this is something Atlético Ottawa can’t provide as Kevin Dos Santos remains injured, and as such we have to sit back and hope Ballou can bring his ability and his mindset together. Even if Dos Santos was available, Ballou is still doing enough to create chances and make you think that just maybe he’ll turn the corner, only to drive a thunderbolt directly off the crossbar from a cutback in the 18-yard box. Maybe my point about the expectations being too high were wrong, or maybe Ballou isn’t meeting the more reasonable level that he surely can. If the rumours are true, Sean Rea wouldn’t be a terrible option to give Ballou that rest, and maybe light a fire under him in the process.
#8 Dani Morer
(6.4): The first league start for Dani Morer did not go as everyone had expected. The York defence frustrated the Spaniard as he couldn’t truly get anything going down the right side, or at least not to the extent that we have come to expect from his substitute appearances thus far this season. His 72 minutes saw him only manage to record 22 passes, a similar number to his substitute appearance last week against Valour, and go one of seven on ground duels with three unsuccessful dribbles. On the other hand, he did still manage to complete both of his attempted crosses, an area that this team as historically struggled mightily with down the right side of the pitch, and create two chances on top of that. From the eye test, those two chances didn’t amount to much of anything, and don’t reflect Dani’s clear ability for distribution. Perhaps this is a sign that he is better at closing out games than taking the game on from the beginning, but I don’t want to rush to conclusions.
#11 Gabriel Antinoro
(6.2): A brief substitute appearance after having started the last few league matches for Gabi meant that he featured down the right wing rather than the left. Unfortunately, this change of role didn’t fit well, as for much of the time he spent down the right created the same problem that plagued the right side of ATO’s formation last season: over crowdedness. While Gabi is certainly able to dribble in tight spaces, his success rate is much lower than you would want from a winger moving back to central spaces when the midfielder comes out wide. As such, with Twardek, Bassett, and him all trying to occupy similar spots when trying to chase the game, York was able to commit defensively to the right side pretty heavily without too much issue elsewhere. Gabi is still the workhorse when it comes to u21 minutes this season, and there is no indication this will change. He’s got the talent to continue contributing effectively, we just have to ride out his less dynamic performances.
#10 Ollie Bassett
(7): Before I say anything else, Ollie Bassett cannot be on corners going forward. His propensity for being unable to get the ball over the first man consistently is causing our players to crash the near post so heavily, that when the ball is delivered to the middle of the six-yard box no one is there to try and take advantage because they didn’t expect the ball to get there. It’s been multiple years of this now, and while I don’t want to overshadow a good Ollie performance, it’s starting to get ridiculous how little confidence I have that we’ll ever score from a corner again. (Yes, this is despite having scored three goals from corners this season). Regardless, Ollie’s effectiveness in the middle of the park can’t be questioned. The trio of him, Aparicio, and Zapater got the better of York’s midfield, even if their opposite numbers won more of the duels, and the ATO trio were the reason the game was in Ottawa’s control for such long stretches. Three chances created and three shots for Ollie in a game where, by the end, he had positioned himself firmly down the right wing shows that he was doing all he could to try and will ATO back the points they were craving.
#34 Manny Aparicio
(6.9): I was corrected last week by my astute editor regarding Manny’s proficiency in duels. Despite being as active as he is in the midfield, his success rate in that area has been consistently below 50% in his CPL career. That said, his 22% success rate against York is an actual underperformance. For someone that does contest as much as he does, combining that with four fouls over the course of the game would suggest a poor performance, but I find myself struggling to find additional justification for it. Mainly because Manny made an impact on the offensive end, creating three chances, two of which came from long balls while also firing off one shot on target. However, it also comes down to Manny not picking up a yellow card for those fouls and making a key interception in our own 18-yard box to prevent York from getting a second in the dying minutes of the first half. I’ll sound like a broken record for the rest of the year talking about Manny, because he really just is that good.
#21 Alberto Zapater
(7.4): Even when the rest of the lineup can’t quite put it together, there is still a comfort in watching Alberto Zapater marshal the midfield. His touch map was a bit more involved in the final third than we are usually used to, mostly due to the game state in the second half requiring further pressure from the Atlético Ottawa attack, but it helped to showcase how he can impact the attacking side of the ball. Not only is his distribution pristine, with one ball out to the left to Matteo de Brienne sticking out as the exception that proves the rule, but his ability to turn defense into attack is textbook. To win a tackle, take two touches, then ping a ball out to a streaking winger on the counter is just marvelous to watch - at any level. It should come as no surprise that our captain continues to lead by example out on the pitch, and there’s no sign he’s stopping any time soon.
#22 Matteo de Brienne
(7.7): That Matteo doesn’t get credited with an assist for his long throw on the Didic goal is criminal, as it marks back-to-back man of the match performances for the left back without a goal contribution. He was everywhere on Saturday, with a shot on goal registered, 96 touches, 22 passes into the final third (which account for one third of his total pass attempts), and eight defensive actions with four tackles won out of four. It’s not just a statistical thing either, his energy is palpable down the left and when Ballou looked to him in the first half, it created the most dangerous opportunities ATO had. He managed to find Sam Salter a number of times in situations where it wasn’t readily evident where the ball needed to go to find the striker. Even in instances where his passes were off target, the ideas Matteo was executing on were sublime, and the rest of the team maybe wasn’t quite there yet. I can’t get enough of him when he plays like this, now all that’s left to do is play four more games without picking up a yellow to give him a little more leeway before a potential suspension.
#5 Luke Singh
(6): Given the praise I had given Luke for last week’s performance; this paragraph will seem like whiplash. The first goal was entirely his fault, getting caught out flat footed on a long ball that allowed Austin Ricci to beat him for pace, bring Amer Didic out of position and Brian Wright to tap the ball into a mostly empty goal. His propensity for serious errors was something I had touched on at times last season, and hadn’t really reared its ugly head to this point in 2024. The other issue is that Luke didn’t really do much else to make up for that mistake besides playing his role at the back. Sure his distribution numbers are high, but knowing how many of those go back and forth between defenders is not enough to justify bringing this rating up any higher. Add all that to relatively timid positional play for the second York goal, and you have a player that did not perform well in the key moments in this game. Given the u21 minute requirements, it’s not farfetched to ask if Tyr Walker should see some game time sooner rather than later.
#55 Amer Didic
(7.1): That Amer Didic could accurately be described as the biggest threat to the York United goal on Saturday describes the attacking woes that befell Atlético Ottawa. His goal was well taken on a bit of control from a long throw of all things, and his strike from near 35 yards was even more beautiful, forcing a strong hand from Thomas Vincensini to his right. 13 of 15 long balls completed with a number of them being into the final third shows how important he was in all phases of attacking play. Defensively, he wasn’t quite the Amer Didic we’ve come to expect, with a 43% win rate on seven aerial duels, and three clearances being the only defensive actions he registered in 90 minutes. Having to be the anchor of the defense is never easy, and Didic takes on that role so well. We miss him tremendously whenever he’s not in the line-up.
#33 Abou Sissoko
(6.5): Seeing Abou Sissoko be a few feet behind the rest of the defensive line to play Brian Wright onside for York’s second goal drove me up the wall. It’s unfortunately the mark of a player who isn’t used to playing in that position, regardless of what he may have done for other clubs, and as such makes me question what we will do in the world where Kris Twardek isn’t available for selection. I understand needing to rotate players, as Twardek had started every game thus far this season and not wearing him out is clearly imperative. However, starting Sissoko confirms what most of us already know, that Carlos González does not have faith in Zachary Roy to play as a right back. At this point Zach is clearly only taking up a roster spot to meet the roster regulations if we’re more confident in playing someone that hasn’t featured as a right back in over two years instead of him. That to me is a sign of a poor domestic scouting network, not being able to find a third player to feature for even one start over the course of the season. I’m using this spot to discuss this because I don’t have much to say about Sissoko’s game outside of the second goal, he played fine.
#23 Kris Twardek
(6.8): Twardek’s best quality is his industriousness. He works as hard as possible for every minute he spends on the pitch, whether that is 90 or the 18 he featured in on Saturday. It wins free kicks, it puts the ball into dangerous areas whether through his dribbling or crossing, and it draws the eyes of defenders as we look to overload down the right wing. It’s clearer than ever today that Twardek is the right back for this team for the rest of the season. The problem is, we really don’t have the personnel behind him to step up and fill his shoes if he gets suspended or injured
#29 Nathan Ingham
(6.5): To blame Nathan Ingham for either of the two goals is silly. I’ve explained above my issues with our defensive structure in the two moments that resulted in ATO’s first loss of the season. The only other shot on target was a confidently taken free kick that was well saved by Nate down and to his left. In terms of distribution, his attempts were limited and did not really have any impact on the game, but he did manage 80% accuracy on long balls. Given how much possession ATO mustered in this game, it’s no surprise that Ingham had little, if anything, to do.
There is a school of thought that it is better to be completely trounced in a game and be able to completely reset your mentality in advance of the next fixture. A loss in a game where you were the better side does not teach you to fix the minor mistakes that led to the loss, but rather focus on trying to replicate where you went right. With a complacent manager, that would certainly be the case. What we’re about to see is if Carlos González is able to take the lessons that need to be learned from this game and implement them: fixing minor mistakes in the defensive line, and making sure the players on the field are in the positions in which they are the most comfortable. No player is ever going to say no to being played out of position because it means they’re going to play. The manager needs to take control in those situations and not play the best players, but instead the best XI. With a game away to Cavalry next week, and a home game against Forge the next, the true mettle of this team is going to be tested in the wake of their first defeat.
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 footy knowledge has been a constant asset, along with his role as caretaker for Atléti Wikipedia pages.
