The Forward Press: ATO Concedes Top Spot after Forge Loss
The inevitable was coming, and it finally happened late Sunday night, when Atlético Ottawa finally ran out of runway at the top of the league. After months of being protected by the claim of still occupying first place, the suddenly toothless Atleti now finds itself out of excuses as the woeful run of form continues. Forty Atleti faithful traveled in fine voice to Forge stadium on Saturday, bringing an energy even at 3-0 down which could not be found on the field below. Two Tristan Borges strikes had the team floundering after only forty minutes, before in the final minutes of the match Elimane Cissé surgically dismantled a disinterested Atleti.
Ottawa never at any point found first gear at any point, registering nothing more than a handful of speculative shots from the midfield. Most notably, counterattacks seemed to die off as fast as they appeared, with many passes going sideways or backward as opposed to towards the Forge goal. Atleti left Tim Hortons Field having registered 0.24 in expected goals and leaving the top of the table wide open. And if it looked difficult to lose first place, it will be much easier to lose second. Carlos González and former Forge player Aboubacar Sissoko joined the postmatch presser. Here are all the details:
The Quotes: Aboubacar Sissoko
On what has changed for ATO: “For me and for the team, nothing is going wrong. Just we're not having the result we wanted the last few games. But honestly, I'm not worried. Then we're going to keep working and bounce back again.”
On the match: “Honestly, in the first half, we did some mistakes, so collectively mistakes, and then they punish us. The second half was better, and then we closed the space because during the first half, we gave them a lot of space. We're going to go back home and then watch the game again and then point the mistakes and then work on it and come back next week.”
On the run of poor form: “I'm not worried because I've been through stuff like that, at the end of the year I want some championship. So honestly, it's going to be the same thing. We're going to go back home, watch the games. The last few games, I think last few games, we did some mistakes. We're going to work on and then bounce back next week. I'm pretty sure at the end of the year, we're going to be in the top form as we were at the beginning of the season.”
The Quotes: Carlos González
On impressions of Forge: “I think that the main difference was the defensive side. I think that they defended really well. They were solid, and they understood that there were moments in which they just had to be compact and to try to avoid our attacks. We didn't understand that, mainly in the first half. I think that we opened the game too much. We tried to press in situations that we shouldn't press.”
On what went wrong: “I think that we are defending poorly in certain moments. I think that the team has to work on that. I think that we have to go to the basics to be a compact team, a solid team, a team that doesn't concede. I am seeing that in certain moments, we are looking a bit fragile. With the ball, okay, we're finding ways, we're creating certain chances, we're not brilliant. Off the ball…in the last few games, the other teams are not creating much, and with not so much, they are punishing us a lot. I think that that's the main focus we have to put on now.”
On looking forward: “The opponents are improving, the opponents are more focused, and we are in certain moments losing the focus. I think that we have to forget. We're in a point that we have to forget what we've done. I think that that's an exercise that we have to do. Forget what we've done and start from zero. Start from zero, looking forward to a league of ten rounds in which everything is really equal now. We have our chances, but the reality is that we have best chances if we change things. That's our main target.”
On the away trip: “In certain moments, maybe we thought that this was going to be an easy trip, and it's not going to be easy trip. It's a hard league with good opponents, 28 rounds with long trips. At the end of the day, they are tough moments. Now, as I say, starting resetting the team. I think that the team needs to be reset a little bit mentally and tactically. From that, start a new league of ten rounds.”
The Big Takeaway: Wake Up Call Needed?
Shortly before 9 P.M. on Saturday night, the referee brought Forge’s comfortable win over Atlético Ottawa to a close with a blast of the full-time whistle. Minutes later, around 9 P.M., Atleti’s visiting support piled back in the bus with enough complaints to fill at least the first half of the five-hour trip back to Ottawa. Many had traveled to York only two weeks earlier, meaning they were able to witness Atlético Ottawa lose on the road on two occasions to a net score of 7-1. Questions are being asked of this team, and if the pressers are anything to go by, the team seems to find itself further away from answers than ever before.
The response in this presser has been worrying, and begs analysis into the way this slump is being spun. It’s one thing to smooth over a singular loss with blanket statements of ‘today wasn’t our day’ and ‘we will look for a big response next week.’ But now, after 9 weeks of things not clicking, to claim that “nothing is wrong” hardly seems an adequate explanation. The supporters aren’t calling for players and coaches to have solutions ten minutes after a match concludes. But it would be nice to see the acknowledgment of critical issues which have existed for months. Nine points across eight games hardly screams “nothing is wrong.” Had the season started on matchday 10, Atlético Ottawa wouldn’t be second, but second last.
Carlos González's call to “Forget what we've done and start from zero” also reflects a desire to once again paper over eight weeks of underlying issues. It’s a bold strategy. Undoubtedly the club has been working hard behind the scenes to flip the script. Lineups have been shuffled, team meetings have been held. But starting anew, while a valid strategy, feels like a concession that there are critical issues which have not and will not be addressed with the hope that the team may inexplicably find its feet again. It’s a strategy which has been used on Ballou Tabla – play him enough and hope eventually he will find form. The results have been underwhelming to say the least.
Ultimately it feels a wakeup call is only a few weeks away, be it a major change to the team, a significant on-field drubbing, or, perhaps most welcome, a post-match presser that will acknowledge that the past weeks have been far from acceptable with an adequate display of frustration or emotion. Without this, Atlético Ottawa risks letting another season slip away.
About the Author
Ben Ralph is a die-hard football fan and a journalism student at Carleton. He has been supporting Everton through the ups and downs (but mostly the downs) and could not believe his luck when he stumbled across Atlético Ottawa in 2021. Now part of the Atleti faithful, his dream has always been to write football stories, and he is excited to join other fans as writers for CCSG. His football journalist idols are Adam Hurrey, James Richardson, and Charlie Eccleshare from The Football Cliches Podcast.
