The Forward Press for Matchday 18 vs VAL: Adapting to Tactics and Fixture Congestion Preparation

Welcome to the Forward Press, a summary of this week’s pre- and post-match press conferences! This edition covers ATO’s comprehensive 2-1 win away against Valour this past Sunday, in what was Ottawa’s 60th ever win in all competitions. Joining us this week were Diego Mejía as well as David Rodríguez, and they had a lot to say about working around fixture congestion and tactical adaptations. Read on for all that and more:

A big theme throughout the pre-match press conference was the preparation for what was to be three matches in eight days: Valour on the Sunday, Vancouver in the Cup on Wednesday, and finally Forge that following Sunday (strange how our cup fixtures got magically placed days before each of our final two games versus Forge, eh?). Mitchell Tierney of CanPL.ca posed a question to Mejía about potential rotation in the coming matches: 

“For sure, right now I think that we are entering into a very important part of the season, but we are … a mature team, with a behaviour that all the players in the squad understand really well, not only the 11 starters (but also the reserves) … I think that right now in this part of the season (you) will watch the best version of Atlético Ottawa.”

Mejía hinted at some rotation, and some rotation was made –  Joaquim Coulanges slotted in for Kevin dos Santos in the starting XI, but everything else remained unchanged, even if some relatively early subs were made as well. He did add that the objective going into the Valour match was to secure all three points on route to a league title, and after the match was over, focus would shift to the Voyageurs Cup –  it seems the mantra is one game at a time. 

Our very own Jon Hopkins was also on hand to ask MejÍa if knowing Ottawa are a step behind Forge in the standings provides the team with any motivation:

“I never watch the (table), because I think that it isn’t important in this part of the season … I try to put the focus (on) the behaviours, and day-by-day in the training sessions (to) try to help players to be better, and then the consequence of all that behaviour will give us the opportunity to (be) at the top of the leaderboard … I think that our focus for now is to try to beat Valour, and to beat Vancouver, and to beat Forge, and then at the end of the season we will start to see what position we will be (in).”

In the last question of the pre-match presser, Matt Cullen of CBC inquired as to what has impressed MejÍa about his team's performance thus far in the season, but especially as to the defence. The coach was adamant that any success the team has had is all due to teamwork:

“…for sure that I am very happy with the performance of the defensive line, but for me the 11 players need to defend, and the 11 players need to attack … they are a team, and if we score four goals it is (because) of the 11 guys, and if we don’t concede a goal it is (because) of the 11 guys, I am very happy with that.”

Moving on to the post-match, Mitchell Tierney had all the questions for RodrÍguez and MejÍa, starting with Valour’s unforeseen tactical adaptation, with RodrÍguez the first to weigh in:

“We didn't expect them to play in a line of five, but once we saw how they played it (was) easy for us to … find the spaces, to (send) runners in behind, we had a couple chances like that, it's just going really well for the team and adapting while the game goes on.” 

Before Mejia’s responses to the same question, Rodriguez was also firm that his stellar play these last few weeks is all down to team play, and that the most important thing about playing in MejÍa’s model is that they understand it and each other - “sometimes it's going to be me able to do the play, sometimes it's going to be the other guy…”

Going back to tactical changes, MejÍa was pressed about playing against a back five and how his side adjusted to it:

“I think that the performance was really good, all these matches in the second half of the season (are) really really tough, I think that the behaviour of the team was incredible, (Valour) changed the way that they played (from before), they started to play with five … we (expected) a line of four, but it's good for us because the last match (against York) we played against a line of five, so we understood really well at the beginning of the match the structure that we need(ed) to beat, and I think that I am really happy…”

He also went in-depth about adapting to new systems deployed against Ottawa, a theme that has continued since the last few matches, where teams have deployed hyper-defensive tactics in order to stall for time and weather the storm (something Ottawa fans are all too familiar with):

“... at the beginning of the season teams tried to press us, and then they needed to switch to defending in a low block, so we need to adapt and remember the behaviours that we had at the beginning of the season … I think that the players understand really well, it’s a model that they fill, and it’s a model that is (the) most comfortable for us … I think that we find all the spaces that they give us, we find a lot of time in the pocket, we find a lot of free men behind the second line, we find really well the space behind the backline … it was a really tough match, I think that they have a really good team … (but) I think that Atlético Ottawa right now is the best team in this league.”

He was similarly full of praise for his team in his next response, because when asked about finding spaces out wide, instead of answering, he simply listed off every single starter that afternoon (by name) and sang their praises for what they contribute to the team. He also had this to say: “It's really hard in this league when you talk about the best players in the league right now … I think that we have the top five players, (and) David (RodrÍguez) for sure is the best player in this league right now.”

On that note, and with the assurances that there have been no new injuries since the last update (he mentioned that Amer Didić continues to be out, but all others are available, something I doubt what with Grant still not making an appearance and Levis missing from the lineup as of recent), ATO are next in action in the Canadian Championship this Wednesday, August 13, at 10pm EST, for their first leg tie against Vancouver FC! Be there at the GCP and cheer our boys on - Vamos!

About Alexander:

When he isn't busy playing or watching sports (or going to school at uOttawa), Alexander is managing his Atlético Ottawa database, which he started in 2020, and tracks everything you can think of about the club and its players. He also runs a BlueSky account dedicated to analyzing and rating CPL and NSL players using statistics, CPL by the Numbers.