The Forward Press for Matchday 24 vs Forge FC: Spikiness, Officiating, and Scheduling
Welcome to The Forward Press for last weekend’s 1-1 draw vs Forge! Coach Diego Mejia and Winger Gabriel Antinoro joined the media this week, and both had some comments to make about officiating, scheduling, and Forge’s disrespectful conduct during and after the match. In a heated post-match session, I tried my best to provide the necessary context for such accusations. Enjoy!
As you can imagine with a match of this import, a lot of questions before the game pertained to the challenge that the match presented. Charlie O’Connor-Clarke of CanPL.ca started off the pre-match by asking Mejia about how big a match it was:
“It's a very important match, one of the most important in the championship. All the matches against Forge have been very good matches, so I think that the next match will be incredible. It's an opportunity for both teams to take advantage in the (league), so I expect a hard match...”
There was also a question about the matchup that Forge presented:
“I think that we have two different projects. We know that Forge… is the best team in the history of this league. They always hire players with a lot of experience in this league … we sign (players for the future). I think that we will have a very tight match, Forge are a good team… I think that the team is very conscious (of our) objectives (to win the league).”
A very interesting answer to be sure, a deflection to youth players that will return in the post-match, something I will address then. The same reporter had a query about ATO’s struggles to score against Forge:
“When we play against Forge we always create a lot of chances, that is the reality. The past match we didn’t have a good game but we had the chances to tie … If you see the statistics, (in) all the matches against them we controlled the pace of the game, we controlled the ball, and we failed a lot of opportunities, so I think that we need to put focus (on) the finishing, and we need to still trust in the model.”
Jon Hopkins of CCSG also took the time to ask Mejia about injuries. Curiously, and somewhat unsurprisingly, he responded that he will have the whole team available to him. This was countered by the fact that the officially published injury report before the match looked like a laundry list, and Roni Mbomio was absent from both it and the matchday squad, with no explanation for either. Mejia has consistently responded to questions about availability with the same “I will have the whole squad”, when very obviously he doesn’t. Perhaps it is a quirk.
After the match, Gabriel Antinoro joined the scrum, and was asked immediately by AJ Jakubek of TSN 1200 what he felt about sharing points with Forge:
“Yeah, it's a bit frustrating … we know we could (have gotten) more out of those games (Forge and Vancouver), we know we were ready for those big games … but like you said we are still in the race, still four games left, we gotta focus on ourselves and do our part, and hopefully something will happen to them (Forge), they can drop points and we can take the Shield.”
Jakubec followed up about the confrontation after the final whistle in front of the tunnel between the two squads:
“To be honest I didn’t see anything … Like you said, we are fighting for the title, so as you can expect there will be emotions always, but it's part of the sport, I don't think there was anything done with evil intent.”
The last question posed to Antinoro had to do with the importance of using the upcoming week to rest and reset:
“I think that it's a very important week for us, because we need to rest. I don't think it's normal for a team to have to play on Thursday night and then play (again) on a Sunday at 3 o’clock when the other team (had two days more rest). It's not about excuses but we're all human, it hurts the body you know? It's an important week, we gotta rest, make sure physically we're ok, mentally we're ok, because we're still there, we are two points behind, and we have to focus on ourselves, stick together, and stay playing (and training) as a family, and we could get our job done.”
He brings up an interesting point. On the 3rd of September, it was announced that Forge’s game vs Valour would be brought forward one day to the 11th of September (vs the 12th), to give Forge extra rest for their matchup against the Whitecaps in the Cup on the 16th. Nothing was done to give more rest to Ottawa, who played on the 14th and then on the 18th in the Cup. Both teams played each other on the 21st, so Forge had one extra day of rest going into their cup tie compared to Ottawa, and two more days of rest going into this match.
Moving swiftly along, now comes that aforementioned deflective talk about youth players. Mejia’s demeanour was extremely spiky this session, considerably more than normal. Responding to a question about dropped points, he answered about youth players (see below), in a question about mistakes that ATO made, he brought up his years of experience as a shield, and even brought up officiating, something he has rarely, if ever, done this year. Here is that response to a question from AJ Jakubec about the outcome:
“I saw one team that tried to play. I think that the first half was one of the best moments that we played in this (league), against the best team in the league. I put a (17-year-old) wing-back against one full-back of 29, I put one winger of 19 years against a full-back of 25. We are winning guys, I always say that Atlético is not playing for the cup, we are playing for the (improvement) of the young players, to try to create a good culture and try to win in a good way. I think that we showed through the entire season and these two matches, even the match against Vancouver (in which) we were eliminated, I think that the soul that this team has, with very young players, is incredible.”
An interesting answer, given weeks of assurances that Ottawa are playing to win every trophy possible this year. Some fans may prioritize developing youth talents; however, others (and seemingly Mejia himself, up until this week) want to win trophies, something this club has only done once in five years, and it is curious to pivot to caring about youth talents over winning after another disastrous week against Vancouver and Forge. It is also possible that Mejia is making reference to the level of squad retention and the amount of big signings that Forge are able to accomplish, which no one else seems to be able to match. It is up to the reader to decide an interpretation of that answer.
In a back-and-forth with Gord Smith (which included a lot of interrupting, something Mejia is also not known for) about mistakes, the coach began to talk about the officiating:
“…He (the ref) told me that the first yellow card was not a yellow card, and for that reason the second yellow card (wasn’t given) … (that) WAS a yellow card (emphasis added), and for that reason he didn’t (get sent off). So he committed two mistakes, the first one and the second one … We (should) have played against ten players for at least thirty minutes this match.”
The incident in question, although no overt context was provided, seemed to involve Rezart Rama - it appears that Rama was given a yellow for dissent about two thirds of the way through the match, however the referee retroactively decided it was too harsh, and therefore when Rama committed a clear yellow-card offence later on in the match, the referee declined to give Rama a card, to compensate for his earlier error, a card which would have seen him sent off. Mejia, not one to complain about the officiating very much, was clearly heated enough to say something.
Mejia’s final question pertained to several incidents in which Nana Ampomah and Marko Jeremovic were seen yelling at him during the match.
“The coach of Forge (Bobby Smyrniotis) is a gentleman. He came to me and we said good game, but I don't allow my players to disrespect the players of the staff of the other team. I received a lot of disrespect, not only this match but from the last match (against Forge) too. A lot of players talking to me, yelling at me, you know? Some teams are bothered when we say we are the best team, (but) I only talk to the press, I never talk to (opposition) players. When you receive one (insult), two, three, you need to say something. The only thing that I said to him was that you need to teach (your players) a little respect, because it's incredible that they came to me and said things.”
When asked what was said to him, Mejia responded: “You only need to see the video”.
With all that drama, one might forget ATO still have games to play, and our next match is at TD Place, on Saturday, September the 27th, against Cavalry. It is our second-to-last home match before playoffs begin, so turn out and support the boys! 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.
