3 things to watch in Atletico Ottawa's 2022 home opener vs. Cavalry FC

Atlético Ottawa hosts the second match of the 2022 Canadian Premier League season on Saturday afternoon, as Cavalry FC head to the nation’s capital to kick off their campaign at TD Place.

Ottawa, led by new head coach Carlos Gonzalez, are hoping that offseason investments have paid off, and they will be able to turn a team that finished 8th in 2021 into one that can compete for a spot in the playoffs. In the other corner, Tommy Wheeldon Jr.’s side are hoping to build their way up to another crack at the playoffs, where they have been unable to clear the final hurdle a few times now, with the Cavalry boss saying on Friday that the regular season is a “28-game qualifier”.

The regular season begins on Saturday for both teams, who have high expectations coming into their third and fourth seasons, respectively. It will hopefully be a first “normal” season for Ottawa, whose inaugural season was seven games in a bubble on Prince Edward Island, followed by another bubble in Winnipeg and limited capacities in the stands from August onwards.

“It’s a tough start,” Gonzalez said of his team’s opponents in a press conference on Friday. “They are solid, they have had great results in the last seasons, with most of the same players and same coach. I know it’s going to be a tough start, but we have trying to prepare the team for this.

“Success will be if tomorrow we compete. The final result will be a consequence of how we act on the field. The message is very clear, from the first day we have to believe in the process, to work on the process, and to perform well so we can have results.”

Here are three things to know ahead of today's match:

1. Carlos Gonzalez set to take charge of Ottawa for the first time

After joining the club in the offseason, taking over from Mista, new Ottawa head coach Carlos Gonzalez will step onto the sidelines for a Canadian Premier League match for the first time on Saturday. The 36-year-old has been a coach in the Malaga and Atletico Madrid academy setups, and most recently was in charge of the Kuwait national team.

He was announced as the new Ottawa head coach on February 24, and has since been with the team for their preseason in Madrid, and more recently back in Ottawa.

“We are very excited, to know our field and our fans for a league game,” said Gonzalez in a press conference on Friday.

“We are not over-excited, this is an important thing — we know that this is one round from lots of rounds. At the end of the day we’re prepared, we have ambition, and we hope that the team tomorrow behaves as we’ve been behaving in the last month of the preseason and have a good match.”

2. Cavalry missing key players through injury

It was announced on Friday morning that four Cavalry players will be out for unknown amounts of time while dealing with serious injuries.

Goalkeeper Tyson Farago suffered a back injury after a car accident in the offseason, left back Tom Field injured his knee during a training session, and striker Anthony Novak damaged his ACL during a training session. No timeline was given for any of their returns, and Field and Novak required surgery according to the club’s press release. Midfielder Joe Di Chiara will also be out for an estimated 12-16 weeks after an MCL injury during a training session.

“Unfortunately in a contact sport, and especially in football, you’re going to have some threatening injuries. A long offseason doesn’t really help, because players can do their 5k runs, but they’re doing them in a straight lines,” said Wheeldon Jr in a pregame press conference later on Friday. 

"The twists, turns, the impact and intensity is hard to replicate unless you have a long preseason, which is something we have to consider going forward. It’s no different to Forge losing Krutzen last year, Jean-Baptiste and Ricci at Valour, key players. The weather in Canada means we have to train and play on turf, and the turf monster is not a forgiving one if you get a bad foot plant — it’s the nature of the beast and it’s something we’ve always got to adapt and overcome ourselves and as a league.”

With Marco Carducci also expected to be out as he recovers from an operation following a testicular cancer diagnosis, Julian Roloff, recently signed from FC Köln II, will likely get the start in goal.

3. Ottawa dedicating proceeds to Ukrainian humanitarian efforts

Atlético Ottawa are dedicating their first match of the season to the people of Ukraine after the recent invasion.

The club has brought back its “Pay What You Can” initiative to get fans into the stadium, with proceeds from ticket sales going to the Ministry of Social Policy for Ukraine funds to help with humanitarian assistance for displaced Ukranians.

The club will also be wearing one-off yellow and blue kits for the match, which will be auctioned off afterwards by The Ukrainian Canadian Professional and Business Association of Ottawa.

“It’s a great initiative, once I knew that the club was going to push for this situation, I thought it was a great movement,” said Ottawa head coach Carlos Gonzalez on Friday.

“I feel that we have to work to help each other, and to help the world be better, so I think it’s great. I hope that it’s not a very rainy day so people come and support and we all leave a great soccer party for the first day — we’re going to work for that, so people [go home] happy, and everything is the right way.”

The latest update from the club was that 4,000 tickets were sold as of Thursday at noon, and tickets are still available here.

KEY QUOTES

“Most of [the players] are showing a very high level. The team as a whole is impressing me, because we haven’t had too much time to work with them, but in five weeks we have already created a strong identity, we know the phases of the game. I think that this has to be the main strength, the team all together.” — Atlético Ottawa head coach Carlos Gonzalez

“Because everything’s been behind closed doors and they’ve spent a month in Madrid, you go into it a bit blind. They’re certainly a bogey team for us, irrespective of them finishing last last season — I think they’ll be one of the threats this season. They no doubt will have been working off of the Madrid blueprint with the Madrid staff and philosophy there. Fernando (Lopez) and his team have put together an excellent, the best one they’ve had in all three years, so they’ve definitely earned our respect.” — Cavalry FC head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr