Bench heroes, bicycles & Ballou: Top 5 Atlético Ottawa vs. Cavalry moments

Atlético Ottawa and Cavalry FC will meet for the 21st time this Sunday in the 2025 CPL Final, in what's surely the biggest battle yet between these sides.

It's their first ever meeting in the CPL Playoffs, and on the grandest possible stage. Either Ottawa triumph at home to win their first ever North Star Cup, or Cavalry spoil the party in the capital and win a second straight championship.

However, just because they've never met in the postseason doesn't mean there isn't history between these teams. In fact, Ottawa and Cavalry have delivered some incredibly memorable battles over the past six years.

Here are five of the best moments to date between this year's CPL finalists.

5. Atlético beat Cavalry in P.E.I. for the first win in club history

Atlético Ottawa officially joined the CPL at the beginning of 2020, but their inaugural season was met with considerable challenges. They never played a game at TD Place in their first campaign, as their maiden voyage was limited entirely to Prince Edward Island, where the entire 2020 CPL season was played in an isolated bubble due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Still, Atleti put together a team to represent the club for the first time. Their first couple of matches at the Island Games weren't too bad; Mo Kourouma scored their first ever goal in game one — a 2-2 draw — against York United (then York9 FC), and they also got a point against FC Edmonton in game three, which featured a remarkable goal from Francisco Acuña about 20 seconds into the match.

Ottawa's fourth game, however, would be the toughest yet. They were matched up against a Cavalry side that had steamrolled much of the competition in the CPL's inaugural 2019 season, finishing first in the table but losing to Forge in the Final. They had played four games already in P.E.I. and had three wins and a draw.

The first half was uneventful on the pitch — although both sides stopped play at the 8:46 mark, as all eight CPL clubs joined together to kneel in solidarity in protest against racial discrimination.

The teams thus went to halftime level at 0-0. Just after the hour mark, though, Ottawa's first ever captain Ben Fisk found the net. Malcolm Shaw added another goal three minutes later, and that was all they needed for the first win in club history.

Ironically, both Fisk and Shaw would end up signing for Cavalry in the proceeding years, but they were a huge part of that early moment in Atleti history.

4. Atleti's stars shine in huge comeback

Ottawa had Cavalry's number throughout most of 2025, but the first time the Cavs went to TD Place this year, they nearly flipped the script.

A red-hot start put them in front early, as Ali Musse scored a pair of goals just 12 minutes apart and Cavalry took a 2-0 lead into halftime. Musse was in fine form, having just returned from a three-game suspension the week previously, which allowed him to recover from a knock and get back to his best. He scored the first with a brave run that ended in a collision with the goalpost, causing some fear he might've hurt himself again.

Not long after, though, Musse lined up a free kick from well outside the box and from a wide angle, and he curled it sweetly into the net for his second.

Musse wouldn't end up being the story of the day, however.

Instead, the second half spotlight was stolen by Ottawa's own attacking stars. The Cavs missed a chance to go up 3-0 in the 67th minute, when Tobi Warschewski and Sergio Camargo got in each other's way in the box and neither could finish a golden chance.

A minute later, Sam Salter gave Atleti life, tapping home a rebound after Manny Aparicio's long-distance effort came off Marco Carducci's hands and then the crossbar.

Then just a couple minutes after that, David Rodríguez snatched a point for the hosts when his shot was deflected into the back of the net.

And so, the Cavs will keep looking for their first win against Ottawa this year.

3. Musse returns to play the hero

This game might've been last year, but a lot of familiar faces played their part.

Cavalry star Ali Musse had an up-and-down season in 2024, mostly hampered by a lengthy stretch on the sidelines. He missed 13 total games between May and the start of August with a knee injury, which threw a serious wrench in the Cavs' CPL Shield defence.

So, when it emerged that he might make the trip to Ottawa for Cavalry's game aganst Atleti on Aug. 3, few expected him to make much impact.

With the game knotted at 0-0 deep in the second half, Tommy Wheeldon Jr. turned to Musse for the final 24 minutes, plus stoppage time.

Just six minutes after Musse came onto the pitch, the Cavs won a corner — always a dangerous opportunity for a team that has scored from so many set-pieces over the years. Musse played the dead ball short to Fraser Aird, who laid it back off for Musse, and the Cavalry winger took it to the top of the box, flicking a shot through the set-piece traffic. The ball took a deflection off an Ottawa defender and found the net, giving Musse his first goal of the year.

Ottawa responded quickly: Sam Salter smashed home a loose ball in the 87th minute to send TD Place into a frenzy, thinking they'd just rescued a point at the death.

Musse, however, had other ideas. The Somalia international did it all himself, picking the ball off a heavy touch by Matteo de Brienne and driving toward the box. He patiently drifted to his left, waiting for the lane to open, then curled a perfect shot into the top corner.

Thanks to Musse's heroics off the bench, the Cavs kept pace in their playoff push, and the superstar winger reintroduced himself to the league at the perfect time. He would go on to play a huge part in Cavalry's North Star Cup-winning campaign.

2. Ballou's stunner breaks it open, clinches Ottawa's first playoff spot

The road to Atlético Ottawa's 2022 regular season title was littered with memorable moments, but this might have been the best one.

With three games left in the campaign, Ottawa went to Calgary in late September with just a one-point lead over the Cavs at the top of the table — and only two points ahead of both Forge and Pacific. However, they knew that a win at ATCO Field (much easier said than done) would be enough to clinch Atleti's first ever berth in the CPL Playoffs, in the third year of the club's history.

Ballou Tabla, it seems, is a man built for those kinds of stakes.

Just four minutes into the game, full-back Miguel Acosta curled a cross from the touchline toward Tabla, stationed at the top of the semi-circle of Cavalry's penalty area. The ball came in a little behind the Atleti forward, but that was no problem for him: Tabla turned his back to goal, leapt off his left foot and connected his right with the ball above his head.

The shot carried the ball off the underside of the crossbar and into the net, just beyond the fingertips of Marco Carducci. Few goals in the history of the CPL have been quite as spectacular as that one.

Ottawa went on to score two more, thanks to Brian Wright and Malcolm Shaw, en route to a 3-1 win to make them the first side to clinch a playoff spot that season.

Atleti went on to finish top of the table, and hosted the CPL Final later that year, but that Tabla goal may well be the moment that sticks with fans the most today.

1. Akio flips the game around in 97th minute

For much of this game in early September 2023, little was happening. Until it all happened.

At the end of a fairly nondescript first half at TD Place, Cavalry's Sergio Camargo scored to put the visitors ahead on the stroke of halftime — and he celebrated with gusto, miming firing a bow and arrow then riling up the crowd with a hand cupped to his ear.

In response, Atlético made a pair of substitutions at halftime, including bringing on Carl Haworth. The Ottawa native would have a major part to play, as the home side sought an equalizer in the final moments of the game.

Atleti won a corner in the 88th minute, and Haworth whipped it into the box, where defender Luke Singh caught everyone by surprise. He left his feet and snapped his right leg at the ball to fire it into the net, scoring an outrageous volley to tie the game late.

It would all be for naught, though. Cavalry pressed on, and in the seventh minute of stoppage time — seconds before the final whistle — William Akio silenced TD Place with a winner.

Akio launched into his trademark front flip celebration, as the Cavs took all three points. A brief confrontation ensued between the celebrating Cavalry players and some Atleti supporters, and upon the final whistle, Tommy Wheeldon Jr. — happy to play the villain on this occasion — held his hand to his ear toward the crowd.

Since then, there's always been a little animosity between Ottawa and Cavalry, who went on to win the CPL Shield that year as Atleti missed the playoffs.

Almost every time these clubs have met, though, has been worth the watch. Could there be another classic in store in Sunday's CPL Final?