HIGHLIGHTS: Atletico Ottawa vs. Vancouver FC (July 16, 2023) | Presented by tonybet

Atlético Ottawa completed a monstrous nine-point week at TD Place on Sunday, beating Vancouver FC 3-1 to pick up their third win in a row and jump all the way up to fourth in the table.

The visitors had an early scoring opportunity after a great play from Shaan Hundal. The Vancouver attacker did well to turn on a dime and beat his defender before charging toward the goal line and playing a low cross into the box. The cross was cleared away by Diego Espejo, but it came dangerously close to ending up in the back of his own net, skimming the outside of his own post.

Renan Garcia, who signed for Vancouver FC midweek, nearly had the dream start to life in Canada a few minutes later. The 37-year-old Brazilian midfielder was given too much space outside the box and decided to have a go himself, and fired a rocket of a shot off the crossbar, inches away from a Goal of the Year candidate.

After withstanding the early pressure from VFC, it was Atlético Ottawa who found the game’s first goal. Vancouver were unable to clear the ball when Jean-Aniel Assi played a low pass to Noah Verhoeven, and again after Verhoeven’s shot was blocked. The ball fell to Ollie Bassett, who tried to take shot but was off balance, and the ball rolled to the feet of Miguel Acosta, who picked out the bottom right corner with a powerful shot.

Zach Verhoven made a few good runs in behind the VFC backline in the first half, and nearly punished them with one in the 34th minute. He was clear on goal for the most part, but hesitated to shoot for a second and ended up putting his shot right at Callum Irving.

Sam Salter came inches away from doubling the lead a few minutes later, as Irving came out of his goal. Salter got the ball and opened up space for himself to take a shot with Irving still scrambling, but Rocco Romeo was ready on the line to head the ball away from danger with a brilliant goal line clearance. Salter tested Irving again with a shot from distance in stoppage time that nearly caught the VFC goalkeeper off guard, but Irving was able to make a fingertip save to push it over the bar.

Ottawa outshot Vancouver 13-6 in the first half, but only had the one goal to show for it when they could have perhaps put the game to bed early on.

Vancouver FC equalised ten minutes after the break, with a goal from Alejandro Diaz. The reigning CPL Golden Boot winner, making his debut for the club after joining last week on loan from Norwegian side Sogndal, headed home a great cross to the back post from his fellow debutant Garcia.

The match wouldn’t stay tied for long, however, as Ottawa responded seven minutes later. Carl Haworth and Gabriel Antinoro both came off the bench for Ottawa in the seconds after Diaz’s equaliser, and they combined for the goal that made it 2-1 to the home side 66 seconds after the hour mark.

Haworth battled for the ball with James Cameron on the right side of the box, before finally making enough room for himself to play a high cross to the back post. Antinoro was there to head it past Callum Irving, restoring Ottawa’s advantage again.

With seconds left in five additional minutes of stoppage time at the end of the match, Ottawa found a third to put the match to bed. Callum Irving made a save on a low shot from Ruben del Campo, but couldn’t hang onto the rebound. It fell to the feet of Haworth, who made no mistake, putting it into the empty goal to double his side’s lead.

With the win, Ottawa completed a nine-point week that saw them beat Valour at home on Sunday, Cavalry on the road midweek, and Vancouver at home again this Sunday. With those nine points — which are three of their six wins on the entire season — they jumped from eighth place before last weekend’s match to fourth place to close out this weekend.