Atlético Ottawa continue to be undefeated on the road, and picked up their first away victory of the season on Sunday afternoon, a 2-1 win over FC Edmonton at Clarke Stadium.
The Eddies had the first good chance of the opening half in the 12th minute, but couldn’t make the most of it. After a clever backheel from Mamadi Camara opened a space at the edge of the penalty area for Gabriel Bitar, the young forward took a touch off his chest before shooting the ball at the Ottawa goal. He was a bit off-balance, and Nathan Ingham was able to make a comfortable stop.
Ballou Tabla gave the home fans a scare in the 25th minute, just missing the top left corner of the net with a near-perfect shot. He danced around a pair of defenders to get the ball onto his left foot, before getting a shot away, which didn’t miss the goal by very much. In the 38th minute Ottawa had another fantastic opportunity to take the lead, after Brian Wright had an open shot from inside the six yard box, but he fired the ball right at a scrambling Andreas Vaikla, who was able to get in front of it to keep the game scoreless.
Wright redeemed himself just over a minute later, giving Ottawa the lead on the road. After Ballou Tabla lifted the ball over the Edmonton backline with a fantastic touch, Wright ran onto it and set his feet before curling the ball around Vaikla into the bottom right corner to make it 1-0.
That would be the last strong chance of the first half, and Ottawa entered the break up 1-0.
Just after the hour mark, Shamit Shome sent Mamadi Camara through on goal, but Camara wasn’t able to take advantage of his breakaway. He didn’t even challenge Ingham, firing a shot wide of his right post. Ingham’s counterpart Andreas Vaikla had another busy second half, keeping his side in the match, including a big stop to deny Wright again.
The visitors were awarded a penalty after the ball hit Simon Triantafillou’s arm, and Ollie Bassett stepped up to take it, burying it into the bottom right corner to double the lead.
Not even five minutes later, Edmonton had a penalty of their own following challenge on Camara from Diego Espejo, sending Tobias Warschewski to the spot. The German attacker fired it into the bottom left corner, making it 2-1 and giving Edmonton a lifeline with just over 15 minutes still to be played.
Any momentum FC Edmonton had was halted in the 80th minute as Luke Singh, who had been booked less than 15 minutes earlier, was sent off for a poor challenge on Miguel Acosta.
The Eddies kept pushing for an equaliser, but one would never come. Ottawa held on for the final moments, and came away with the 2-1 victory on the road.
BOX SCORE
Goals
40′ — Brian Wright (Atlético Ottawa)
70′ — Ollie Bassett (Atlético Ottawa) — penalty
74′ — Tobias Warschewski (FC Edmonton) — penalty
Discipline
22′ — Yellow: Maxim Tissot (Atlético Ottawa)
66′ — Yellow: Luke Singh (FC Edmonton)
80′ — Red: Luke Singh (FC Edmonton) — second yellow card
