Atlético Ottawa 2020 Season

[Pottsy3]

Still speculating off of Instagram, but it seems that Jamaican international Tevin Shaw may also be in camp with Ottawa.

He's a 23 year old midfielder with 6 senior international caps, who most recently played for Portmore United in Jamaica.

[deschamp86]

10 minutes ago, Pottsy3 said:

This is all speculation, but there's good reason to believe that the club has signed Francisco Acuna, a 32 year old Mexican midfielder playing for Puebla in Liga MX. 

He has most recently followed both Atletico Ottawa and Ben Fisk on Instagram, he made a story yesterday that he was heading to Spain, and today it was made official that he was departing Puebla.

Huge signing if true imo

[Pottsy3]

10 minutes ago, Pottsy3 said:

Still speculating off of Instagram, but it seems that Jamaican international Tevin Shaw may also be in camp with Ottawa.

He's a 23 year old midfielder with 6 senior international caps, who most recently played for Portmore United in Jamaica.

Last speculative bit from instagram. Considering that he was most recently followed by 4 confirmed signings, it seems that 23 year old Ghanaian attacking midfielder Bernardinho is in the Ottawa camp. He has most recently been playing for a third division Belgian club, on loan from First Division Belgian Club KV Westerlo.

 

As much as I typically take social media followings with a grain of salt, the team is in a training camp and thus clearly has players who are meeting with each other for the first time (including players who may not be officially signed or announced).

Edited March 11, 2020 by Pottsy3

[Unnamed Trialist]

Atlético Ottawa can bring in two players under contract with At Madrid, Gil Marín announced the league had established that as a maximum. So potentially they could have two players they are scouting, or prospects for San Luis or Madrid, at a much higher salary than even the highest paid players in CPL. If those players pan out on the field and stay healthy, that does give the club an advantage--although maybe they need a bit of an edge considering they are starting so late and with so little.

I am surprised they are going to Madrid to train just now, when half of all coronavirus cases in Spain are in the Madrid region and it is the most locked-down region in the country right now--with all sporting events being either cancelled or scheduled for behind closed doors. Better to find winter training in Ottawa and wait, even a few weeks. If they go now they won't even be able to scout their own youth players or get the signings into a league match, it is the worst imaginable moment to connect with the club and its mindset. To get that you just watch on tv--tonight they showed they are tough, a bit vulgar, not too refined, but damn effective to a point. 

[An Observer]

23 minutes ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Atlético Ottawa can bring in two players under contract with At Madrid, Gil Marín announced the league had established that as a maximum. So potentially they could have two players they are scouting, or prospects for San Luis or Madrid, at a much higher salary than even the highest paid players in CPL. If those players pan out on the field and stay healthy, that does give the club an advantage--although maybe they need a bit of an edge considering they are starting so late and with so little.

I am surprised they are going to Madrid to train just now, when half of all coronavirus cases in Spain are in the Madrid region and it is the most locked-down region in the country right now--with all sporting events being either cancelled or scheduled for behind closed doors. Better to find winter training in Ottawa and wait, even a few weeks. If they go now they won't even be able to scout their own youth players or get the signings into a league match, it is the worst imaginable moment to connect with the club and its mindset. To get that you just watch on tv--tonight they showed they are tough, a bit vulgar, not too refined, but damn effective to a point. 

They may also not be able to get out as I suspect Spain will pretty soon be quarantined by the rest of the world. 

[Watchmen]

9 hours ago, Pottsy3 said:

This is all speculation, but there's good reason to believe that the club has signed Francisco Acuna, a 32 year old Mexican midfielder playing for Puebla in Liga MX. 

He has most recently followed both Atletico Ottawa and Ben Fisk on Instagram, he made a story yesterday that he was heading to Spain, and today it was made official that he was departing Puebla.

If he thinks he's heading to Spain, he's in for a bigger shock than Defoe thinking he was heading to America.

[nolando]

21 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

he's in for a bigger shock than Defoe thinking he was heading to America.

Why do you always have to make such a bloody big deal about him?

[Viruk42]

49 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

If he thinks he's heading to Spain, he's in for a bigger shock than Defoe thinking he was heading to America.

It was worded along the lines of "new challenges / first stop Spain" - which, if he is indeed signing with Ottawa, would suggest that he is going to training camp in Spain before coming here and is not confusing Canada and Spain (something that I imagine very few adult Mexicans ever do)

[Watchmen]

9 minutes ago, Viruk42 said:

It was worded along the lines of "new challenges / first stop Spain" - which, if he is indeed signing with Ottawa, would suggest that he is going to training camp in Spain before coming here and is not confusing Canada and Spain (something that I imagine very few adult Mexicans ever do)

It was a joke. I'm relatively sure no one has ever confused Ottawa with Spain.  

[Unnamed Trialist]

7 hours ago, An Observer said:

They may also not be able to get out as I suspect Spain will pretty soon be quarantined by the rest of the world. 

No country is currently being "quarantined by the rest of the world", let's try to be serious. I could drive or bus or train to Italy tomorrow. But not fly.

You are right, true, that if air traffic is blocked to Spain then the team could have trouble getting out. We are slightly behind Italy in the standard curve of cases and deaths, similar to Germany, France and perhaps the US. Canada is behind on the curve, at an earlier stage. The challenge is to use measures and knowledge of other countries to make this curve top out sooner and flatter.

My opinion is that they have been a bit oblivious to reality when they perfectly well could have done two weeks in Ottawa--or Mexico--and then gone to Madrid when the Liga was not suspended. Probably Spain will need 20 days to get past the worst.

 

[Unnamed Trialist]

56 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

It was a joke. I'm relatively sure no one has ever confused Ottawa with Spain.  

I once met a guy from Toronto buying Cuban cigars in Barcelona who told me he liked it here because it was just like his home town. Which it pretty well isn't in any respect. 

Unless he was talking about the cost of flights to Cuba.

[Big_M]

So is the team other than gomes in spain or they stayed in canada? hopefully they didnt go

[Viruk42]

2 hours ago, Big_M said:

So is the team other than gomes in spain or they stayed in canada? hopefully they didnt go

They're over in Spain for training camp, as seen on their instagrams. Speaking of which, regarding some previously mentioned names:

-Brandon John (following Fisk and the CPL, followed by Fisk)
-Tevin Shaw (following Fisk, Khabra, and the team, followed by Fisk and Khabra)
-Bernardinho (following Dada-Luke, Khabra, Hamilton, Coupland, and Fisk, followed by all five)
-Francisco Acuña (following Fisk, the team, and the CPL, followed by Fisk)

one possibility, though it's quite the stretch, stemming from Instagram follows, is Natxo Zabal Almazan, a 33-year-old keeper with CD Calahorra in Spain's third tier - he's a recent mutual follow of Acuña and also follows the team, but he is not following or followed by any official AO players as far as I can tell. Like I said, it's quite the stretch, but who even knows at this point.

 

[Big_M]

boy that was bad judgement still going out there..so many things could go wrong not only on health side but also preparation..over 3000 cases out there as of now..dont think it would be a bad idea to send the players back to Canada right away

[toontownman]

https://nationalpost.com/news/local-news/atletico-ottawa-soccer-club-continuing-pre-season-training-in-spain/wcm/dc8dfd09-2438-4635-9920-0f8e4fbf03af

 

[Pottsy3]

4 hours ago, Viruk42 said:

They're over in Spain for training camp, as seen on their instagrams. Speaking of which, regarding some previously mentioned names:

-Brandon John (following Fisk and the CPL, followed by Fisk)
-Tevin Shaw (following Fisk, Khabra, and the team, followed by Fisk and Khabra)
-Bernardinho (following Dada-Luke, Khabra, Hamilton, Coupland, and Fisk, followed by all five)
-Francisco Acuña (following Fisk, the team, and the CPL, followed by Fisk)

one possibility, though it's quite the stretch, stemming from Instagram follows, is Natxo Zabal Almazan, a 33-year-old keeper with CD Calahorra in Spain's third tier - he's a recent mutual follow of Acuña and also follows the team, but he is not following or followed by any official AO players as far as I can tell. Like I said, it's quite the stretch, but who even knows at this point.

 

The bottom three players on that list had Instagram stories at the Atletico Madrid facility, so those are all but confirmed. Meanwhile, I believe it was Nef who already reported about John.

 

Another speculative piece would be Maksym Kowal who recently exchanged follows with Dada-Luke and John. It seems as though Kowal has been knocking on the door of the CPL for awhile, so this should come as no surprise. 16 goals in 16 games in League1 Ontario this year, following stints in 3rd/4th tier Poland and the 1st tier of New Zealand. At age 28, this is likely make or break for him as a professional footballer.

Keep in mind, many of these players may just be trialling. 

[Viruk42]

8 minutes ago, Pottsy3 said:

Another speculative piece would be Maksym Kowal who recently exchanged follows with Dada-Luke and John. It seems as though Kowal has been knocking on the door of the CPL for awhile, so this should come as no surprise. 16 goals in 16 games in League1 Ontario this year, following stints in 3rd/4th tier Poland and the 1st tier of New Zealand. At age 28, this is likely make or break for him as a professional footballer.

I noticed him as well but wondered if there may just be links through their social circles or whatnot. Was hoping for some other connection, haven't seen it yet (for instance connecting with Fisk who seems to mutual-follow everyone, including Aleman and Hume, among others) but he is worth watching

[Unnamed Trialist]

I also agree, as I posted earlier, that it is an error to go to Madrid to train, ignoring the current situation and showing so little flexibility. I am pretty shocked they did it anyways, poor judgement.

Madrid region has over half of all Spanish cases, it is the hardest hit area of the country. It is also the most affected in terms of services (public transit), and stressed medically in terms of hospital support, excepting some smaller districts in other regions where there are unusual peaks of cases (like Vitoria, the smaller city where Alavés is from). 

Apart from this, they openly said they wanted to get players into games at the Metropolitano to feel the atmosphere, which they will not. They cannot even scout At Madrid B or u-19s properly as the competitions have been cancelled. There is then the risk that fly restrictions are applied and they cannot return. 

I suppose they feel they can take this Canadian core and add their 7 foreign players to the bunch, but that takes them up to 15 players maybe. What do they plan to do, send their newer Canadian signings into one of the worst areas of Europe for the virus apart from northern Italy?

[Big_M]

Dont think it would be smart for the club to have any new Canadian join them..they should stay in Canada..it would maybe hurt their preparations but they already hurt themselves going there..and now just read this from wiki

On 13 March:

• Mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida, orders the closure of bars and terraces in the capital,^[181] and announces that his government is prepared, if needed, to isolate the city.

Many things could happen such as league being postponed but if not they are scheduled to return on April 7..even in that case the players and staff would have to isolate themselves for 14 days..and they might not even be able to get out of there for now..so the April 18 match looks strongly doubtful

[Ed_S]

There are worse places to be isolated. Have you been to Ottawa in March?

 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

 

[Viruk42]

On 3/11/2020 at 9:55 AM, CanadaFan123 said:

Look for Kacher to Ottawa today.  That is his agency.

On the social media front, Kacher is now following Valour and is a mutual follow with Raphaël Garcia on Instagram. He is not, as far as I'm aware, following/being followed by any confirmed Ottawa player.

[deschamp86]

4 minutes ago, Viruk42 said:

On the social media front, Kacher is now following Valour and is a mutual follow with Raphaël Garcia on Instagram. He is not, as far as I'm aware, following/being followed by any confirmed Ottawa player.

I feel like that wouldn't make a lot of sense. Kacher has primarily played as a left winger which is where I would assume Levis was playing since they have Motou for left back. Maybe Gale is deciding to load up on wide players this year since having tons of CMs didn't seem to work last year

[CanadaFan123]

1 hour ago, Viruk42 said:

On the social media front, Kacher is now following Valour and is a mutual follow with Raphaël Garcia on Instagram. He is not, as far as I'm aware, following/being followed by any confirmed Ottawa player.

Good call and Nef has also confirmed that the team won't be Ottawa.  A lot of people were speculating Forge but Valour might make sense too but it would be a bit surprising because I don't believe Gale has a connection to him (not that it matters but he has generally had connections to past players).

[Pottsy3]

Two spanish players to add to the rumour mill:

Nacho Zabal: 33 year old GK playing for CD Calahorra in the Spanish 3rd division.

Viti Martinez: 22 year old central midfielder playing for Gimnastic de Tarragona in the Spanish 3rd Division.

 

Additional player of interest:

Vashon Neufville: 20 year old English full back who has played youth for West Ham and England U17. (also has one Sky Bet League Two appearance). Possibly a relationship with Malyk Hamilton.

 

I'd imagine some of these were trialists while the team was abroad. 

Edited March 16, 2020 by Pottsy3