Atlético Ottawa 2020 Season

[SpursFlu 2,255]

Wow great move. As a Whitecaps supporter I'm looking for more of this. Excited to watch him play for Ottawa

[Ivan 785]

9 minutes ago, narduch said:

Surprise!

 

Awesome!  Exactly the type of moves that should be happening with our best young prospects.

[Colliedor 364]

Really happy to see this. Hoping he does well.

[toontownman 2,444]

Quality move. They need an experienced CB in to compliment them. Still need a quality striker too. 

[yothat2 41]

How many roster spots still available ??

 

Think they bring in a few trialists 

[Zem 1,412]

19 minutes ago, yothat2 said:

How many roster spots still available ??

They have 7 roster spots still open, including 1 foreign player spot

[Rocket Robin 812]

Wow so one year later and no Ottawa Fury.  Remember all those fans 
who swore there'd never be soccer in the city if there was no continued 
sanctioning for the USL?    

USL Championship starts up this weekend with a home and away schedule to play well 
on ESPN.  The compromise reached is that conferences have been divided
up into smaller groups.  Fury would have been in the conference 
containing teams from Pennsylvania and New York state (at least avoiding
the Florida and other teams from the Covid/southern states). 
Note there are some crossover games as NYRB II visits Atlanta U 2 in
September.  

I expect the Fury would have not have been allowed to play because of
cross border restrictions.  This is what's happening at USL League One
level where Toronto FC II and the league have agreed that the team will
sit out the season because of quarantine rules.  (Can't isolate two weeks
with any type of compressed schedule).  

At least you'll be able to watch Atletico on OneSoccer until there
are possible home games after their tourney in Victoria or Charlottetown. 

[sloth8 78]

Six player signings announced today including Mohamed Kourouma and Ben McKendry:

https://canpl.ca/article/atletico-ottawa-completes-2020-roster-with-6-signings-including-kourouma-mckendry

The article also confirms that Bernardino, Shaw, and Dada-Luke did not travel to P.E.I. and will not compete at The Island Games.

[Senorpopps 109]

6 signings! IMO Mckendry is the biggest addition but the others will make things interesting.

[Zem 1,412]

A bunch of great signings. McKendry should make a great Tevin Shaw replacement and Kapor will be critical at CB. I'm assuming Kourouma will be played more at CF, his other natural position where he's a had most of his success in recent years, and I think he'll do much better there than at LW. Kowal demolished League1 Ontario last year and I reckon that, like Novak, he'll be a good striker in the CPL too.

Phillips should be decent competition for Neufville and he's very deserving of a chance with the pros, as he's consistently been one of the best fullbacks in League1 Ontario for years. Finally, I didn't expect a Sobze Zemo signing, but Horace is a fantastic shot-stopper and I'm super happy to see him getting a chance. He obviously won't play over Zabal, and frankly he's not better than Gomes either, but if the circumstances demand he plays, I'm sure he'll do great.

[CanadaFan123 1,366]

It's hard to write this team off. In general, all the teams in this league can put out a competitive XI so it will come down to depth. 

McKendry is a good signing and I would think that Kapor should be good as well looking at his pedigree. 

[toontownman 2,444]

It is the chemistry that will be their undoing. All of the other teams, except maybe valour. Have a core of players and staff that know each other, know the league and opposition. 

Solid start up squad though. Such a great addition to the league. 

[Unnamed Trialist 5,200]

1 hour ago, toontownman said:

It is the chemistry that will be their undoing. All of the other teams, except maybe valour. Have a core of players and staff that know each other, know the league and opposition. 

Solid start up squad though. Such a great addition to the league. 

Agreed. But we'll see how good a coach Mista is, with such short time to set things up. And how much the Atlético name and legacy pushes the team to be competitive, the demand on that side is different from every other club in CPL, if the players want to take up the implicit challenge.

[BradMack 586]

Gotta say, as a Wanderers fan, this is the least scary team in the league up front. Fisk is good but once again has very little around him. 

[Unnamed Trialist 5,200]

9 hours ago, BradMack said:

Gotta say, as a Wanderers fan, this is the least scary team in the league up front. Fisk is good but once again has very little around him. 

Sort of have to repeat what I was saying. We don't know much about a lot of these signings. And we are underestimating they are being coached by a former top-flight striker. I think At Ottawa will make the top 4 actually. Predicting Forge, Cavalry, At O, and York9, although I would prefer Pacific to go all the way.

[Viruk42 254]

15 hours ago, BradMack said:

Gotta say, as a Wanderers fan, this is the least scary team in the league up front. Fisk is good but once again has very little around him. 

It's difficult to predict, as Unnamed Trialist points out. Kowal was a goal per game guy in L1o last year, and we could maybe use Anthony Novak as a comparable (having also been about a goal per game in L1o and then scoring 6 in 16 last year), but that's the end of good comparables. I'm cautiously optimistic about Malcolm Shaw and looking forward to seeing what Francisco Acuña can do - the latter obviously has the talent, but whether the body holds up at his age... (I say, realizing that he's two years younger than I am)

Last season we all saw guys, who we thought would thrive, fall flat while others came out of nowhere. The same could easily be true for Ottawa, both positively and negatively. I think Ottawa will win a game, but overall will struggle, simply because of circumstances - team thrown together last minute, then international transfers essentially stopped by the pandemic, and having to scramble to find any available players. But I'm optimistic, especially now that the centre-back pairing looks good

[Shway 2,328]

Jarred Phillips is really good. I think he’s on par with Doner tbh. We’ll see!

[Initial B 180]

I just wanted to bump this because I'm so happy that we beat Cavalry for our first win. I was getting frustrated by the red cards and late collapses, but I think AO has a good chance to take 4th place.