Match Thread: July 31, 2022 - Atletico Ottawa v Forge

[narduch]

Game is at 7pm ET on One Soccer. 

 

[narduch]

 

 

[Ftduck]

Great start for Forge. 

[narduch]

Forge lead 2-0 at the half 

[masster]

The ref has been terrible in this game! If I were an Ottawa fan, I would be pissed. How did they miss that blatant penalty for the foul on Tissot?

[Ftduck]

Same ref that let the wall infringement stand the last time Ottawa was in Hamilton. Agreed,  lots of mistakes. 

[jonovision]

This weekend is sucking a lot of the drama out of the remainder of the season. The Valour-Pacific result cemented the top 4/bottom 4 divide (nobody is crossing this divide this season) and now Forge are back to their dominating best, with so much more talent within their squad than any other team one almost begins to question how they've managed it.

[Big_M]

valour is nine points away from fourth place ottawa with one game in hand and one head to head game remaining...so doable for valour if they do it right

[Aird25]

31 minutes ago, jonovision said:

This weekend is sucking a lot of the drama out of the remainder of the season. The Valour-Pacific result cemented the top 4/bottom 4 divide (nobody is crossing this divide this season) and now Forge are back to their dominating best, with so much more talent within their squad than any other team one almost begins to question how they've managed it.

Doesn’t the regular season winner get a Champions League spot? That makes the tight pack at the top incredibly exciting 

[jonovision]

3 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

Doesn’t the regular season winner get a Champions League spot? That makes the tight pack at the top incredibly exciting 

I believe so, but with Cavalry dropping off a cliff after losing a few players and Pacific's CONCACAF schedule I don't see anyone close to pushing Forge for the top spot by mid-September.

[narduch]

18 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

Doesn’t the regular season winner get a Champions League spot? That makes the tight pack at the top incredibly exciting 

That's next year.

This season the league has no continental spots up for grabs

[Cheeta]

1 hour ago, jonovision said:

This weekend is sucking a lot of the drama out of the remainder of the season. The Valour-Pacific result cemented the top 4/bottom 4 divide (nobody is crossing this divide this season) and now Forge are back to their dominating best, with so much more talent within their squad than any other team one almost begins to question how they've managed it.

"Begins to question"?

Well past the starting blocks with that query.

P.S.  Hard road ahead but I think Valour aren't done just yet.

[Cheeta]

One of those matches where it wasn't going to happen for Ottawa.  Early going could have changed the match dynamic had Ottawa found a goal but that clearly didn't happen so....

How Pacius missed that one I'll never know.

Ingram is flaky but not going to harsh on him for anything that happened today.

Campbell finding his confidence is bad news for every team out there not named Forge.

Is Bekker decided on seeing his career out in the CPL?  I know it's late in the day for his career but have to think his agent has received the odd call or two.  Might be one last chance in him for a role in more than one MLS side at twice the money he's making now.

 

[Aird25]

1 hour ago, narduch said:

That's next year.

This season the league has no continental spots up for grabs

That sucks. Why in the world would you drop the Concacaf League a year before the new Champions League format kicks in?

[JamboAl]

A few observations from the game:

-Forge had a game plan, executed perfectly, were clinical in their finishing and played with purpose.  Bobby S. had them very well set up so kudos to them.  I just can’t see them not winning another CPL title.

-That’s two games this season where Atletico have been slaughtered at home.  I would argue 6-0 against Valour was very harsh; that was a bad day at the office.  This 4-0 was deserved.  Lots of individual talent but don’t play like a team well enough.  I predict one more ropey game at home this season; hope I’m wrong.  But we should make the playoffs.

-Referee was substandard, but you can’t lose 4-0 and say the referee was to blame. How do you fix the problem though?

- Finally, a really good crowd for a Sunday night on a long weekend.  Don’t know what the attendance was but it looked healthy again.

 

[gwsmith63]

14 minutes ago, JamboAl said:

A few observations from the game:

-Forge had a game plan, executed perfectly, were clinical in their finishing and played with purpose.  Bobby S. had them very well set up so kudos to them.  I just can’t see them not winning another CPL title.

-That’s two games this season where Atletico have been slaughtered at home.  I would argue 6-0 against Valour was very harsh; that was a bad day at the office.  This 4-0 was deserved.  Lots of individual talent but don’t play like a team well enough.  I predict one more ropey game at home this season; hope I’m wrong.  But we should make the playoffs.

-Referee was substandard, but you can’t lose 4-0 and say the referee was to blame. How do you fix the problem though?

- Finally, a really good crowd for a Sunday night on a long weekend.  Don’t know what the attendance was but it looked healthy again.

 

4399 plus Shadow the dog. 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

 

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

6 hours ago, Aird25 said:

That sucks. Why in the world would you drop the Concacaf League a year before the new Champions League format kicks in?

The deal seems to have been two direct CCL entries in exchange for not being in the Leagues Cup that was part of MLS's new $USD 250 million media rights deal. The Leagues Cup starts in 2023 to determine entry into the 2024 CCL so there was no second tier tournament for CanPL clubs to enter in 2023.

[Aird25]

4 hours ago, Ozzie_the_parrot said:

The deal seems to have been two direct CCL entries in exchange for not being in the Leagues Cup that was part of MLS's new $USD 250 million media rights deal. The Leagues Cup starts in 2023 to determine entry into the 2024 CCL so there was no second tier tournament for CanPL clubs to enter in 2023.

What does Leagues cup have to do with Concacaf League. They seem to include completely separate leagues

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

The Leagues Cup is going to be the North American qualifier for the new CCL format. The CONCACAF League is being replaced by Central American and Caribbean cup competions from next year onwards so there is no place for Canada in either of them given Canada is in North America. CONCACAF initially proposed a North American competition involving CanPL but the League Cup eventually emerged to fulfill that role instead.

[JamboAl]

My understanding is that all the MLS teams will have a chance to qualify for the CCL through the Leagues Cup.  That’s probably why two CPL teams are going into the CCL competition in 2024.  But there’s no way for a CPL team to enter any CONCACAF competition next year.

[Aird25]

So CPL has a year-long gap in continental play so that all the other countries can figure out who participates? Thanks Vic

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

57 minutes ago, JamboAl said:

...But there’s no way for a CPL team to enter any CONCACAF competition next year.

...and it's only the two clubs going into the CCL each year thereafter. Less than ideal given the first round games will probably be in late February when most CanPL clubs won't have started preseason training and will have limited rosters available making them not much more than a speed bump most years if it's seeded as I suspect it probably will be.

https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/concacaf-announces-expanded-champions-league-starting-in-2024

Round One

• 4 x MLS clubs
• 2 x Leagues Cup clubs (runner-up and third-place team)
• 5 x Liga MX clubs
• 2 x Canadian Premier League clubs
• 1 x U.S. Open Cup winner
• 1 x Canadian Championship winner
• 5 x Central America Cup clubs (runner-up, two losing semifinalists and two play-in winners)
• 2 x Caribbean Cup (second-place and third-place finishers)

Edited August 1, 2022 by Ozzie_the_parrot

[narduch]

I think we should wait to see how it plays out before deciding if the new format is bad or good for CPL.

For all we know the CPL champs could be seeded in the 1st round draw. The details still aren't out yet.

Besides they could draw an MLS team that could be easier than a Mexican side.

Its a shame that Concacaf League is no more but we should be happy that CPL has 2 direct spots.

Besides if the universe ever did properly align we could have as many as 6 Canadian teams in the Champions League.  Currently the max is 2.

[Ivan]

It could actually be 3 CPL clubs should a team other than the League champ and playoff champ win the Voyageurs Cup.