2022 CPL Regular Season — Match #78 Atlético Ottawa vs. HFX Wanderers August 18, 2022 at 7:00 p.m. ET/8:00 p.m. AT TD Place in Ottawa, Ontario Watch Live: OneSoccer.ca & TELUS Ch. 980 // Tickets available here


Atlético Ottawa host HFX Wanderers at TD Place on Wednesday night in the Canadian Premier League's lone midweek fixture, before both clubs are in action again this weekend. Ottawa are coming off a 1-0 defeat to the reigning champions Pacific FC, in which they were unable to get back into the game after conceding just a few minutes after it kicked off. A long pass up the pitch from Nathan Mavila found a large gap in the Ottawa backline, and Josh Heard ran onto the ball before curling it into the bottom right corner of the net. The visitors at Starlight Stadium had three shots on goal, including one from Keven Aleman that forced Callum Irving to fully extend his body, but they weren't able to get one by the Pacific goalkeeper. HFX Wanderers, meanwhile, are coming off a much-needed victory at Wanderers Grounds earlier in the day on Saturday. After a 1-0 loss away to Forge FC the weekend prior, in which the Haligonians looked like the better team, they returned home to take on Valour FC, but this time were on the right side of a 1-0 scoreline. Lifumpa Mwandwe won a penalty moments before halftime, remarkably the third one he's earned in just four matches in the CPL, and Samuel Salter stepped up to fire it past Rayane Yesli. That would be the only goal they needed, and a new-look back three did the rest defensively. In nine previous meetings between the two sides, HFX Wanderers have had the upper hand, winning four of them, to Ottawa's three, and the other two ending in draws. Ottawa has won both meetings in 2022, most recently a 2-0 victory at Wanderers Grounds at the end of June in which Ollie Bassett and Miguel Acosta scored late on to pick up all three points.

Make your match picks prior to kickoff at canpl.ca/predictor for a chance to win prizes, including the grand prize of a trip to the 2022 CPL Final! To learn more about ComeOn!, click here. All CPL matches are available to stream on OneSoccer, or on TELUS Optik TV Channel 980. Tous les matchs de l’Atlético Ottawa sont aussi disponibles en français sur OneSoccer.

3 THINGS TO WATCH

  • Wanderers lose two players, bring in a pair of replacements: HFX Wanderers made several roster moves on Monday. Leaving the club are defenders Colin Gander and Kareem Sow, who were both on U SPORTS developmental contracts for the 2022 season, and are both returning to university for the fall semester -- at the University of Guelph and Université de Montréal, respectively. Both players have given the club first rights of refusal for contracts for the 2023 season, so HFX won't have to draft them again if they wish to sign them. In their place, the Wanderers have signed Canadian and Salvadoran left-back Gabriel Escobar, and Canadian centre-back Nassim Nouajaa. Escobar, 22, joins for the rest of 2022, with options for the next two seasons, after winning the League1 British Columbia title TSS Rovers, and was an accomplished Canadian youth international -- finishing third in voting behind Alphonso Davies and Jonathan David for the u17 Canadian Player of the Year in 2016, but has since played for the El Salvador U-20 national team. Noujaa, 18, joins the club after pursuing opportunities in Tunisia, and also played in the CF Montreal academy. He's on a development contract with the option to extend to a standard CPL player contract, which means he can play in up to three games in the 2022 season before deciding if they want to sign him or not. "Young players are moving in and out, I think this is important for us," Hart said on Tuesday. "We also have to be in a situation where we have some depth, and I think these young players will contribute to that."
  • Ottawa keen to move on from costly error on the weekend: Atlético Ottawa played well for stretches of their match this past weekend, but lacked a complete team performance and a final moment of quality to score a goal. The goal they conceded in the 1-0 defeat away to Pacific FC was also one that they perhaps could have prevented, as they were caught flat footed on a sudden long pass up the pitch from Nathan Mavila that Josh Heard collected and fired into the back of the net. It's a mistake that a growing team is prone to making, and head coach Carlos Gonzalez said on Tuesday that the team has reacted well to the defeat and is keen to bounce back in front of their excellent home fans at TD Place. "The team is learning," said Gonzalez. "It's a process in which you learn every day. New things, and what we have to do and try to avoid in every single match. We haven't had much time to prepare for this game so the idea is to recover the minds and fitness of the players, because it's the most important thing."
  • Mwandwe has made an immediate impact, but still looking for first goal: New Wanderers attacker Lifumpa Mwandwe has only made four appearances since joining the club in July, but has already shown signs of being a very important player for the club. He's a very direct player, not afraid to run at defenders and put them under pressure, and as a result has already won three penalties since joining the team, all of which led to goals -- including the winning goal last time out against Valour FC. Mwandwe hasn't scored yet in his 251 minutes of action, making three starts and one appearance off the bench, but is clearly combining well with the players around him. As he continues to get comfortable, the goals will surely come. HFX Wanderers aren't officially out of the playoffs yet for this season, but looking ahead to next season, the duo of him and Joao Morelli will be an electric one as the latter player returns from an injury that has kept him off the pitch since the second match of the year. "He's getting more comfortable all the time," Hart said about Mwandwe on Tuesday. "He's still not one hundred percent in terms of his fitness, but he's one of those players that goes to the limit and he knows his body, he gives us the signal when he's done. I think he's done well, he contributes with the things he does well, he knows how to get the best out of himself. His lively play has lifted us."

ALL-TIME SERIES


Atlético Ottawa wins: 3 || HFX Wanderers wins: 4 || Draws: 2

Previous match:

June 30, 2022 — HFX Wanderers 0-2 Atlético Ottawa


KEY QUOTES


I expect a very competitive team, I think that they showed a really solid phase in the last two games with some changes in their way of playnig. I feel they're going to continue with this performance because they've done it already in the last two games and they've had success with it. Tomorrow's game is going to be a tough game between two very competitive teams.” — Atlético Ottawa head coach Carlos González

"It's very difficult to control what another team does. We're trying to focus on what we do, trying to improve what we do, make it more efficient, and make the players more comfortable with each other." — HFX Wanderers head coach Stephen Hart

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