TURNING POINT
Fans gather for Atlético
David Clanachan likened it to planting a flag in the nation's capital for Canadian soccer, and if not a single turning point, the beginning of a turning point for the entire Canadian Premier League.
“This is big,” said the CPL commissioner with excitement while looking into the north stands at part of a crowd of 12,064 at TD Place Stadium on a beautiful, soccer-perfect Saturday afternoon in the Glebe, officially a pandemic-restricted sellout.
“I said all along I wanted a team in this city, and while we had a team from Ottawa (in 2019), now we finally have it playing in Ottawa,” Clanachan continued. “I feel we're reaching a turning point. I feel that we're turning a corner here. Just look at this.”
Atlético Ottawa might just feel exactly the same way, after finally playing a real home game, a first for the franchise.
Second-half substitute Brian Wright, into the game only 16 minutes earlier, found himself 1-on-1 with the Halifax Wanderers goalkeeper and chipped the ball over and into the net in the 87th minute to send the huge crowd into a tizzy and Atlético to a thrilling 2-1 victory in one of the best days in Ottawa pro soccer history.
Three minutes and stoppage time later, the crowd stood and roared again at the referee's final whistle as the Atlético players celebrated as if they had just won a playoff game.
Then they made the rounds of the pitch, starting in front of the north stand, then running across the field to whoop it up with a strong contingent of fans in the south-side lower bowl.
It was just short of bedlam in Game 11 of a 26-game season.
“It was about as perfect a game as I ever could have imagined, when we started down this road two years ago,” said Atlético strategic partner Jeff Hunt. “I put it up there with the top moments in my sporting life.
“An unbelievable experience. The fans in combination with the way we played. It looked and felt like a Redblacks game. It checked all the boxes for me.”
At the end of the day, Atlético seemed to be celebrating a much-needed win as much as they were celebrating a major sports event of any kind in the capital amid COVID, and the fans were in the same mood.
“The fans gave us extra energy in the last minutes when we needed to score a goal,” Atlético head coach Mista said. “The fans were incredible. You can imagine what happens for the players.”
And if fans liked their first live impression of Atlético, there's more to come in a hurry with home games Wednesday night against the York United and Saturday night for the preliminary round Canadian championship against Valour FC (Winnipeg).
That said, moving to the postCOVID era is going to take some getting used to.
Long lineups to gain entry into the stadium persisted well into the first 45 minutes of the game.
But the best news of all, major events are back and the entire grounds at Lansdowne Live were buzzing like not seen since March 2020.
Long lineups to get into restaurants. Heavy foot traffic throughout the venue. Long traffic lines up and down Bank Street.
The good times are back, at least for now, as Dr. Vera Etches made clear in her pre-games address to the fans on the video board. The good doctor told them to get to that 90 per cent vaccination rate as quickly as possible.
Then came the event 535 days in the making, the first Atlético kickoff on home turf.
Atlético started strong with forward Raul Uche on a break in the open minutes.
Two minutes later, fellow front-liner Rafael Nunez Mata fired a dangerous enough kick over the Halifax goal.
Things turned, however, in the 12th minute when Atlético keeper Dylon Powley tacked Halifax striker Akeem Garcia all alone on a breakaway, resulting in a penalty kick.
Garcia made no mistake on the kick, with Powley guessing to his right and Garcia nailing it in the opposite direction.
Twenty-seven minutes of play later, though, the fans finally got what they came to see.
It started off a corner by Ben Mekendry, continued with a header by Drew Beckie, formerly of the Ottawa Fury, and ended with Pickering native Malcolm Shaw bringing TD Place to life with the first professional goal scored by a local in the capital since March of last year.
“The support of the fans was immense,” Shaw said. “We needed that. The cheering and chanting was crucial.”
It was about as perfect a game as I ever could have imagined, when we started down this road two years ago.