Atletico Ottawa dump Toronto FC out of Canadian Championship

While Toronto Maple Leafs fans were celebrating a lottery win, Toronto FC fans watched their MLS fall to the Canadian Premier League champions.

TFC were eliminated from the Canadian Championship in the preliminary round on Tuesday night, falling 3-1 to CPL champs Atlético Ottawa at BMO Field.

Toronto FC had never been eliminated by a CPL club before, and Ottawa had previously never beaten a MLS outfit.

Ballou Tabla scored a second half hat-trick to erase an early goal from Deandre Kerr.

Toronto FC did not create a lot of chances to start the second half, and Tabla made them pay in the 70th minute. As the Reds failed to clear away the danger of an Ottawa movement into their penalty area, the ball fell to the Canadian international, who was able to pick out the bottom left corner while off balance.

Tabla then stunned the crowd even more when he gave his side the lead eleven minutes later. Tabla wrestled the ball away from Zane Monlouis in midfield to win himself a one-on-one with Gavran, and he passed the ball around the TFC goalkeeper to give his side the lead.

“Sometimes the higher-level team can become complacent, and I just felt like we were not sharp,” Fraser said after the match as frustration set in. “We had really one incisive move in the first half when we scored, but that might have been it in terms of incisive moves. So disappointing because all I do is talk about the character of this team and we didn’t see it today.”

Fraser doubled down and called the goals his team conceded “tragic.”

“I just think we weren’t as aggressive offensively as we needed to be, Fraser added. “You have to find ways to still get behind, and you have to find ways to assert yourself. And I felt like we weren’t assertive enough in the moments we needed to be.

“I thought the goals of we gave up were tragic.”

Jonathan Osorio went as far as to apologize to the fans for a performance he labeled as both disappointing and embarrassing.

Due to a number of injuries in the squad, Robin Fraser called up five players from Toronto FC II to be with the team for Tuesday’s match, as has been the case for several MLS fixtures recently. Defenders Reid Fisher and Jackson Gilman, midfielders Antone Bossenberry and Fletcher Bank and forward Jahmarie Nolan all signed Short-Term Agreements, and Bossenberry, Gilman, Nolan and Fisher all jump straight into the starting lineup.

Luka Gavran kept his spot in the TFC net, behind a backline of Kobe Franklin at left back, Walker Zimmerman and Fisher in the middle and Gilman on the right. The midfield trio to start was Jonathan Osorio, Bossenberry and Markus Cimermancic, while the attacking group was Deandre Kerr flanked by Derrick Etienne Jr. on the right and Nolan on the left.

The first ten minutes were end-to-end, with each side feeling each other out. There were a couple of early chances for TFC to counter-attack using the speed of Nolan, Kerr and Franklin down the left side, but each time they were thwarted by Ottawa getting people back quickly to defend.

It was a chance down the right side that led to the opening goal of the match, however. Etienne Jr charged down the wing to collect a pass forward from Gilman, and when he played a low cross into the box for Kerr, the Canadian striker had no trouble redirecting it past Tristan Crampton and into the back of the net.

Emiliano García and Ballou Tabla had a chance to attack the Toronto FC net after an errant pass in the Reds’ midfield, but when García tried to slip the ball through for his teammate, Fisher and Franklin were there to close him down quickly. 

Nolan thought he doubled the lead for the Reds in the 33rd minute when he swept the ball past Crampton at the back post on another hard pass across the box that Kerr missed, but it was called back for offside on Kerr.

Jean-Aniel Assi got a shot on frame in the 39th minute, which Gavran opted to chest out of bounds for a corner kick instead of catch. The corner was blocked behind for a second corner, and on the next one Toronto was able to clear it away from danger. Bossenberry was fouled by Daniel Aguilar as he ran with the ball toward the halfway line, and the Ottawa midfielder earned a yellow card for his efforts. 

Reid Fisher denied Tabla with a big sliding challenge to block a shot in stoppage time, earning applause from the home faithful on the final play of the opening 45 minutes.

Fraser made one change at halftime, replacing Osorio with Alonso Coello, giving Osorio a rare break after playing every minute to that point of the season. 

Nolan tried to slip a shot under Crampton ten minutes after the break, but the Ottawa goalkeeper did well to get down and throw his body in front of it. The rebound popped up for Nolan, but the 16-year-old volleyed his follow-up high over the bar. 

Fisher made another big block in the 59th minute, this time scrambling back to get his body in front of Assi. 

The visitors were able to ride out the final few minutes of the game, as well as four minutes of stoppage time, to hold on for the upset win and even rubbed a bit more salt in the wound first with Tabla winning a penalty after drawing a frustrated foul from Alonso Coello and then conveting a penalty on the last kick of the match to complete his hat trick.

Atletico Ottawa move on to the quarterfinals, where they will play either fellow CPL side FC Supra du Quebec or Ontario Premier League champion Woodbridge Strikers FC.

Toronto FC’s Voyageurs Cup drought continues for another year. TFC turn their attention back to MLS play, hosting Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami at BMO Field on Saturday.