The championship match in the Canadian Premier League Sunday was a flurry frenzy in more ways than one.
Typically, a soccer match takes 90 minutes of playtime to unfold and sometimes requires an extra half-hour to finish if the teams are tied.
Sunday’s final between Atlético Ottawa and defending champions Cavalry FC of Calgary at TD Place in Ottawa took four hours thanks to a snowstorm that created ankle-deep conditions and led to delays in gameplay.
When it was all said and done, Atlético Ottawa defeated Calgary 2-1 in extra time.
“Even if we had played in water, in a pool, we’d win the match,” Ottawa head coach Diego Mejía confidently said after the match.
Environment Canada issued a snowfall warning for the Ottawa region Sunday, with flurries forecasted to begin in the morning and intensify into the night. The federal weather agency predicted 10 to 20 centimetres of snowfall.
And boy did it fall.
In the first half of the final, the green pitch was blanketed in white, and players battled to get control of the orange-coloured ball, which is used for high visibility in poor conditions.
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At one point in the frame, Atlético Ottawa goalkeeper Nathan Ingham grabbed a snow shovel during a break in play to help officials clean the pitch lines.
It was 1-1 by the end of 90 minutes, and a 60-minute delay was needed for plows to clear the field for extra time.
Atlético Ottawa forward David Rodríguez chipped past Cavalry goalkeeper Marco Carducci in the 106th minute to secure the victory for Ottawa.
The first goal came at 33 minutes when Cavalry defender Fraser Aird scored on a penalty kick. The celebrating players were met with a barrage of snowballs from Atlético fans.
Just six minutes later, Ottawa midfielder Gabriel Antonaro lobbed a ball into the box that evaded the crowd through the snow until Rodríguez attempted a bicycle kick, striking a bar-down beauty for the game’s tying goal.
Rodríguez, a Mexican national, had never seen snow until February of this year.
Chances were difficult to find in the second half as an ever-increasing blanket of snow caused players to slip with the lack of traction.
Best protecting the stalemate was substitute Ottawa midfielder Aboubacar Sissoko, who made a heroic goal-line save with just over 10 minutes left in regulation.
After snowplows cleared the bulk of the white stuff, extra time was a different game now that the players weren’t struggling to stay on their feet.
That led to a fast-break play where Atlético’s Rodríguez played hero for the second time, racing past Aird and chipping Carducci for the go-ahead goal.
Cavalry desperately challenged the lead in the waning minutes of extra time, but Atlético held on to lift the North Star Cup.
“I’m never going to forget this night,” Rodríguez said. “I just want to thank all the people that showed up tonight.”
As Canadian Premier League champions, Atlético is set to play for the 2026 CONCACAF Champions Cup, where they will go up against the best clubs across North and Central America as well as the Caribbean.
— With files from The Canadian Press
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