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<\/p>\nOttawa\u2019s upset was fuelled by forward Ballou Tabla, whose brilliant hat-trick performance gave Atl\u00e9tico their first-ever win against TFC. After the match, Tabla said he was pleased he made his teammates happy.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
\u201cI always want to go forward in this competition,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Tabla drew even for Ottawa in the 71st minute when he snuck a shot past TFC goaltender Luka Gavran. Ten minutes later, he scored the go-ahead goal off a breakaway. Tabla secured the hat-trick in extra time on a penalty shot.<\/p>\n
Atl\u00e9tico head coach Diego Mej\u00eda said he hopes that his team, 1-1-3 in CPL play this season, can use the win to build momentum.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a team that, if we follow the plan, we can compete all the time,\u201d Mej\u00eda said.<\/p>\n
TFC led early after Canadian forward DeAndre Kerr took a feed from Derrick Etienne Jr. and slipped the ball past Ottawa\u2019s goaltender Tristan Crampton in the 16th minute for his first goal of the season. But TFC couldn\u2019t net a second goal, despite recording eight shots, three on net.<\/p>\n
After the match, TFC veteran Jonathan Osorio apologized to the fans for the performance and attributed the loss to Ottawa capitalizing on TFC\u2019s mistakes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish them the best (for) the rest of the tournament,\u201d he said. \u201cFor us, it\u2019s about turning around quickly, because what\u2019s happened has happened. We have to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hit hard by injuries of late, with regulars such as Josh Sargent and Richie Laryea out of the starting lineup, TFC used Tuesday\u2019s match to give experience to some of its young talent. Toronto FC II defenders Reid Fisher and Jackson Gilman, midfielders Antone Bossenberry and Fletcher Bank and forward Jahmarie Nolan were all signed to short-term agreements. All but Bank were in the starting lineup.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a different kind of pressure when you\u2019re playing with the first team, knockout competition, all these things make it difficult in different ways,\u201d Fraser said. \u201cI thought that they each had some good moments. They each had some moments where they looked young. But it wasn\u2019t about just the young players. I think overall, as a group, we weren\u2019t sharp enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
TFC had been looking to add to its nation-leading eight Canadian Championship titles. The club hasn\u2019t won since the pandemic-shortened edition in 2020 (which was completed in June 2022).<\/p>\n
Instead, TFC will turn the page and prepare for its next MLS match at home on Saturday against Inter Miami CF.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis team has been unbelievably resilient all year long,\u201d Fraser said. \u201cThat\u2019s what I said to them. I hope you\u2019re embarrassed enough that on Saturday you make a statement.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 5, 2026.<\/p>\n
Kaitlyn McGrath, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ottawa\u2019s upset was fuelled by forward Ballou Tabla, whose brilliant hat-trick performance gave Atl\u00e9tico their first-ever win against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-651009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}