By Th\u00e9o Lemarchandel<\/p>\n
For the first time in Atl\u00e9tico Ottawa and Canadian Premier League history, a Brazilian has been appointed head coach.<\/p>\n
Gustavo Leal takes over the team following Diego Mej\u00eda\u2019s departure in May to become coach of Ottawa\u2019s sister club in Mexico, Atl\u00e9tico de San Luis \u2014 a well-earned promotion after Mej\u00eda led Ottawa to the CPL\u2019s championship last year.<\/p>\n
Atl\u00e9tico was helmed by interim head coaches Diego Campos and Drew Beckie prior to Leal\u2019s arrival. <\/p>\n
Leal\u2019s contract runs through the end of the 2027 season, with an option to renew in 2028.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, the 40-year-old Leal led his first official press conference ahead of Sunday\u2019s game against Pacific FC on Sunday, July 26 at TD Place. Ottawa won the match 3-2, moving into third place in the eight-team league. The top four clubs in the regular season qualify for the CPL playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball is growing year by year in Canada. I think it\u2019s a really good opportunity to join Atl\u00e9tico Ottawa at this time because the league will also grow,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Leal\u2019s coaching career began in 2006 in his home city of Petr\u00f3polis, Brazil for the club Imperial. At the time, he was only 20 years old.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I was in school, I was always thinking about becoming a coach,\u201d Leal said. \u201dEven when I was playing, I was the person responsible for calling the guys together and organizing games.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the years, Leal built an international career, with experiences in Slovakia, Chile and Mexico, where he worked at Atl\u00e9tico San Luis, Atl\u00e9tico Ottawa\u2019s sister club.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spent two and a half years coaching in Mexico, developing players and the project. Since that time, I knew about Atl\u00e9tico Ottawa and followed the project closely,\u201d Leal said.<\/p>\n
\u2018We are beginning a process, and we need to improve some things. But after the last match, I had a lot of good feelings about the group and about the team.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2014 Gustavo Leal, head coach, Atl\u00e9tico Ottawa<\/p>\n
He described his style of coaching as similar to former coach Mej\u00eda\u2019s, mainy based on possession, but he said he believes they remain two different people with different approaches.<\/p>\n
Among his accomplishments, the Brazilian tactician won a gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics with Brazil\u2019s under-23 national team, in the final against Spain.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery experience teaches you something that you can use in the next opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
For his first match in charge, a 1-1 draw against Inter Toronto last week, Leal travelled for nearly 30 hours to arrive in time for kickoff. Such commitment reflects the excitement surrounding Atl\u00e9tico Ottawa as the 2025 North Cup winner enters the second half of the season as the CPL\u2019s defending champion.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are beginning a process, and we need to improve some things. But after the last match, I had a lot of good feelings about the group and about the team,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am going to give them a sprinkle of Brazilian flair.\u201d<\/p>\n
Leal said his main priority is building\u00a0strong relationships with the staff, the players and the Atl\u00e9tico community.<\/p>\n
After the win over Pacific FC on Sunday, Ottawa\u2019s record of six wins, five losses and three draws has Atl\u00e9tico in third place with 21 points, just a point ahead of Vancouver FC (6-6-2) and six points behind Calgary\u2019s Cavalry FC (8-2-3). Hamilton\u2019s Forge FC (10-1-1) is dominating the league this season with 31 points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Th\u00e9o Lemarchandel For the first time in Atl\u00e9tico Ottawa and Canadian Premier League history, a Brazilian has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-828496","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\/828496","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=828496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}