Atletico Ottawa pulled off a Canadian Premier League final victory like no other – a snowball spectacle amid a swirling blizzard featuring what online media dubbed an “icicle kick” from Mexican midfielder David Rodríguez.
Hosts Ottawa beat Cavalry FC with a 2-1 overtime victory in Sunday’s deciding match in temperatures of minus 8 degrees Celsius with snow so heavy that play was interrupted every 15 minutes to clear the lines, and goalkeepers used shovels to dig out their boxes.
There was a 60-minute delay after normal plowing time ended.
The Cavalry struck first when Fraser Aird, playing in short sleeves, converted a penalty in the 33rd minute, celebrating with a snowy knee slide.
Rodríguez scored the breathtaking equalizer 7 minutes later, with his superb bicycle kick thundering under the bar and into the net.
Rodríguez wasn’t done, as he fired the ball past Cavalry goalkeeper Marco Carducci in the 107th minute to seal his place in Canadian soccer history.
“I got to the locker room and I was excited. I saw it was snowing and I said to myself, ‘This is going to be a good day,'” Rodríguez told reporters.
Cavalry veteran Sergio Camargo said the snowstorm created conditions unlike anything he had experienced.
“I played in the snow during my college years,” Camargo told reporters.
“But nothing like this, where the snow was so deep and so difficult to dribble and handle the ball. It was a factor for both teams, so not an excuse. Just another addition to what was a very memorable final.”
Atletico Ottawa is a CPL franchise of Spanish team Atletico Madrid and was founded in 2020.
Reuters
