The Canadian Premier League season ended with a massive snowstorm and some insane soccer action.
Regulation of the CPL Final reportedly included five stoppages because of the snow, and when the teams had to play extra time, plows were brought onto the field in Ottawa to create better playing conditions — causing a lengthy delay.
The eye-popping first sign of winter also included a hero, as Atletico Ottawa midfielder David Rodriguez scored a stunning bicycle kick to tie the game in the 40th minute and also scored the winner in the 107th minute over Calgary’s Cavalry FC — a 2-1 victory — in front of 13,132 fans.
“I’m never going to forget this night,” Rodriguez, who is from Mexico and saw snow for the first time this year, said after the game. “I just want to thank all the people that showed up tonight.”
When Cavalry defender Fraser Aird put his team up 1-0 in the 33rd minute, Atletico fans launched snowballs at him.
Seven minutes later, Rodriguez scored the bicycle kick goal that Ottawa coach Diego Mejia described as “the best goal ever in this league.”
The playing conditions were bad enough that in the 16th minute, Ottawa goalkeeper Nathan Ingham started shoveling snow himself.
The championship is Ottawa’s first in the young league, which has crowned seven champions; Cavalry won the CPL championship last year.
“That wasn’t a game,” Cavalry coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. said. “That was a fight.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
