Wanderers claim top of the table and highlight how — through the jigs and the reels — they've changed
It'd be easy to point to Thomas Meilleur-Giguère's header or Tiago Coimbra's penalty, to draw a circle around Atlético Ottawa's meagre attempts on net or the Wanderers' clean sheet and proclaim: this is the story. These are, of course, the simple facts of Halifax's victory on Saturday.
But to understand the Wanderers' climb to the top of the table, and how this iteration is different than those that have come before during head coach Patrice Gheisar's tenure, you must look closer.
There were several moments on Saturday — little details driven by big concepts — which highlight how the Wanderers, removed from a disastrous 2024 campaign, have changed. They're not afraid of pressure. And, like a fiddler bouncing headlong from a jig to a reel, they are picking up speed with several players, as Gheisar noted post-match, "playing some of the best football they have in their life."
It's one of the reasons the club sits first in the standings. And, if Gheisar can keep his players in tune, it feels like the Wanderers have a real shot at making this year a performance to remember.
Although Atlético Ottawa were missing cores players on Saturday — including Amer Didic and David Rodríguez, out through injury and suspension respectively — they have undoubtedly been the Canadian Premier League's surprise story this season (the Wanderers are likely a close second).
Newly appointed head coach Diego Mejia somehow transformed the previously defensive-minded capital city club into a scoring juggernaut, lining up versus the Wanderers on Saturday with an eye-watering 22 goals scored or an average of three per match. Halifax, for context, sits with 12 goals scored after this weekend's festivities.
But Saturday was a big contest in other ways. Not only did it pit the first and second placed clubs versus each other, it was also a marquee match broadcast on TSN, meaning there was the added pressure of a truly national audience beyond streaming services like OneSoccer or Fubo.
It was, in many ways, exactly the kind of big, high profile match that the Wanderers have bottled in previous years.
But not this year.
"We're not scared," full-back Wesley Timóteo told reporters. "We know Ottawa is a great team, we have to respect them, they have top players but we know we're good players, too. We're just doing what we have to do at the back and we know up front the guys are going to do their job."
The first half was chippy and uneventful as the Wanderers tried to establish themselves on home turf. But unlike previous iterations, an eye towards last season's playoff push specifically, the players seemed calm as they grappled with Atlético Ottawa's backline.
Halifax's own backline — consisting of Adam Pearlman, Meilleur-Giguère, Kareem Sow, and Timóteo— gave very little away, limiting the visitors to two low-percentage shots that went wide.
Maturity can show itself in many ways.
Heading into the second half, the Wanderers quickly found their groove and had Atlético Ottawa on the back foot, but seemed unable to beat goalkeeper Nathan Ingham despite amble opportunity. But instead of getting frustrated, or losing their heads and getting red cards, the Wanderers kept working with an apparent belief in a result.
Timóteo explained that collective calmness is who these players have become.
"I think we're a lot more mature. We have guys that came in (this year) like Thomas Meilleur-Giguère, he's won the league. He know what it means, what we need to win to win the league. We have guys like (Andre) Rampersad, he's been here for years now, guys like (Ryan) Telfer, Lorenzo (Callegari), it's his third season now. There's a lot more mature guys on the field," he said.
The Wanderers have also matured in the way they play. Gheisar has emphasized before that he wanted to re-commit his side to defending, specifically with a high press when out of possession. Now, it's one thing to say publicly, but it's another to get a player like Giorgio Probo — who's excellent technically but previously would have been labelled as a luxury, offensive talent — to press opponents' backlines.
But that's exactly what Probo did countless times on Saturday, including leading the press in the 58th minute as he sprinted from his spot in midfield to Atlético's Sergei Kozlovskiy. When the ball was moved further back, he continued to Noah Abatneh and then Loïc Cloutier, forcing Ottawa to regroup.
Later, in the 75th minute, Probo's cross found Meilleur-Giguère in the box to give the Wanderers a 1-0 lead.
When asked about the Italian midfielder's transformation, including his work rate, Ghesair said Probo is emblematic of his group's growth.
"I've learned to trust him more and more, which means the world to him, and you can see the work he puts in," he said. "When we take these guys, and we can coach them, and they stay in your environment, they will get better. The pains we had last year made Giorgio better today."
"The thing I said to the boys is that (Atlético Ottawa) hasn't faced adversity. They haven't gone through what we've gone through. We've had our lows, we don't want to go there and you learn from it. Giorgio is an example of that."
Probo, like the Wanderers, has found new life this season and leads the squad with five goal contributions, including three assists. He struggled at times in 2024. But his commitment to Gheisar's system, and ability to play free as one of the team's two No. 10s, means he's becoming the player Halifax hoped he would be after he was recruited from Creighton University.
Coimbra came into this season with a lot to prove.
And although a small sample size, having played seven matches, to be precise, the young Brazilian-Canadian has delivered in his role as a super-sub for Gheisar alongside players like Vitor Dias and Yohan Baï. The statistics speak for themselves: Coimbra's scored three goals while adding an assist in 168 minutes.
What's perhaps more impressive is any one of Coimbra, Dias or Baï feel like they could have a starting role on most CPL clubs if not for Halifax's depth. And that depth has given Gheisar options as he's made substitutions much earlier this year, a marked change from previous seasons.
Josh Healey
"I think one, it's me, I've got to show them I trust them by putting them in earlier, so that they get significant minutes. And I also know, the moment there's a shift in energy — we're going like this and it starts to flatten — we're bringing them on and we're spiked again," he said. "I think it's a big part of where we are and a big part of what we're trying to do."
Gheisar's also grown as he's shown a willingness to let his players make their own decisions on the pitch and is more flexible with changes as they arise. For example, when asked if Coimbra was the club's designated penalty taker or if it was a spur of the moment thing (Coimbra converted to make it 2-0 on Saturday), he admitted it was a bit of both.
"I trust a player if he says: 'I want that.' I was really happy because, it also says to me, that (Coimbra) is a very brave young man. It's one thing to take a penalty kick in training but it's another to take it in a game. He didn't shy away from it and I'm proud of him," he said.
“We have a collection of everyone. They don't mind the suffering, they don't mind if we don't have the ball. It doesn't bother them if the referee doesn't give them a call, nothing bothers them other than the result at the end of the 90 minutes. We're able to take care of the ball; we lose it, great moments of counter-pressing and then we defend as a team. And everybody's committed to it."
From head coach to players, everyone seems to have bought into Halifax's new system. The results indicate they're hitting all the right notes as the club enjoys their spot atop the table. But there's still lots of football to be played and, as the Newfoundland band The Fables suggests, the best course of action is to continue to simply "Heave Away."
20 more regular season matches remain.
Cover Photo Credit: Trevor MacMillan / Halifax Wanderers FC
