Ottawa Rapid: End of January Review
Ottawa has snuck in under the radar a bit and put together one of the better squads in the league so far. Veterans like Desi, Okobi-Oke and Gibson are very high quality for what we’ve seen in the league so far. Their Norwegian duo Haaland and Fridlund are strong supporting elements too. The only real questions are; how many minutes are the veterans good for? And how well will their depth stand up?
Stars:
Desiree Scott - CAN - MF - 37
I think everyone is familiar with Desi, she’s pretty good at this soccer thing. The one issue is that she hasn’t played much since 2022. Only 132 minutes last year and none the year before due to a knee injury are a little concerning for a player I think most are expecting to be pretty central to the team. I think Scott brings a lot of off field intangibles and has some history of toying with coaching all of which make her broadly a very good signing, but its possible we’ll see less playing time from her than we might like.
Ngozi Okobi-Oke - NGA - FW - 31
Okobi-Oke has played the most significant part of her professional career in Sweden. When her team (Eskilstuna) were kicked out in 2023 she found her feet with Levante Las Planas in Spain. Which is notable because in many ways that’s a step up. The Swedish league has better parity than Spain (usually the top half of the table run fairly close together), but Spain are home to Barcelona who have back to back Champions League trophies to bring to any arguments about who’s the best team in the world. Okobi-Oke individually did not do spectacularly in Liga F, playing 10 games in 2023, and then spent much of 2024 on maternity leave. It will be interesting to see how she jumps back into the game, but there’s reason to believe she can be a major assist provider in the NSL.
Ellen Gibson - SWE - MF - 28
Gibson was a legend at Hammarby. She started with the club as a teenager and aside from a sojourn in the NCAA with Santa Clara, she’s been with them over a decade. Part of that story has been that Hammarby have grown to become a major player in the Swedish league, capped by winning the domestic double in 2023. Gibson, however, was becoming a smaller part of the team with fewer minutes. It was announced earlier this year she was leaving the club and supporters made a rather nice tifo for her. As for what to expect in NSL? A decent Damallsvenskan player who can’t quite hack it at the league winners is probably going to be a pretty good addition to most NSL clubs.
Supporting Cast:
Susanne Haaland - NOR - DF - 27
& Johanne Fridlund - NOR - FW - 28
Haaland (no relation) and Fridlund are both coming off Kolbothn in the Norwegian top flight. Ottawa’s coach, Karine Pedersen, has old ties to Norway so it isn’t too surprising she’s found players there. Kolbotn are historically a very strong club although they’ve been mid table lately. It’s worth notign that Sweden and Denmark are better leagues than Norway, but it’s still a repectable level. Of the two signigns, Fridlund in particular was playing a lot of minutes last season which should suggests she’ll feature heavily, she was also Kolbotn’s free kick taker. Fridlund is number 7 in these highlights, has a couple nice shots and scores a stoppage time dagger. Haaland is the less notable of the two, 464 minutes last year as a center back (she subs in late in the above highlights, but no major contribution there). For a team who’s other CBs are recent NCAA grads the pro experience is likely useful.
Ensemble:
Ottawa are one of the teams that have gone heavy on NCAA and U-Sports signings for their depth. Of note here is Miranda Smith who’s been playing pro since 2020 including signing with Fleury in the French first division, but she never got on the field there and generally has played more in Finland and Iceland. She should still be a notable midfield option. Julia Benati also has good pro experience with Valaderes in Portugal.
Julia Benati - CAN - MF - 28
Melanie Forbes - CAN - FW - 25
Florence Belzile - CAN - MF - 20
Emily Amano - CAN - MF - 25
Liv Scott - CAN - DF - 23
Miranda Smith - CAN - MF - 28
Mollie Eriksson - CAN/SWE - GK - 24
Jazmine Wilkinson - CAN - FW - 22
Stella Downing - CAN - FW - 22