It’s been dubbed the “icicle kick,” the impressive bicycle kick that lit up the Canadian Premier League final.
The match, played under a snow storm in Ottawa and with temperatures dropping to -8°C, had everything and played out in the most Canadian of ways.
The home team, Atlético Ottawa, won its inaugural title, the North Star Cup, with a 2-1 overtime victory over Cavalry FC.
But that hardly tells the full story.
The match was repeatedly delayed so snow could be cleared from the pitch with lines cleared every 15 minutes, goalkeepers shoveling their areas and the match became almost unplayable in the second half. A snow plow had to enter the field of play before extra time.
Former Rangers midfielder Fraser Aird, playing in shorts, had put Calvary ahead with a 33rd-minute penalty and celebrated by sliding his knee in the snow, before being pelted with snowballs by home fans.
Seven minutes later came a moment of magic from 23-year-old David Rodriguez, who tied the game with an acrobatic effort that crashed off the underside of the crossbar, before scoring the winning goal in the 107th minute with a shot over Caballería goalkeeper Marco Carducci.
Rodriguez, who was born in Mexico, said he had “zero” experience until he joined the team in February.
“I got to a locker room and I was excited. I saw it was snowing and I thought, ‘It’s going to be a good day,'” he said.
Atlético goalkeeper Nathan Ingham added: “The whole night feels fake.
“If you play us in the sand, if you play us in the snow, if you play us on the moon, this team is going to win.”
The Canadian Premier League begins in 2017, while Atlético Ottawa is a franchise of the Spanish Atlético de Madrid and was founded in 2020.