Unlike in their own league, on Tuesday night they will be seen as the prey, not the hunters, but Forge FC has a lot of experience in dealing with that perception.
Twenty international fixtures, all against teams with a much longer history and more traditional pedigrees, can harden a feisty group of self-believing Hammers to the inequities –and let’s include unbalanced economics in that—of major soccer competitions.
So here are the Forge on the precipice of their latest “most consequential” game in the franchise’s six-season history, taking a 2-1 lead into Toronto for Tuesday night’s (7 p.m.) second leg of the Canadian Championship semi-final against an improving Toronto FC.
“It’s right up there … if we get the win,” says attacker David Choinière, who’s been with the club since 2019’s inaugural season and has contributed many big goals in big games.
“Because we’re the underdog it will probably be the biggest if we can win. Because we started right at the bottom this time to get to the final…and we’d have beaten two MLS teams.”
The first was Choinière’s alma mater CF Montréal, whom the Forge eliminated in the quarter-finals with a 1-1 draw followed by a stunning 2-1 win right at Stade Saputo.
Then, of course, there was the 2-0 lead which Hamilton took within the first 14 minutes over then-reeling Toronto in the opening leg of the semifinal at Tim Hortons Field, on July 11. The only drawbacks to that game were that the Forge could have scored even more and that Prince Owusu scored TFC’s all-important away goal in the 88th minute. So, Hamilton must either win outright, draw, or lose by no more than a goal—while scoring at least once themselves—to advance to the CPL final for the second time.
If they can win they’d be the first CPL team to play its way into the national final. Pacific FC has a similar opportunity later Tuesday night when they visit Vancouver Whitecaps, but the MLS side has a 1-0 lead in that aggregate series.
Forge has been in the national final before but that was a bizarre situation, brought on by the pandemic. The championship of 2020—the entirety of which Forge spent on the road, in the CPL Island Games bubble, and Concacaf League play—was actually not played until June of 2022, as a bilateral compromise. When the pandemic jeopardized the schedules of both teams, Forge agreed to let TFC take the Canadian berth in Concacaf Champions play, in return for the right to host the delayed national title game in Hamilton. It ended 1-1 in regulation time, with Toronto winning in penalty kicks 5-4.
Forge would not have advanced anywhere had they won that game. But if they can get past TFC Tuesday, they’ll go to the Canadian finals against the West Coast winners, only two games away from an automatic berth in the Concacaf Champions Cup, the top club competition in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
There’s an element of payback here, just as there was when Forge took out Montréal after losing to them a few times, including a dramatic 11-round penalty-kick loss in the 2021 Canadian semifinal.
“It’s a different feel than the 2022 final, against TFC,” says Forge assistant coach David Edgar, who finished his pro playing career as a member of Hamilton’s first two CPL championship teams.
“This is bigger, there’s a lot more on the outcome.”
In regulation time of that 2022 final Tristan Borges tied the game just three minutes after Alejandro Pozuelo had put TFC in front. Borges is still with Forge and having a brilliant season, but Pozuelo is now playing in Abu Dubai.
Forge will be without striker Kwasi Poku, their leading scorer and ranked second in the CPL before he was transferred for a record amount to Belgium’s RWD Molenbeek last week.
Poku scored against both Montréal and Toronto this year, including a wonderful set-up from Tristan Borges to Choinière and over to the striker for the winner against TFC.
But while Poku may be an ex-Forge, TFC will be facing an acclimatized Nana Ampomah, who has far more of a feel for the North American game than he did when he came in as a replacement in the first leg. His pass to a streaking Matteo Schiavoni for the 19-year-old’s first professional goal in a win over Vancouver last week was a thing of pure beauty and judgment. And Schiavonni himself can add straight-line speed to an attack which already works the flanks very well with Béni Badibanga combining with his roommate Nana and Choinière and Tristan Borges have an instinct for each other and also interweaving themselves with others up front.
Badibanga scored an outrageous goal to put the Hammers on the board 11 minutes into the opening leg against TFC, stealing the ball from Toronto star Federico Bernadeschi, and driving home a long shot that was essentially unstoppable by back-pedalling TFC goalkeeper Luka Gavran who had misjudged the play and his own line. It’s become Badibanga’s trademark to slam a hard shot early in the game if he has a chance—which he often does—drawing more defensive awareness from the defense.
Schiavoni did not see any action in the first Toronto game and could inject some don’t-ignore-him speed if needed. Also not seeing action in the first game was Canadian national team member Richie Laryea who was injured, but has returned to the lineup. He’ll be motivated by playing against Bobby Smyrniotis, his longtime coach at Sigma FC.
Much has always been made of the salary gap—TFC’s Italian attacker Lorenzo Insigne’s $15.4 million annual stipend is 10 times the Forge’s total payroll— and because of that and the fact that they play in MLS, Toronto is favoured in this game. But that also volleys most of the pressure into their court. Forge is not expected to win, so are playing with house money.
“This game is big but I feel like this team has been in the position before of playing really big games and doing well,” said Terran Campbell who teams with former TFC player Jordan Hamilton to form a veteran striking tandem.
And, who knows? Maybe Smyrniotis comes up with another roster surprise as he did by installing Poku in the role when Hamilton and Campbell were both injured.
Since they met in June, both teams have been on the upswing.
Forge has lost only once in league play—2-1 to Valour in Winnipeg—but also has five wins and a draw.
TFC, which had been floundering and drawing the ire of their fans, had not won in nine games, and the morning after they lost to Forge, they fired team president Bill Manning. They have four wins, a draw, and two losses since then and have solidified their chances for a playoff spot, ranking eighth in the East (nine qualify for the post-season), and are closer to sixth than they are to 10th. Forge’s surge has them in first place in the CPL, two points up on Atlético Ottawa and Cavalry FC with eight games remaining in the regular season. The top finisher in the CPL gets a direct entry into the Champions Cup.
Tuesday is not only big for Forge but for the CPL in general. In this year’s Canadian Championships, CPL teams have won as many games (three) as they’ve lost, and there’s been one draw.
Forge deserved to get the win in the first leg, just as TFC deserved to cut the margin in half with their away goal. Hamilton made things very uncomfortable for Toronto, especially in the early going, with a well-organized pressing game and by tight, disciplined work on the backline.
They made the most of their chances, possessing the ball only about half as much as Toronto did, and will have to continue that on Tuesday night. Malik Owolabi-Belewu did good work against Bernardeschi on Toronto’s left side, but Bernardeschi is still a very formidable threat and likes to attack deep. That’s when it’s imperative for the likes of defensive stalwart Alex Achinioti-Jönsson to quickly clear loose balls and loop them down into the gaps that are likely to open between Toronto’s attackers and its left-side backline.
“We go into this game with a great level of concentration,” Smyrniotis said today. “Then it’s about execution.
“We have a difficult match in front of us. We enjoy playing in these stages, giving us an opportunity to compete for hardware.
“The margin in this game is small, with Toronto having an away goal. We know scoring a goal is important in this match. But it’s no different than we’ve done in the previous round of this tournament. That will be the same mentality we go in with. “We always play games to score goals, we always games to try to be an attacking team and sometimes the game dictates where it goes from there.”