2022 CPL Regular Season — Match #99
Pacific FC vs. Forge FC
September 18, 2022 at 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET
Starlight Stadium in Langford, British Colombia
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The race to the finish in the 2022 Canadian Premier League season continues on Sunday afternoon in a fascinating ComeOn! Match of the Week fixture between 2021 finalists Pacific FC and Forge FC. The Tridents will host the team from Hamilton for the first time since their first match of the season back on April 10, this time with both sides quite desperate to pick up points in these very late stages of the campaign. Pacific find themselves in a bit of a rut at the moment. It’s been a full month since they’ve won a game, their last victory coming on Aug. 13 against Atlético Ottawa. Since then, they’ve lost three and drawn one match, scoring just two goals in that span. With other sides in the league picking up points recently, the defending CPL champions are therefore on the outside of the playoff picture at the moment. With five games left, Pacific entered the weekend in fifth place on 36 points, level with fourth-place Valour before the Winnipeg club’s match against Ottawa. James Merriman’s side will be very keen to return to the postseason after winning the title in 2021, but they know how difficult that may be with two games left against Forge and one against Cavalry. “These are truly like playoff matches, the last five games here,” Merriman said on Friday. “Our group understands; the players know that and they’ve been incredibly motivated. The intensity has been high all week in training and I feel confident they’re fully prepared.”
Forge, on the other hand, arrive on Vancouver Island hoping to build on last weekend’s 2-1 home win over Cavalry. They entered the weekend in second place on 39 points, two off the top and three clear of Pacific. Bobby Smyrniotis and co. have their sights aimed higher than just making the playoffs, though; they’re hoping to top the table and be crowned regular season champions before making a push for the championship in the playoffs as well — a double they have yet to achieve. Like Pacific, Forge have five games left, with their next two coming on the road before they finish the season with a three-game homestand. They returned to the win column last weekend to snap a five-match winless skid, which saw them fall twice in a row to Valour and also lose to both Cavalry and York United. Goals from David Choinière and Aboubacar Sissoko helped them defeat the Cavs at Tim Hortons Field last time out, and they’ll hope to continue that momentum on the west coast this week. “As a coach you learn to live in these moments,” Smyrniotis told reporters on Friday. “These three and a half years, there are probably about 25 matches or so between playoff games, Concacaf games, Canadian Championship games that are basically must-win situations, so you learn to take an approach to them, you try and gain that experience from there.”
Both sides will be without key pieces for this game, as Forge captain Kyle Bekker and Pacific defender Amer Didic serve suspensions. Beyond those two, however, both sides profess to have a clean bill of health. Forge at last have defender Daniel Krutzen back after his long-term ACL injury, so most of their squad is fit to play — Chris Nanco still isn’t quite ready, and Rezart Rama and Aboubcar Sissoko are day-to-day with knocks picked up last weekend. Pacific, meanwhile, boast a full squad with no major injury concerns. They will, however, remain without midfield engine Manuel Aparicio, who recently learned his red card suspension will in fact extend to this match. The overall history between these two teams swings pretty heavily in Forge’s favour — nine wins from 12 meetings — but recently Pacific might have more to brag about. Of course, the Tridents beat Forge 1-0 in the CPL Final last December to dethrone the hosts and claim their first trophy, and then they won again in that rematch to begin 2022 back in April. The only fixture between them since that season opener, though, was at Tim Hortons Field in June, when Forge dominated en route to a 3-0 victory. Games between these teams are typically entertaining with plenty of attacking football. With the stakes getting higher now as the season draws to a close, expect another cracker of a match to close out matchweek 24 in the CPL.
*Make your match picks prior to kickoff at canpl.ca/predictor for a chance to win prizes, including the grand prize of a trip to the 2022 CPL Final! To learn more about ComeOn!, click here.
- All CPL matches are available to stream on OneSoccer, or on TELUS Optik TV Channel 980.
3 THINGS TO WATCH
- Bekker, Didic suspensions loom large: Both teams will have to approach this match knowing they’ll be without a key figure in the lineup. For the Hamilton unit, captain Kyle Bekker will be out of the squad for three games after his red card against Cavalry and subsequent ban for serious foul play. That leaves a huge hole in midfield for Forge, who have only played two games this year without Bekker in the starting XI. Both times, Noah Jensen has deputized admirably in the middle, so he may be a candidate for more minutes in Bekker’s absence, but the burden will also be on Alex Achinioti-Jönsson, Alessandro Hojabrpour, and Aboubacar Sissoko to help make up for Bekker’s tenacious workrate. “You have a couple of solutions, Bobby Smyrniotis said of replacing Bekker. “Noah Jensen has been excellent for us in a starting role… players like Tristan Borges can slot into that role and come inside, we have a multitude of options for the front line. [Bekker] is something we’re going to miss but we’re not gonna lose too much time over it.” Meanwhile, Pacific boss James Merriman has to set up his defence without Amer Didic for just the fifth time this year. The towering centre-back has started 19 of Pacific’s 23 CPL games this year, but on Sunday it’ll be up to Thomas Meilleur-Giguère and Abdou Samake to hold down the fort defensively against the highest-scoring team in the league. * Pacific attack hopes to wake up at key moment: There’s no denying that Pacific have struggled to put the ball in the net recently. Since the departure of star striker Alejandro Díaz, the Tridents have scored just three goals in league play, winning just once over five matches. Head coach Merriman has tried a few different options to try and spark his attack, but he’s still looking for the right combination to get the best out of some undeniably talented attacking players. Expect Josh Heard and Marco Bustos to patrol the left and right wings, respectively, but a few different players could take on the central role. Pacific have used both a 4-3-3 and 4-4-2 setup in recent weeks, so they could opt for a strike pairing in the middle of Jordan Brown and Djenairo Daniels. Gianni Dos Santos is another option, having come off the bench last week against Ottawa, though he’s often better suited out wide. Regardless of how Merriman deploys his side, the pressure is on for Pacific, who know they need to execute better in the final third if they hope to make the playoffs. * Forge defence solidified after Krutzen’s return: The inclusion of Dutch defender Daniel Krutzen in last weekend’s starting lineup was a pleasant surprise for Forge fans, who hadn’t seen the centre-back play since November 2021 when he tore his ACL. He fit seamlessly back into the squad, allowing Alex Achinioti-Jönsson to play his natural midfield role. With Krutzen back, Forge’s defence — which had already conceded the fewest goals in the league — looks even stronger, especially when it comes to moving the ball out of the back. Krutzen is a top-class ball distributor who can spray a pass to anywhere, which will come in handy on the narrow pitch at Starlight Stadium where there’s sure to be less space for buildup play. The question this week may be who plays around Krutzen in the lineup; he shared centre-back duties with Garven Metusala last week, with Dom Samuel moving out to play left-back. If Ashtone Morgan is fully fit, though, expect him to draw in on the left, with Samuel likely returning to the middle alongside Krutzen.
ALL-TIME SERIES
Pacific wins: 2 || Forge wins: 9 || Draws: 1
Previous match:
June 12, 2022 — Forge 3-0 Pacific
KEY QUOTES
“We need three points, we need to win matches, and we need to play on the front foot. We need to play the way that we can, and be at our best in all five of these matches. It starts with this one.” — Pacific head coach James Merriman “We know if we can do the business and win some games, we’ve got a good chance of finishing at the top. The most important thing is just three points on Sunday, and we’ll say the same thing on Monday after that, whichever way the results go.” — Forge head coach Bobby Smyrniotis