The Hammers have nailed together the major streak, but the Nine Stripes have been building one of their own.
Forge FC goes on the road – it’s a short road – Saturday (1 p.m.) to Toronto, with the 17 CPL undefeated games and 20 overall, in their backpacks. Waiting will be the rising York United, which has not lost in its last seven CPL games and has played Hamilton tough, holding the new CPL leaders to a 2-2 draw in the first two games of the 905 Derby.
“They’re a team that’s energetic and finding results right now,” says Forge’s Mo Babouli, who spent the past three years at York before returning to Forge, where he’d won the 2020 league title and was a runner-up in 2021.
“But we also know what we’ve been doing the past 20 games, so we just have to go in with that same mentality.”
What Forge has been doing is almost ungraspable: breaking their own CPL record for consecutive games without a loss; outscoring CPL opponents 19-4 since the first of June, piling up 10 wins and 7 draws in 17 games since the league season opened, and in that stretch also adding two wins and a draw in the Canadian Championship while eliminating HFX Wanderers and CF Montréal from the national tourney.
The Hammers will take the next step in the Canadian Championship when they host Vancouver Whitecaps, one of the top sides in MLS, Wednesday night at Hamilton Stadium in the opening game of the two-leg semifinals. The second leg is in Vancouver on Sept. 16.
That makes a club sandwich of a week for Forge, with Saturday’s game in York, which has clawed its way to fourth place with an eye on the league’s elite, Forge and Atlético Ottawa, who are just one behind Hamilton, plus the massive midweek visit from the Caps, and a Sunday home game (4 p.m.) against Ottawa. Eight days, three games against highly motivated and talented opposition, with playoff implications, and the longest undefeated streak in CPL history, at stake in two of them.
Forge has always had a front-foot mentality, and it’s paying off big-time this summer. With few exceptions, they’re moving forward early, dribbling or passing the ball into the box, making greater hay out of those penetrations with more definite ball-striking, playing stout defence, and receiving scoring contributions across the lineup: a shocking 15 players have scored goals for them this year.
“For us, we’re not surprised that we’re doing so well, but at the same time we’re enjoying the moment,” said Babouli, who was one of five veterans who scored last week in a 5-0 rout of Valour, a week after two first-year Forge players scored to defeat the Wanderers 2-1. “We’re riding with it, and it’s something that fuels us to continue to achieve different things with this group, and hopefully we can keep it going.
“We’re doing the same things; we’re attacking the same way and getting into the same spots, and some days you’re going to score five but some games you’re going to score one, and that’s just the way football is. The opportunities are there, and we just have to capitalize on them. We know what we have to do, but sometimes in the game, you make choices, and maybe it’s not the best one at the time, but we know we get into those areas, we have guys who can put the ball in the back of the net. We expect them to, and we put that pressure on ourselves.
“Yes, it’s a tight stretch of games, but a wise man once said the next game is the most important. Every game we go in with the same mentality: we want to win every game.”
While Hamilton has been spreading goals around, York’s Julian Altobelli has nine goals, just two behind Ottawa’s Samuel Salter, the league leader, and two ahead of Forge’s Brian Wright. York’s Gabriel Walid Bitar and Forge’s Nana Ampomah, who has been superb of late, have five goals apiece.
“York has the highest shots on target percentage in the league, so you can tell that their forwards have been clinical,” said Forge goalkeeper Jassem Koleilat, whose shutout last weekend was his league-leading eighth of the season. “It’s what I said in the last game:, they’ve got a front line that has been punching, and for us the biggest goal is to keep them in front of us because they do a good job of picking up off other teams' mistakes. We saw that in the previous two games between us.
“They’re a team that’s been going on a good run, but as long as we can keep them in front of us and do a good job and stay solidly defensively and get our pistons firing up front, I think it should be a good game.
“It’s an important stretch right now. But we’re looking forward to it. It’s the Forge way; we just want to keep on winning games and keeping it rolling.”
Forge is expected to be supported by a solid contingent of their supporters who’ll make the trip to Toronto.