It was a draw on the field, but it was a win for Canadian soccer.
Both teams had occasions for celebration, and for regret, as hometown Forge FC rallied twice from one-goal deficits to tie Ottawa Atlético 2-2 in Tuesday’s second annual School Day Match, which began in the late morning and ended in the early afternoon.
The crowd of 17,971 was not only the largest ever for a Forge home game, but the largest in Canadian Premier League history, surpassing the 17,611 who attended the inaugural CPL game of 2019, also in Hamilton, between Forge and York. But that one comes with an asterisk attached because Forge/Ticat caretaker Bob Young provided all the tickets for free as a thank-you to the Hamilton soccer community for waiting for the new league to begin a year later than hoped.
Ottawa and Hamilton attracted 14,992 to Forge’s 2-0 victory over Atlético in the 2022 league final in the Nation’s Capitol.
So this all had a familiar and welcomed ring for veteran Ottawa goalkeeper Nathan Ingham, who made a big save late in the game to preserve the tie with Atlético playing a man short after David Rodriguez’s double-yellow card in the 80th minute.
He pointed out that he and teammate Manny Aparicio were with York for the inaugural league game six years ago and with Ottawa for the 2022 final and that were Forge players—captain Kyle Bekker, David Choinière, Tristan Borges, and Alex Achiniotti-Jönsson—in the lineups for those games as well.
“It was high-pitched for sure,” the articulate 31-year-old keeper said of the piercing noise level. "It was amazing. It was fun to be part of. I’m from Keswick, so it’s close to home for me, and I have a lot of friends in Hamilton. I could only imagine what it would be like if I had gotten to go watch a professional soccer game when I was in elementary school. I would have been losing my mind; I would have been one of the loudest ones in the stadium."
“These are the things we need to be doing as a league. Hopefully, they’re coming back with their parents on the weekends. I hope it’s something we can replicate in Ottawa."
“Having 17,000 people is crazy. The funniest part was the supporters’ group (Barton Street Battalion). A lot of them showed up. Good for them for calling in sick and hopefully they don’t get caught on TV.”
This one certainly made for good TV on OneSoccer. Two goals in each half, high-amplitude crowd reaction, two of the CPL’s top three teams, some interesting tactical play which allowed for numerous elite-level exhibitions of individual and collective skills, and critical saves by Ingham and Forge’s Jassem Koleilat.
The battle of the CPL’s top offence against its stingiest defence did not disappoint, and a draw was an appropriate result, although each side had reason to feel let down by it; Forge because they’ve now drawn four straight league matches, Ottawa because twice they let a lead slip away in this one.
But both teams remain undefeated, with Atlético topping the table with 17 points from seven games, while Forge kept within striking distance, reaching 10 points from six games, one back of second place HFX whom they defeated 3-1 in a Canadian Championship opening round sudden-death game last Wednesday.
“I’m a little bit disappointed,” said Forge head coach Bobby Smyrniotis. “We’ve come out with a valuable point…But I think we left two points on the board.”
The Forge were without three significant players---flanking forwards Tristan Borges and David Choinière and transition midfielder Ali Hojabrpour—who played significant roles in last week’s victory over HFX Wanderers in the Canadian Championship.
They were already without impressive newcomer, Serbian left back Marko Jevremović, who played well in his debut match but has been out with injury since then. Elimane Cissé is still out with injury and Malik Owolabi-Belewu came Tuesday for his first 12 minutes of the year.
The Hammers were trying to probe the holes which can appear toward the rear as Ottawa mobilizes its eye-candy offence and controlled much of the first half hour but in the 38th minute, three Forge defenders converged on Sam Salter. They almost collided at midfield as Salter’s flick sent the dazzling Rodriguez away on a 3-on-1 rush. He drew close and got the ball over to Kévin dos Santos for the 1-0 lead.
But only 83 seconds later, Nana Ampomah headed in a perfect cross from Ben Paton into the Altlético net.
Ottawa went ahead again in the 58th minute, just four minutes after Forge striker Brian Wright couldn’t bury his second golden chance of the half. Ballou Tabla outran the Forge defence to a loose ball and forced Koleilat to make a save but the rebound caromed right to Salter, who had only to tap it in to take the CPL Golden Boot lead, with his sixth goal.
Ampomah, who was mostly excellent through his 78 minutes, set up the game-tying goal with a spirited dribble into the box with 15 minutes to play. Ingham made the save but substitute Amadou Koné simply outmuscled two defenders to knock in the rebound.
“The most important thing is being able to help the team,” said Ampomah, who steadfastly prefers to talk about collective, rather than individual, play. “We got a point from today which is not that good for us because we normally win games here. The most important thing now is coming back next week and winning the Montréal game.”
That would be the first leg of the home-and-home Canadian Championship quarter-finals against CF Montréal, the more highly-ranked MLS side which Hamilton memorably upset in last year’s national tournament.
While the attendance broke a record, there was also a bit of broken-record feel to the on-field play which was very entertaining but saw the Forge again miss numerous chances at one end while allowing only three or four serious, grudging, penetrations into their own box. But two of them became goals. Ottawa, meanwhile, needed a big save in extra time by Ingham off Koné to preserve its away point and is still surrendering a lot of goals. Ingham says that’s an expected consequence of having so many new players in their lineup and adopting a risk-reward offensive identity, and feels it will take a few more weeks together to be able to win low-scoring games.
“Generally, it was pretty good, we were in control for a lot of the first half,” said Bekker, who continued his dominant midfield play. “They’re a good team and they’re waiting for the opponent. They’re very dynamic on the counter-attack or they break out pretty quick for the goal."
“But our response was huge after they scored. You’re on the front foot and when you concede like that it’s kind of easy to fall back and feel sorry for yourself. We had great chances in the second half and we fell asleep and they punished us. We have to tighten some things up.”
They’ll need that tightening Tuesday night in Hamilton Tuesday night against Montréal which may be hopelessly buried in last place in the MLS East with only one win, but realistically has only the Canadian Championships to fiercely focus on to salvage something positive from this season.
It’s yet another important match for Forge, which has just played three games in 11 days against the CPL’s other two undefeated teams, including the pair against Halifax.
They’re encouraged by scoring five goals in their last two game; the Cup round win over the Wanderers and the entertaining draw in the School Day Match.
But more important than the point in the standings, Tuesday morning continued to set the template for some other CPL teams. Valour will stage a similar match this year in Winnipeg and Ottawa is working on one for 2026. Vancouver FC’s stadium, at 7500, also has the capacity to make a large-scale students’ day worthwhile.
“We need to be in our big buildings,” CPL executive vice-president Glen Johnson, who says the league has encouraged teams to get into school day matches. “It doesn’t make sense to run in the small buildings where the inventory isn’t unlimited."
“This is phenomenal here today. You’ve got 17-18,000 young people here who are going to become fans of the game. This is everything; it’s how we need to build our fan base. We’ve got to start young, we’ve got to start early. Soccer is played by more people in the country than any other sport and we’ve got to take advantage of it: this is amazing.”
Smyrniotis was pleased with a lot of what his team did, although he says they’re still operating at only 50 per cent of the efficiency level he expects as the season continues. He acknowledged said the energy level in the stadium helped the Hammers come from behind twice in the game. And he noted that Forge has been in all the biggest-attendance matches, including the 2023 final, which they won at home over Calgary, with 13,925 worshippers in the pews.
“Some of the best things in football in this country happen in this city,” Smyrniotis said. “From trophies to crowds, to big games, to historic moments, everything is here. I’ve been blessed to be around here for six-plus years to live it all."
“Today is another one of those days. You look out there, and it was absolutely phenomenal. It’s a great way to increase the exposure.”
Despite the early kickoff time, players on both sides echoed his enthusiasm.
“It was something I was itching for as a kid,” Bekker said. “So hopefully there’s some soccer players in the crowd who are inspired to know that the professional game is in their backyard and if they keep on pushing they can break in and make a name for themselves."
“Maybe the next CPL star was in the stands today.”
