If, as the old saying goes, discretion is the better part of valour, discretion can also help you get the better of Valour.
And that’s how it is for Forge FC when they travel to Winnipeg Thursday: have the discretion to know that what matters is only the game against Valour FC, and not what happens five days later, much farther west: another biggest-game-ever in the Canadian Championships semifinal second leg against Vancouver Whitecaps.
“We need to make sure we focus 100 per cent on what we have to do in front of us because we’re in a battle at the top of the league,” says Hamilton head coach Bobby Smyrniotis. “The guys understand that and it’s about execution and that’s where we have to be a bit sharper than in the last couple of games.”
Forge got back on the winning track after losing for the first time this season in Calgary a week ago and maintained their three-point lead on second-place Atlético Ottawa with a 1-0 win Saturday over visiting HFX Wanderers before a swollen crowd of 6,825, turning on the jets in the second half after a slow beginning.
Mo Babouli converted a perfect feed from Nana Ampomah—who was superb in the final 45 minutes—in the 81st minute for the winning goal, and Ampomah could have had a second assist when he set up Brian Wright’s great header which somehow found the crossbar but did not cross the line.
With the shutout, Hamilton goalkeeper Jassem Koleilat established a new CPL regular-season record for clean sheets with 11. It also tied Marco Carducci’s record for a single season, including playoffs, at 11 shutouts with six games and playoffs remaining.
Koleilat, as he’s done since he arrived—he has 18 blank sheets in 35 CPL regular-season games since joining the club last season—always points to his strong wall of defenders as the nexus of his whitewash consistency.
“Jass has done a great job and that starts in training,” says rugged Rezart Rama, a key part of that aggressive Legion of Doom that is the Forge backline. “First, he’s done a great job in goal and during the game we have a very good relationship with him. If you work with each other in training to have a good relationship between the goalie and the defenders, it shows in the game.
“I hope we can help him get even more clean sheets.”
Forge needs four more points to be guaranteed of at least a semi-final home game. While the battle with Ottawa is shaping up to go right down to the wire, Hamilton is very close to being uncatchable in the standings by third-place Cavalry FC and fourth-place Halifax, whom they lead by 16 and 17 points, respectively, with only 18 possible points available to the Cavs and Wanderers in the final six games.
But those numbers are for fans and media: they aren’t in the sightlines from the game pitch or on the bench.
This match was moved up from Friday, its original date, which means a little less time to prepare for Valour.
“But it’s a bit better for us, to be honest,” Smyrniotis said of the re-scheduling. “It gives us a better balance of timing, especially after that game when we’re looking to the Cup game.
“We know what we’re doing on the pitch, where we’re not inventing things and sometimes you need five days for rest. Basically, everyone is healthy and we have a good rotation as we look down the whole stretch not just one game in front of us or the streak of three games in tight succession. We’ll need to count on all our guys over this next 10-day period.”
Six days after they play the Whitecaps in the Voyageurs’ Cup semifinal, they face a huge match in Ottawa with, again, first place on the line.
While Forge’s lineup is healthier than at any point this year, they’re still without muscular centre back Malik Owolabi-Belewu, and Rama will have to sit out on Thursday because of an accumulation of yellow cards.
Forge has had decent success the past two seasons against Valour, who had played them tough through the CPL’s first five seasons, but are now struggling both to score goals (just 26 all season) and prevent them (50 against) and sit in seventh place, 13 points out of a playoff spot.
But they’ve rebounded of late against the other two teams in the bottom third of the table, with a 1-1 home draw at home to Pacific and a big 5-2 win at Vancouver FC last Friday, with 20-year-old Canadian Myles Morgan scoring the hat-trick.
After winning three of four last year against Valour, Forge have taken seven of the nine available points this season: a 1-1 draw in Hamilton in April; a 5-0 win in July at Winnipeg; and another 5-0 whitewash at Hamilton Stadium in early August. Six different Forge players have scored against Valour this season, with Brian Wright notching three, including a brace in the 5-0 victory at Winnipeg.
Morgan leads Valour with five goals this season followed by three from Jordan Faria and a pair from talented Portuguese midfielder Bruno Figueirado.
“The biggest thing (in Winnipeg) can just be the environment,” Smyrniotis says of Princess Auto Stadium. “It’s a beautiful facility but sometimes there’s not the biggest crowds. We’ve had success there the last few games since they put the new turf in there last season. It’s better for a team like ours that wants to move the ball around.
“But Valour is playing with confidence and have had a couple of results the last couple of games. We’ve had the upper hand this year but each game is different. We’re obviously playing for something at the top and they’re playing to catch up.
“So we know we’re going to play a team that’s going to fight and are organized. They’re usually very organized against us.”
And Koleilat will be looking to extend his clean-sheet record. Valour hasn’t put one past him since the 11th minute (Shaan Handal) of their first head-to-head back in April, a string of 259 minutes.
“It’s an honour,” he said after Saturday’s record-setting game. “But the most important thing is to thank the defenders in front of me. Our backlines have been absolutely brilliant.”