One way of looking at it is that the result was healthy for the development of the 905 Derby, a rivalry which should eventually carry standalone meaning.
Another way is that Forge FC extended their league record for an unbeaten streak to open the season to an even dozen games, and that injury-recovered veteran forwards David Choinière and Tristan Borges came off the bench to play major roles.
But another way is that The Hammers’ comeback 2-2 draw against visiting York United late Sunday afternoon pushed Hamilton four points back of first place in the Canadian Premier League and tightened the Gordian Knot in the upper tier of the league standings.
On a blistering hot day, Forge surrendered the go-ahead goal (Massimo Ferrin) in the 19th minute and, inexcusably, another one—in stoppage time from indefatigable Adonijah Reid at the end of the first half—after battling back to tie it on Brian Wright’s fourth goal in the last two games.
Forge, being who they are, rallied for the tie and had some other great chances as they gained some control in the second half.
There are important teaching points here for Forge, as they approach the halfway point of the season at six wins, six draws and exactly zero losses, with three extremely important matches wedged into the next 10 days. They’ve got second-tier Vancouver FC in town Saturday and need to pick up the three points there, followed by two throbbingly critical road games: Wednesday in the second leg of the Canadian Championship quarter-final against CF Montréal which they lead 1-0; and three days later when they visit CPL front runners Ottawa Atlético.
Forge don’t need any reminding that they can’t start any of those games as nonchalantly in Sunday’s match. And they’ll go to school on Choinière’s game-tying shot which was more about driving the ball with speed and reaction than dancing around waiting for the picture-perfect play, of which Forge had been guilty a few times earlier.
And they don’t need reminding that they can’t mentally sag in the final minutes as they did in both halves Sunday, allowing a goal in the 45th-plus minute by somehow letting Reid slip behind at least two defenders, then forcing Jassem Koleilat to make a brilliant diving, right-hand stop off Max Ferrari in the 90th-plus minute to preserve the draw.
But they also don’t need reminding that if they keep penetrating the box, as they did rather regularly, they’ll score their share of goals. They’ve worked diligently on that aspect of their repertoire, and also on instinctive ball-striking and after a drought of multi-goal games, they’ve found the back 11 times in the last four games. Brian Wright scored again, with his fourth goal in the past two games.
Head coach Bobby Smyrniotis said that the opening 45 minutes was “probably one of the slowest paced halves of the season,” for his team, which was coming off two big road wins and might have been slightly over-confident returning home against a team they hadn’t lost to in the last eight meetings.
Smyrniotis repeated his mantras that more goals are surrendered off mistakes than off brilliant opposition plays…and also that his side usually treats setbacks as temporary hurdles which can be turned into springboards to recovery.
“You watch the goals and we’re sleeping, there was a low level of concentration,” he said. “We’re also a confident team. We were going to maybe not win but we’re not going to lose. We’re upset we dropped two points.”
With York taking the lead twice, they dropped back to crowd the defensive box, making them hard to break down, but Forge went wide with Borges and Choinière and, before that, with Nana Ampomah and youngster Hoce Massunda,
pushing into the offensive box. They all had their chances…but so did York on a few occasions.
York, endeavouring to change its overall style under Mauro Estaquio, who was promoted from interim to permanent head coach, has had better results of late and is trying to pull away from the bottom tier of the CPL. They’re now fifth, six points back of the upper half: Ottawa, Hamilton, Calgary and Halifax and strongly believed they should have exited Hamilton with more than one point.
Forge has allowed just nine goals this season, two fewer than the second-stingiest team (Cavalry) but nearly half of those scores have been conceded to York in a pair of 2-2 draws; one in Toronto, one in Hamilton.
“We came here and did what we wanted,” Estaquio said. “I’m extremely proud of what we did. We need to be potentially more ruthless in the offensive box but you have to remember it’s Forge. Not many teams come here and get points, not many come here and score goals.
“There has been a lot of work for us and it started in the off-season where we kind of cleaned up the house and brought in about 16 new players, and that all takes time. They can spend as much time as they want with each other off the field and on the field, but to know each other's strengths and each other's flaws, and to be able to execute that under a style of play that I want to execute, takes time.
“They want to grow, they want to progress, they want to do things well. But a lot of the times, if we look at the players here in the past, not many have won championships, and that's something that me and my staff believe that we can do. Not many teams can make Forge chase, and when I say chase, I mean the game itself and the result.
“We were able to go up 1-0. We were able to go up 2-1. What I want this club to grow into is that this can't be a surprise. That we come in and it's normal. We want to compete in every game. So I think today’s a big step against a very good team, a very organized team, very well coached.”
Reid, who set up his team’s first goal and the second, has moved back to his more natural position on the wing after some time at striker. He felt that his team had played well enough to come away with the full three points but also that the two competitive games so far speak well for the future of the Derby, which has suffered from an inequality of results.
So does a crowd of about 5000, a good draw when the competition included the Canadian national men’s team on TV, an extended long weekend, and lots of free holiday-weekend events in and around the city.
“This was my first (905 Derby) and you can tell from the fans; they always bring a nice atmosphere,” Reid said. “It could become (a big thing) because we’re from two different places just an hour away. I feel like it helps us try to be a better team, and I feel like that’s what happened today.”
From Forge’s standpoint, the game marked the continuation of Wright’s resurgence into the kind of hot streak every striker, at every level, needs for positive reinforcement. As Smyrniotis noted, Wright has been doing everything well to put himself into scoring position, but also to play intelligently off the ball. Do that often enough, the head coach said, and the goals will follow, as they are now. He also scored a second goal Sunday that was negated by a narrow offside.
Wright had a couple of clean chances and his score came off patience and confidence. He ran onto a perfectly threaded pass through three defenders from Ampomah to break in alone, then swung wide on impressive young York keeper Ivan Pavela to direct the ball home.
When Choinière and Borges burst into the game they injected energy and veteran skill to generate serial opportunities against York’s deep five-in-a-box. The tying goal sprung from Borges’ articulate feed to charging defender Rezart Rama who got it through to Choinière. The veteran didn’t waste a blink of an eye before banging home his first goal of the season.
As Choinière and Borges return to game fitness and with the determined work of Ampomah and Massunda, Forge has a depth of riches on the front flanks.
“Internally I think it pushes everyone to be better,” Choinière said. “I think you need that inner competition. Whoever is going to bring the team success is going to be on the pitch.”
As he watched from the sidelines before substituting in, Choinière noted, “I don't think we were able to install a game plan or style of play. You can blame it on the heat or a lack of energy but we did what we needed to do to come back and get the one point at least.”
It is now on to one of the busiest and most important stretches of the season: home to Vancouver and away at Montréal and Ottawa.
A lot on the line, as there always is with Forge.