As has occurred so many times in this busy and record-setting year, Forge FC doesn’t have much time to contemplate what just happened, because the next thing is about to happen so soon.
League-leading Forge missed a golden opportunity to put a nice headlock on first place in the CPL when they surrendered two second-half Kianz Froese goals within eight minutes in Winnipeg Thursday night to lose 2-1 to Valour FC — which had begun the season in seventh place a full 30 points back of Hamilton in the standings.
And now — finally and albeit without the momentum they thought they’d be carrying — the Hammers can turn their full attention to the Vancouver Whitecaps, the strong MLS side they’ll meet in B.C. Place Tuesday night in the second leg of the TELUS Canadian Championships. After a 2-2 draw in the Forge home leg, whoever wins Tuesday advances to the single game championship against the semi-final survivor of two CPL sides, Vancouver FC and Atlético Ottawa.
Forge lost for only the second time in 23 CPL starts this season, and first in which they led, but the downside of that remarkable achievement is that both losses have now come within three games, and in the third — last week’s 1-0 home win over HFX Wanderers — they did not play a good first half. With the game in Vancouver on Tuesday night, followed by next Sunday’s trip to Ottawa where they’ll meet Atlético in a battle for first place, this is not an ideal time for Forge to have lost some of its pace, although they’ve almost always rallied after a “down” game.
Hamilton has clinched a home playoff game but the loss stalled its drive to all but guarantee a home game in either the 1 vs. 2 or 2 vs. 3 semi-final in the CPL’s modified-Paige-Playoff system.
“We had our moments, had some control and were executing our game plan, but we kind of let it slip away,” said Forge forward Tristan Borges who had given the Hammers a 1-0 lead in the 22nd minute after a seeing-eye pass from Hoce Massunda that slipped through a well-camouflaged Brian Wright dummy.
That was the 11th straight goal Forge had scored against Valour in three games without response, but the response would come in the first dozen minutes into the second half, with some strong Valour pressure and Forge misplays.
“Once the opposition team gets a goal, the momentum kind of swings.”
Head coach Bobby Smyrniotis added, “Maybe we dropped our attention a little bit. They scored and it created energy. I thought in the first half, we were good, we created some good things — probably not as aggressive as I would like — but when you lower your tempo and lower your concentration, this is the result that can come out of a game like this.”
Forge won’t know exactly where they sit in the standings until after a crucial match between Ottawa and York United on Sunday afternoon, but for the moment they don’t care: because their radar screen is filled with Whitecaps.
But if Ottawa wins on the road, the two teams will be technically tied for first, with Forge listed on top because they still hold the head-to-head tiebreaker heading into their huge head-to-head in the Nation’s Capital next weekend.
The Whitecaps, who’ve been on a two-week international break, have a huge MLS game before they meet Forge and are focused on that. They’ve sold more than 24,000 tickets for Saturday’s home match against Philadelphia Union, who are the leaders in the MLS Supporters’ Shield race.
The Whitecaps are enjoying their best-ever season; they sit in third place in the MLS West, and went 15 games without a loss at one point, reached the Concacaf Champions Cup final and signed 35-year-old forward/attacking-midfielder Thomas Müller — still one of the best and most famous players in the world. Eight Caps were with their respective national teams during the international window so they’re loaded with talent.
The Forge will practice Saturday and Sunday before flying to Vancouver and it’s likely Smyrniotis, and the team leaders, will be loudly stressing pace, rhythm and concentration, bits of which melted away during the upset loss in Winnipeg.
And after the Caps, it’s another frying pan to the fire situation as they face a confrontation in Ottawa for a first-place drive that is much closer than it was three weeks ago, when Hamilton led by six points.
“Obviously, when we get to that we’ll be focussing on it,” Borges said after Thursday night’s game. “But right after losses it’s a bit tough to absorb all the feelings. But the mentality we’ve always had is that it’s a long season and you can’t get caught up in one game. The guys have been great with that all season.
“It’s tough because we set a high standard. Us going up 1-0 and not getting a result here is obviously frustrating. But the most important thing is take what we can from this game and learn from it.”