Twenty-four hours later and 2000 kilometres away, Forge FC got the boost they couldn’t quite give themselves.
Nothing is easy when a professional sports season slogs into its final handful of games, and both the Hammers and Ottawa Atlético were bluntly reminded of that this weekend as their neck-and-neck sprint toward the CPL first-place finish line reaches fever pitch.
Forge dominated visiting, tired, and last-place Vancouver FC in the first half at Hamilton Stadium late Saturday afternoon, but could only get one goal. Vancouver, fresh off a Wednesday loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps in the Canadian Championship final, rallied for a 72nd-minute goal from Emrick Fotsing for a 1-1 draw, snatching two important points away from the Hammers.
Had Ottawa been able, as highly expected, to defeat sixth-place Valour in Winnipeg Sunday, Forge would have found themselves in second place, one back of Aléti and no longer in full control of the route to a first-place finish and the right to host the 1 vs. 2 CPL semifinal.
But Valour—who upset Forge 2-1 four weeks ago—got a tap-in goal in stoppage time from Erik Pop, to create a 3-3 tie after Ottawa could taste first place with their own go-ahead goal in the 86th minute.
So, status quo, but one week closer to the end. Forge remains two points ahead of Ottawa, and they own the tiebreaker. Hamilton plays its final road game of the regular season Friday night in Calgary, where their 20-game CPL undefeated run came to an end in late August, then hosts York United on October 18th in the final game of the season.
Ottawa, meanwhile, will host Vancouver FC on Thanksgiving Sunday, then will visit Halifax Wanderers in their finale, also on October 18th. “The results at home this weekend weren’t favourable, but Sunday’s draw by Valour at Ottawa gives us a second shot at closing this thing out,” says Jelani Smith, Forge’s Director of Soccer Operations. “We need four points from the six available, but I think we need to retrieve our foundation and get to the principles and foundation of how we play football: work hard off the ball defensively, impose ourselves with our play in their third, limit defensive mistakes and be more clinical in front of the goal.
“We had a range of chances against Vancouver—eight or nine shots to none in the first half—and a lot of those were high quality that should be finished. But the ball wouldn’t go in the net.
“Valour salvaged a draw which could have been a win, and that boded well for us. It rejuvenated the guys, and the next three points are always the most important. Going into Calgary, all eyes are on Cavalry, no one else.”
As Bobby Smyrniotis had predicted, Vancouver is a different team than it was in the previous three games against Hamilton, all of which were Forge victories. The coaching change they made to Martin Nash has taken firm root and they’re fast and creative, especially up the left side where 18-year-old Fotsing—who was removed from the field by an ambulance after a head injury when the Eagles played in Hamilton in July—has returned to the pitch and 21-year-old Thierno Bah, is giving defenders nightmares with his flat-out speed and cut-ins.
Bah stretched the right side of the Hamilton defence on Saturday and fed Fotsing for the tying goal in the 72nd minute.
Tristan Borges had drilled one of his patented hooking screamers late in the first half to send Hamilton into the final 45 minutes up 1-0, but they could have and should have been able to score more. Eagles keeper Callum Irving deflected a Mo Babouli shot that was labelled. There was a defender’s block of a Ben Paton in-close chance, an earlier Borges chance, a Noah Jensen chance and a few other pressure moments. Even in the 85th, Kyle Bekker drilled one off the crossbars.
“We had the opportunity in the first half to close the game out,” Smith said. “We applied a lot of pressure on their back end, but the result didn’t come. I think the guys took their foot off the gas in the second half; we stopped pressing and we forfeited too much of the ball.”
Cavalry is in a battle for a home playoff game, has a fairly young lineup—third in U-21 minutes played—and sits third, three points up on York United and four on the Wanderers. Third place allows a team to await the play-in winner from the 4th vs. 5th elimination game, so this match with arch-rival Forge is big for them too.
Forge beat the reigning league champions 1-0 on Opening Day at Hamilton Stadium in April, tied the Cavs 1-1 in May, with Nana Ampomah equalizing after the Cavs scored less than two minutes into the game, then were well-outplayed in the 4-1 loss, which snapped off their season-long undefeated streak.
Cavalry is coming off rescuing a 3-3 draw against lower-tiered Pacific with a stoppage time goal from Daan Klomp.
“We’ve not played our best in the last two matches there,” Smith says, referring to August’s 4- loss and last November’s 2-1 defeat in the CPL final. “But this Forge team usually comes together at moments like this. Calgary is an emotional game because our two teams have a lot of history. We have to take care of business and eliminate mistakes.”