His team’s undefeated streak has reached an unfathomable 22 straight games, and they had just held the three-time reigning national champions to an interesting draw, but Bobby Smyrniotis answered the question with a question. A rhetorical one, because he knew the answer was no.
Would his team have been happy knowing in advance that they would tie the Vancouver Whitecaps? One of the leading teams in the widely-deemed-superior MLS, 2-2?
“When the final whistle blew, did you see a happy player on the pitch?” Smyrniotis asked back. “Forge is a team that wants to win.”
The Whitecaps, battling for the lead in the West Conference of MLS, and Canadian Premier League leaders Forge duked it out in a wild first half that produced all four goals, before a more conservative second 45 minutes emerged, at the request of each coach to his respective team.
A large (8,324) mid-week crowd at Hamilton Stadium appreciated the committed punch-counter-punch soccer of this riveting Canadian Championship semi-final opener, even if the muggy night was cleaved into two distinct halves: one loosely liberal, the other more tightly conservative.
Both sides thought they played well enough in the periods they controlled play to merit a win. The Whitecaps could claim some controlled possessions, but Forge might have the stronger argument because they had some strong moments, and halfway through the second half, their striker, Brian Wright, who had already scored, was hauled down in the penalty area. The only time at any level of soccer that that’s not a penalty kick is when the referee is out having a smoke in the parking lot, but there was no call.
All four goals were netted in the opening 34 minutes. Just 10 minutes in, a tremendously strong throw-in from Forge defender Marko Jevremović bounced off Caps’ Norwegian defender Bjorn Utvik’s head to Nana Ampomah, who was once again penetratingly threatening on the right side of the box - and he drove it home.
“It was a bit of a scrappy one,” said Forge striker Brian Wright, who had a front-row seat on the play. “Set piece, almost, from a long throw from Marko, and it skimmed off the defender's head, and Nana just so happened to be there in the right area. It’s those things that we talk about; people being where we want them to be, where we need them to be, and Nana was exactly there.”
Utvik had a lot going on in this game. He got a true assist on one of the Caps’ two goals, in the 18th and 29th minute (Tristan Blackmon and talented striker Brian White on a diving header) as the visitors sprinted in front. But just five minutes after all that, Utvik, alone in the box and being shadowed by Ampomah, stepped over the ball, leaving it naked for the alert Ampomah, who fed Forge’s own striking Brian, for the short-putt equalizer.
It was Wright’s ninth goal of the year, seven in league play and now two in the Canadian Championship, which leads to the Voyageurs’ Cup and a berth in the Concacaf Champions League for the eventual winners.
“The coach told us we were playing well and told us to put more pressure on them,” Ampomah said. “So when (Utvik) got the ball, I said, ‘Let me press him!’ I pressed him and got the ball.”
Ampomah didn’t want to talk about the second-half penalty, which was not called, but it was clear he felt that this should have been Forge’s game.
But Vancouver head coach Jesper Sørensen, who has turned the Caps completely around this year, said his team came east to win, not to just escape with a road draw, even though they used some players who might not be in the starting rotation, with a fuller lineup in the return match.
“I think, especially on the goals, we hurt ourselves and then they hurt us,” he said. “So I think the second half was just about making sure we didn't do that again.
“I think it got very tight in most parts of the second half, and there were not really that many moments where one of the teams could have profited. It got a little bit closed in the end, and nothing much happened. I had hoped that we could play with a little bit more control in the second half, especially towards the end. We were not able to capitalize on some of the spaces that opened up for us because we were not playing fast enough.
“We've seen a lot of those games in the Cup, where the home team also had the advantage of being familiar with the pitch, and also the ball, and profiting from maybe the small things you gain when you play at home. They have good players…it was a good team, and I've seen them many times, and I give them all the credit I can give, because they look very well-coached, and very well-organized.
“We’ve played a lot of two-leg competitions this year, and we usually start with a draw.”
Smyrniotis praised the triangle pressure of Ampomah, Wright, and Rezart Rama on the right side, with Ali Hojabrpour sometimes storming forward to harass the team for which he played six years of youth football.
“The first half was quite interesting, wasn’t it?” the head coach said. “Very quick with the goals. Emotions can change in that sequence, especially when you go up one and all of a sudden you’re down by one.
“The guys did an excellent job of making sure to stick to things. If you do things right in the game, good things come along. And we knew we had to be a bit higher up on the pitch, because that’s where some of the mistakes come, if you look at Vancouver’s history this year. We created some half opportunities.
“The second half, it was kind of two teams staring at each other; we had a couple of good chances. I think we could have been even a bit more aggressive. One thing I didn’t want was the game to go into multi-transitions, didn’t want the game to open up because I knew we’d be getting our chances.”
Smyrniotis said the team’s undefeated streak isn’t something they talk about all week, but that it’s part of the club’s swagger and self-belief. Twenty-two games without tasting defeat - a league record 18 in the CPL, four in the national playdowns - since the season opened in April is an extraordinary feat. So is the recognition that with Wednesday’s draw, in their last seven games against the three Canadian teams from the MLS - widely regarded as a much higher level than the CPL, and certainly much more highly-paid - the Hammers have lost just once - 1-0 to Toronto FC in last year’s semifinal - but they had also beaten Toronto in the opening leg, losing the semis on the away-goal rule.
‘I think, honestly, we played a decent game tonight,” said Forge forward David Choinière, whose alert work helped Forge keep possession, leading to the opening goal. “I don’t think we were at our best, though. I think we were sloppy at certain moments. I think the reaction was amazing when you go down 2-1 and come right back and score. You respond that way, it means a lot, and it’s important. Overall, I think in the second half we reacted well and limited them to a few chances. It was a good game for us.”
Both the Hammers and Caps have tight schedules, with Hamilton hosting Atlético Ottawa in a battle for the CPL league lead Sunday at Hamilton Stadium.
Vancouver returns home to meet and greet their celebrated new teammate, Thomas Müller, who’ll be with them when they host the second leg Sept. 16. Sørensen insisted the talented German wasn’t on his team’s collective mind at all this week as they focused on Forge. But Choinière said, “You always want to play against a legend in the game. It’ll be fun to play against him. We’ll see how he adapts to the team. He’ll have a few games under his belt by then, and we’ll see what he brings to them.”
Ampomah, who’s certainly got the Caps’ attention, was a little more reserved about it: “We don’t care about who is playing - Müller, or whoever - we’ll just go there and perform. That’s it.”
So now the right to advance to the one-game national final comes down to that second leg of the total-goals semifinal next month in Vancouver, where the Caps will have the intellectual, attacking Müller to add to their already-strong attack. He was arriving in his new home just as his new club was taking on Forge on the road.
Unlike previous years, the two-leg parts of the Canadian Championships—the middle three rounds—have scrapped away goals as the deciding factor in case the series is tied on aggregate. So whoever wins in Vancouver advances to play the winner of Atlético Ottawa and Vancouver FC, both CPL sides. Atlético was stunned 3-1 by last-place Vancouver FC in a massive first-leg upset in B.C. late Wednesday night.
“Some people would be happy with a 2-2 draw against an MLS opponent,” Smyrniotis said of his team’s half of the doubleheader. “That's not who we are. So we'll head out to Vancouver with the confidence that we're going to go and get the result that we need.”