There are other ways it can happen, but Forge FC wants to get their hands on the CPL Shield using their own feet and heads.
And they can do that with a win or a draw against regional rivals York United on Saturday (4 p.m.) at Hamilton Stadium.
“As we usually do, we focus on ourselves,” says veteran Forge defender Alex Achinioti-Jönsson, who’s been with the Hammers for all six appearances in the league championship game. “But we know that this is a big game and something we’ve been working on for the whole season. We also emphasize the playoffs, but this is one of our league goals for the season: to win the Shield. And a lot comes down to this game.”
Forge is already guaranteed a home playoff date, but they won’t know until dinner time Saturday whether that will be Sunday, October 26, or the following weekend.
In either case, they will play Ottawa Atlético next Sunday in the “Championship Semifinal,” which pits the Nos. 1 and 2 regular-season finishers against each other, with the winner of the Shield—emblematic of first-place finishers in the regular season, who also get a berth in Concacaf Champions Cup—getting to host that game on their home turf. The winners earn the right to play host CPL Final on Sunday, Nov. 9. The loser of next Sunday’s game gets a second semi-final opportunity, at home on the weekend of Nov. 1-2, against the survivor of the 3-4-5 play-in games.
Moving into Saturday’s decision, the final weekend of the regular season, labeled The Outcome by the Canadian Premier League, with all four games being played at the same time, the top five teams are all playing for playoff home dates, and the bottom three have all proven to be tough spoiler-minded opponents of late.
Coming out of a tense 1-1 draw last weekend at Cavalry FC, first-place Forge still holds destiny firmly in their own hands, remaining two points up on second-place Atlético. Because they hold the tie-breaker with Ottawa, Forge can hoist the Shield with a draw or win on Saturday, or a draw or loss by Atlético at fourth-place Halifax.
“We’ve done a lot of good things this year,” head coach Bobby Smyrniotis said earlier this week, “which is why we want a positive result this weekend so it’s a culmination of all of those efforts.”
York is in fifth place, one point back of Halifax and three in arrears of No. 3 Cavalry. They need a win to guarantee a home playoff game, as either the third or fourth place finisher, depending upon the results of other games. Last weekend, York battled back from a two-goal deficit with a marker from Luca Accettola in the 94th minute to tie lower-tier Pacific 2-2.
This year, Forge has posted 2-2 home-and-away draws with the Nine Stripes, and a 2-1 August 9 win at York over their 905 Derby rivals.
“They’re a resolute team,” Smyrniotis said. “They work really hard.”
Julian Altobelli leads York with 10 regular-season goals, tied with Forge striker Brian Wright for fourth overall in the CPL. Each has scored twice in this year’s previous Derby games.
Shaan Hundal has seven York goals and two assists over the season, Massimo Ferrin has four goals and three helpers, and Gabriel Bitar has also been part of seven goal productions with five goals and a pair of assists.
“They’ve been an energetic team this year, with a lot of young guys who can bring a lot of that energy into a game,” says Achinioti-Jönnson.
https://www.canpl.ca/forgefc/news/achinioti-jonsson-named-to-gatorade-team-of-the-week-week-27
“Kembo Kibato has been good in midfield, creating a lot for them. Altobelli obviously has been very strong, along with some other talented players up front.
“We have to be on our toes and watch what spaces we allow them in and maybe keep them outside a bit.”
Achinioti-Jönnson says that Forge’s training this week has concentrated on their own play, “about what spaces to use and obviously, we watch videos to see where they’ve been dangerous against us before. Luckily, in these last games of the season, we’ve played everybody three times already, so we know a little of what to expect. But we try to put an emphasis on what we’ve been doing well lately and try to improve on that.”
With their 1-1 draw in Calgary, Forge set a club record for away points with 26. And if they draw or win Saturday, they’ll finish the regular CPL season undefeated at home. They have eight wins and four draws at Hamilton Stadium.
“As always, when we play at home, we want to dictate the tempo and dictate the game both on and off the ball,” Achinioti-Jönsson said. “It also comes down to the most important thing, the energy and attitude we bring to the game. We’ve shown over the season that we are a good team. If the results don’t go our way, it’s usually because we’ve let ourselves down a bit when it comes to attention to detail.”
One of those details will be in their own end, where opposing teams have often tried to drop balls into the box, hoping to create something off a clearing or coverage mistake. But Forge has a very solid back line, which for the most part keeps its shape.
Having rugged centre back Malik Owolabi-Belewu available is immeasurably helpful in that. After injuries kept him out for the previous 10 CPL matches and both Canadian Championship semifinal games, he’s played about a dozen minutes in each of the last two fixtures.
“It’s great having Malik back,” Achinioti-Jönsson agrees. “He’s a big presence both on set pieces and also in our back wall. He brings something to the table that maybe all of us others don’t.”