After five intense weeks of searing Concacaf Champions Cup focus, Forge FC players will take a breather---sort of---then return for the six-month grind of trying to get back to the same elite tournament.
“It’s a long way to Opening Day (April 4), yes, but we’ll take our time to rest and recover and then put our heads down and go at it,” says striker Brian Wright whose penalty kick goal late Tuesday night in Monterrey gifted the Hammers the exhilarating hope of a comeback dream in what eventually became a 4-1 elimination win by Tigres UANL.
“We’ll go at it again and take the lesson from this and take it into the next 28 games to get back here again. We’ll try to do the double (CPL league and playoff championships), if not the treble (Canadian title).
“Like we said the day before the game, I don’t think we can take these moments for granted. Starting from last year, we had to complete 28 games to be even in this position and to draw another giant team again.”
After a scoreless opening draw, the previous week at Hamilton Stadium when Forge became the first, and as yet only, CPL team not to surrender a goal in the opening leg of a two-game Cup series, Tigres’ enormous depth and talent, built by a payroll more than 20 times greater than Forge’s, resulted in the opening two goals and the closing two goals, sandwiched around Wright’s 80th-minute marker.
Veteran Uruguayan striker Rodrigo Aguirre, purchased late last week for $3 million from Club América after the opening leg in Hamilton, scored in the 22nd and 71st minutes to stake Tigres to a 2-0 lead, which Wright later halved. But World Cup winner Angel Correa scored on a quick breakout less than a minute later to reinvigorate an apprehensive crowd of over 25,000, and Joaquim Henrique erased all doubt five minutes later.
“I’d say it was a very good performance, but I wouldn’t say it was our best one. We’ve had some excellent games in our history,” said head coach and soccer director Bobby Smyrniotis. “When we were in Concacaf League, we played better football, but tactically, I’d say this was one of our best performances over two games.
“We can talk about the tactics, but this is also probably the strongest team we’ve ever faced in our eight-year history.”
Before the Champions’ Cup’s second game, Smyrniotis had talked about the financial ability of Tigres to purchase a player between games who alone cost about three times Forge's total salary-capped budget.
And he’d cautioned that his club would have to be vigilant about defending set pieces and limiting the Mexicans’ lightning-quick counterattacks.
“Four goals off those,” Smyrniotis sighed. “Two on set pieces, two on counterattacks.”
And all soccer observers agreed that Forge would have to take advantage of any offensive chances they could muster, knowing they’d be settling into a rare, for them, flexible 3-4-1-2 alignment which would require keeping dangerous Tigres ballhandlers to the periphery, and having the emotional strength and patience to allow Tigres to possess the ball for 77 per cent of the game.
Forge did create an early chance to get that all-important first goal, but Tristan Borges couldn’t get full wood on a shot from the perfect scoring spot in the middle during the ninth minute. A quarter-hour later, Forge found themselves down 1-0 instead of up 1-0.
“I think our game plan was good, and I think its execution was quite good, too,” Smyrniotis said. “We got the first chance of the first half with Borges, and he’s usually hitting the target with vigour, but sometimes you don’t make good enough contact on the ball.
“One big thing for us was that in a matter of 10 days, we changed our tactical approach. It’s not something we decided before the pre-season, so we implemented it only in the last 10 days with a new group against a good, experienced team. And we saw that the guys could make the switch quickly into this formation and type of play, which isn’t really in our DNA. We’re a team that plays on the front foot, that wants to possess, that wants to attack. And I think that’s a big thing….finding out that the guys could switch things up.
“We got all the way to the 80th minute, and we scored a goal and are working the game.”
But, as Wright pointed out, a soccer adage is that the most vulnerable minute in the sport comes right after you’ve scored, exemplified by Correa’s clinical conversion of a perfect defence-bewildering pass by new Canadian Men’s National Team forward Marcelo Flores.
“It’s simple what happened,” Smyrniotis said. “An excellent switch by them, overload on the side, and they found some space.”
Notwithstanding, Forge can hold their heads high. They were in their first competitive action of the year and working without their ultra-talented forward Nana Ampomah because of work visa issues, and injured defender Daniel Krutzen.
And they stood up to a cohesive team that is already nearly a third into their season’s second half and is currently sitting second in North America’s best league. They were told by several Tigres afterwards that the Hammers gave them all they could handle, forcing them to use all of their best players….and to also go out and sign an expensive transfer who could score against Hamilton. Leading into the game, Mexican media outlets questioned the value of spending so much on a lifelong star player at this stage of his career, but with the reported $300,000 Tigres got for the win, Aguirre earned back 10 per cent of the investment within 72 minutes of his first appearance.
“I’m really proud of the way we played over the two games,” said Forge defender Marko Jevremović. “I thought we handled it well, especially with how big and supportive the crowd was. I’ve never played in an atmosphere like that, so it’s hard to really put it in words.
“But a team from a small league like ours, playing against a quality side with so many good players, and big names who can come off the bench, and doing as well as we did, you have to be proud. And it can only make us better.”
Smyrniotis said he was encouraged that so many young – Hoce Massunda, Ismael Oketokoun, Anthony Aromatario, Maxime Filion, Kevaughn Tavernier---and new (Dimitry Bertaud, Antoine Batisse) Hammers got onto the pitch for a massive game in a feverish atmosphere against one of the top two or three teams in North America.
“These games aren’t about surprises, you know what you’re going to get and what you need to do,” Smyrniotis said. “And there was a lot we could learn from it, and we did.
“You see them up by a couple of goals, and Correa is still chasing balls for a quick throw-in. These are the lessons our guys need to get. You got a World Cup winner, playing against Forge, who is working his ass off. So in our league, against some lesser teams, you need to run down the ball.
“Those are the things you want your guys to get, especially some of the younger guys who have all that upside, but this is still their first foray in pro sport. That’s the reality of it: if you want to play at this level, it’s 90 minutes.”
Forge’s players now have a high conditioning level and some heavy match experience, which will be helpful when they return in a fortnight for five weeks of training before the CPL season starts. They’ve all been given individual workout regimens for the next two weeks, but it’s mostly about getting mental and physical rest from a furious five weeks of preparation and high-pressure games.
