2022 CPL Regular Season — Match #94
Forge FC vs. Cavalry FC
September 10, 2022 at 5 p.m. ET
Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ontario
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The CPL playoff race will continue to heat up this weekend, as Cavalry FC pay their final regular season visit to Hamilton on Saturday afternoon to take on Forge FC. Both sides enter this pivotal weekend looking to improve upon some dipping recent form, especially as the runway gets shorter and the standings get tighter with the end of the season approaching rapidly. Hosts Forge find themselves in quite the slump right now, going winless in their last four games with three defeats in that stretch. They haven’t scored a goal for three consecutive matches — a club record, but not one they’ll be pleased to set. Bobby Smyrniotis’ group is back home now after a very difficult trip to Winnipeg, which saw them lose 1-0 to Valour FC twice in less than a week. Still, the Hamilton club is far from panic stations. They still sit third in the league with an 11-3-8 record and 36 points, although just one point up on fifth-place Pacific who will be looking to hunt them down this weekend. The good news for Smyrniotis and Forge is that their league-best goal differential of +19 is 11 better than any other side in the league, and unlikely to be matched. Plus, they have a game in hand on all the other top-four candidates except for Pacific, which should also help Forge control their own destiny. “What you have to do is remind the guys of what they are capable of,” said Smyrniotis. “In this year, we are a penalty shot away from being Canadian Champion. We are playing against Cruz Azul, we have played an excellent stretch of I think 15 matches of CPL and Canadian Championship included. So you just to remind the guys ‘here’s who we are our good days and here’s who we are consistently on our good days’.” Cavalry, meanwhile, has just five games left, but they have a little more breathing room in second place. Their 11-5-7 record has them on 38 points — two behind first-place Atlético Ottawa and, more importantly, three clear of Pacific. Tommy Wheeldon Jr.’s side has also seen a bit of a downturn in scoring form recently, with three goals in their past five games, although they’ve been able to pull out a few more results. They were held to a scoreless draw away from home by HFX Wanderers on Monday, but they beat York United 1-0 the weekend before to bounce back from a 3-0 home loss to Atlético Ottawa a week before that. Last time these sides met, the clash was a characteristically entertaining affair. Forge thought they’d scraped a draw at the end thanks to Jordan Hamilton’s first goal with the club in the 82nd minute, but Mikaël Cantave had other ideas, as he smashed home a loose ball in the box to win it for the hosts Cavalry in stoppage time. Saturday’s contest will be the fourth meeting in 2022 between these teams, and the season series between them is split: both sides took one of the two matches in Calgary, and they drew 2-2 last time the Cavs set foot in Hamilton. The familiar foes have had no shortage of high-octane battles over the years, dating back to 2019 when their heated matches both in the Canadian Championship and the inaugural CPL Final lit a fire that has yet to be extinguished. Forge versus Cavalry has long been a marquee matchup in Canadian soccer, and with both teams desperate for points in this year’s playoff race, Saturday is sure to produce another epic chapter in their shared history.
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3 THINGS TO WATCH
- Forge still looking for best front three: In the past three games, seven different players have started at least once in attack for Forge. Woobens Pacius and Jordan Hamilton have split duties up top, with Terran Campbell, David Choinière, Tristan Borges, Emery Welshman, and even fullback Kwasi Poku taking reps out wide — plus, Borges played centrally as a number 10 on Sunday. On paper, this team has an extraordinary wealth of attacking talent, arguably boasting two full front lines that could start for most teams in the league. Unfortunately for Bobby Smyrniotis, he can’t start two front lines. Although he’ll have plenty of options off the bench if his team needs a goal late, only three or four of those players can start the match. Smyrniotis may seek a different look to his side with the attack struggling so much lately, so don’t be surprised if the shape or structure is different again on Saturday. Still, with just six games left before the playoffs, Forge doesn’t have much time left to get players into form and figure out which attackers can be best trusted to start a knockout match. * **Selection headache at centre-back for Cavalry? ****One of the hallmarks of a Cavalry FC team is their ball-playing central defenders. Throughout this season they’ve alternated at times between a back four and back three, although with the emergence of fullbacks Bradley Vliet and Roberto Alarcón the Cavs have settled into a four-man defensive setup. With the two wide defenders looking to get forward, even more is required of the centre-backs in possession as they try to play out of the back and combine with Charlie Trafford or Elliot Simmons in midfield. Coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr. has given reps to all of Daan Klomp, Mason Trafford, David Norman Jr., and Karifa Yao, all of whom are excellent distributors of the ball. The main concern right now, though, is that Yao — arguably the best of the bunch on either side of the ball — has been absent for two straight matches. Wheeldon Jr. confirmed before the match that Yao will miss out again against Forge, but should be available to return for the following weekend’s match against FC Edmonton. Expect Cavalry to still look to play out of the back, even against a Forge team that likes to press centre-backs, but will certainly miss Yao’s ability in this area of their game. * Equalizers, lead changes abound in Forge-Cavalry games: Neither side can get too comfortable with a lead when playing this particular opponent. In all three Forge-Cavalry meetings in 2022, at least one side has scored an equalizer after conceding. The first tie saw an early Forge lead turn quickly into a 2-1 Cavalry advantage, only for David Choinière to score in the 90th to level it. Next time, Joe Mason’s first-minute goal was cancelled eventually by a pair of Forge goals for the Hammers to secure a road win. And last time out, Forge again thought they’d robbed the Cavs of victory before Miki Cantave snatched all three points at the death. All that is to say: With the stakes even higher in this meeting, do not turn off the TV before the final whistle. We could be in for some more late drama. “Why I like the games against Forge is that it is like two heavyweights going into a ring and going toe-to-toe,” said Wheeldon Jr. “Both teams are very, very well coaches and believe in their principles of play and want to impose it on the other team.”
ALL-TIME SERIES
Forge wins: 8 || Cavalry wins: 6 || Draws: 3
Previous match:
August 13, 2022 — Cavalry 2-1 Forge
KEY QUOTES
“Both teams want a positive result tomorrow. I think that’s what will make it a very good game for both teams and for those who are going to be viewing the match. With all the games that are going on right now in the league, it is exciting for the fans and for the neutrals, and for us we just have to go out there and do our stuff and not get caught up in how important a game is tomorrow, compared to any others.” — Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis “They are a team that they haven’t done well the last five games, in front of their fans, they are going to be champing a the bit. We ended their good run, they are now on a bad run so it is roles reversed.” — Cavalry FC head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr.