Some Sunday afternoon Canadian Premier League action is on tap in British Columbia this weekend, as Vancouver FC gets set to host Forge FC at Willoughby Community Park.
Their first meeting of 2025 promises to be an intriguing matchup, too, even if the table suggests that Forge enters with an early edge, as both teams always seem to play each other quite closely.
For Vancouver, this is a chance to reset, as they got some extra time off following their last CPL match, which was a frustrating 3-1 loss to Valour on June 4th.
The break has come at a pretty good time for them, too, as they enter this game winless in four CPL matches, which has pushed them to the bottom of the table.
Because of that, this break will have been a good chance for them to re-find their identity, while also let some key players rest and recover, which they’ll hope allows them to get back to where they were earlier in May, where they were stringing together good performances, even if they didn’t always get the wins to show for it.
"We've had a great period off," Vancouver FC head coach, Afshin Ghotbi, said this week. "Not only in terms of allowing some of the injured players to recover, but we've also had some good training sessions (...). I feel like the team is in a very good place."
As for Forge, they’ll be hoping for business as usual in this game, as they remain the lone CPL team that hasn’t lost a game in 2025.
They haven’t picked up as many wins as they’d have liked to, as they sit with four wins and five draws, but given that they remain tied for second place, and have a game in hand on first-place Atlético Ottawa, who leads them by four points, they feel like they’re in a good spot.
Having navigated some tough injuries, they’re proud of what they’ve done up to this point, but make no mistake - they know they can still hit another gear, one they’ve started to show in recent weeks, such as in their recent 2-1 win vs. the Halifax Wanderers last weekend.
"We've just got to keep on doing the right things on the pitch," Forge's head coach, Bobby Smyrniotis. "One thing I told the guys is to never look at the standings, never look at where a team sits in this league, because that's always a dangerous thing to look at. We've got to focus on keeping ourselves to a high standard."
In terms of squad availability, Vancouver remains without Nicolás Mezquida due to injury, although they look set to welcome Aidan O’Connor back into their lineup, and will be able to count on the services of Kunle Dada-Luke after successfully appealing his red card suspension from their last match vs. Valour. Meanwhile, Forge will welcome back Nana Ampomah after suspension, but will be without Tristan Borges and Elimane Cissé due to injury.
3 THINGS TO WATCH
Can Vancouver spark their defensive game once again? The big frustration for Vancouver from their most recent results? That they’ve conceded five goals in their last two games, which came after a stretch where they conceded just eight times in their previous seven games in all competitions, as this recent swarm of goals they conceded has pushed them to second-last in the league in goals against with 17. Having found a bit of success defensively in that previous stretch, that was allowing them to grind out results, at least in terms of draws. A large reason for that defensive success, however, came down to the arrival of defender Aidan O’Connor, who had stepped up as a rock at the back for his new team. Because of that, it’s not surprising to see that Vancouver started to slip up with him missing the last two games due to injury, showing why they’ll hope that he’s fit and available for this match. Vancouver’s defensive success will only come from a team effort, one that starts at the front, but it helps to have a rock like O’Connor at the back, as he seemed to lift his teammates with his leadership and play. Vancouver’s got the pieces to be a good defensive team, but they need the sum of their parts to be at their best, and O’Connor is an important cog in their machine.
Forge using competition for places to their advantage: What’s remarkable about Forge’s hot start to the season is that they’ve dealt with some key absences, too, such as the ongoing injury troubles of the 2024 CPL MVP, Tristan Borges. Yet, every time someone misses a game, players continue to step up across the field. That shows the value of Forge’s depth, which might be one of their greatest strengths. Sometimes, when you have a deep squad, it can work against you, as you have to manage keeping everyone happy and engaged. With Forge, they do a good job of using that competition in their favour, and when you see how they’ve coped with this run of injuries, you can see the value of that. All a stretch like this does for Forge is push someone like Hoce Massunda into the spotlight earlier than expected, for example, but the youngster has stepped up and embraced that pressure like a true Forge player. Yet, that’s the biggest reason for Forge’s success despite the injuries - they have a strong identity, one that every player in the team embodies, no matter if it’s a regular starter or someone further down the depth chart.
Will Vancouver’s attack find life vs. steady Forge defence? Lost in the shuffle of Forge’s start to the year has been their strong defensive game, as they’ve conceded a league-low seven goals in nine games, doing a great job of holding things down at the back. For a team that has always been more known for their goalscoring, it was something they wanted to add to their game in 2025, and it’s safe to say that the extra work they put in is paying off. Because of that, look for them to keep that up against this Vancouver side, one that has struggled to score goals. Perhaps, however, this could be what Vancouver needs to find their mojo offensively, on the flip side. Having scored just nine times in nine games in CPL action, they feel that they’ve got more juice in the attack than they’ve shown, given that they’ve also only scored more than one goal in a game just twice. Yet, it feels like the key for this team will be to build some momentum in the attack, which has proven to be difficult from game to game. Speaking of momentum, however, Vancouver did score twice in their last meeting at Willoughby Community Park, a 2-2 draw with league leaders Atlético Ottawa, the first time they did that in over a year, so perhaps that can spur them to more goals in this one - you’ve got to start somewhere, and that’s a pretty good place for them to begin.
PROJECTED STARTING XIs
Vancouver FC: Irving; Dada-Luke, O'Connor, Norman Jr., Bah; Fotsing, Essoussi, Fry; Campbell, Ndiaye, Díaz
Forge FC: Koleilat; Rama, Nimick, Achinioti-Jönsson, Jevremović; Hojabrpour, Bekker; Massunda, Babouli, Ampomah; Wright
ALL-TIME SERIES
Vancouver FC wins: 2 || Forge FC wins: 4 || Draws: 2
Last meeting:
Sep 21, 2024 — Vancouver FC 1-3 Forge FC
KEY QUOTES
"I always look forward to playing Forge, because they've set the standard, they've set the bar in this league, with their brand of football that they play, and the quality that they have, and that always brings the best out of our team, so we're excited to play them, and we're surprised that we've had to wait this long in the calendar to play them in the league." -- Vancouver FC head coach Afshin Ghotbi
"Vancouver is a team where if you take away their record, they do a very good job when they play us in how they defend, and how they concentrate on things around what we try to do, and they've got pieces in their team that can score goals. In these games, we need maximum concentration because of those external factors. Beyond that, I think we're playing some good football, we haven't lost a match, and that's something the guys take pride in, so we want to keep going." -- Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis
