Final Score: Forge FC 2-1 Cavalry FC
Goalscorers: Borges 7′, 57′ (pen.); Klomp 64′
Game of the 2024 season: 85
CPL match: 569

Match in a minute or less

Forge FC are now five points clear atop the CPL table, as they beat Cavalry FC 2-1 at Tim Hortons Field on Saturday for their 10th home win of the regular season.

Tristan Borges got the scoring started in just the seventh minute, as a Béni Badibanga backheel pass set him up for a well-hit finish from distance to put the Hammers in front. They added to their lead early in the second half, as a controversial handball in the box earned Forge a penalty kick, which Borges slotted calmly to make it 2-0.

Cavalry pulled one back shortly after, as they won a penalty of their own. Although Jassem Koleilat made an excellent save on the initial spot kick, Daan Klomp arrived to bury the rebound. After that, however, the Cavs were unable to find a second goal despite a handful of late opportunities as they lost for a second time in Hamilton this season.

Three Observations

Forge creating breathing room in title race via outstanding home record

If Forge FC go on to win the regular season title this year, Saturday’s win over Cavalry might be the night we look back on as the moment they started pulling away.

After their fifth win in the last six games, Forge sit atop the table with a five-point gap over second-place Atlético Ottawa (though Atleti don’t play their 22nd match until Monday night in Winnipeg). The distance between them and last year’s title winners, Cavalry, is now seven points, with six games left.

The main driving factor behind Forge’s rise to the top of the table has been their excellent form at Tim Hortons Field. They’ve won 10 games out of 12 at home in CPL play this year, and their 31 points are 11 more than the second-best home record in the league.

In fact, the only CPL team to take points off Forge in Hamilton so far this year is Vancouver FC, who deserve credit in their own right for a draw and a win on the road against Forge.

“Including this game, you have seven games left, and these are playoff games,” Forge coach Bobby Smyrniotis said postmatch. “These are games where three points is the most important thing as we keep on moving forward, and we got the three points.”

He later added that his side has been successful this year by not taking any of their matches for granted.

“Today we’ve gotten three points, and that allows you to breathe a little bit,” Smyrniotis continued. “That allows me to go to sleep with a bit more of a clear mind and plan for the next game. Because every game, it doesn’t matter where you are in this league — you’re at the top, you’re at the bottom — everybody has a chance of beating anybody on any day. Sometimes that’s the beauty of this league. We expect that we go into games to win, but if you don’t go in with a mindset of full respect for this sport and the game, it’s a challenge.”

The regular season title race has been tight in the past couple months between four sides around the top of the table, which has meant games between the contenders have been true six-point clashes that can make or break a trophy campaign. Three points are much more valuable than just one, and losing to an opponent in the top four is disastrous. That’s why Cavalry were so desperate to find an equalizer late in the game, even bringing goalkeeper Marco Carducci up into the box for a late free kick.

Now though, the Cavs find themselves looking up at a seven-point gap between them and Forge, who they will not play again in the regular season. Forge now also hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over them, to further complicate things. Their next two games are against the other two sides in this title race, Atlético Ottawa and York United; those fixtures could ultimately save or doom Cavalry’s ambition of retaining the CPL Shield.

Meanwhile, Forge are once again the team to beat in the CPL. They have one game left against York, and one more against Ottawa — both of them at home, though. If anybody is to catch up to them and knock them off the top, they’ll have to find a way to take points away from Tim Hortons Field.

Cavalry adjust shape, can’t find spaces in final third

After a run in August defined by consistency and success, Cavalry offered a few surprises in their starting XI on Saturday including a significant change of formation.

Tommy Wheeldon Jr. lined up his side in a 3-5-2 shape to get wingbacks Bradley Kamdem and Fraser Aird higher up the pitch. With strikers Tobias Warschewski and Malcolm Shaw both out due to injury, Wheeldon Jr. played usual wingers Ali Musse and Nicolas Wähling in more central attacking positions near one another.

Defensively, the shape generally served them well when they set up in a block and slowed the game down, forcing Forge toward the outside, although when they stretched out more they were occasionally vulnerable to transitional chances.

It was further up the pitch, however, that Cavalry had some issues. They did well to possess the ball and advance it toward the final third, but once they got there they were unable to find the right spaces to score. Their touches in the penalty area were generally heavy, and without a natural striker they didn’t have quite as many dangerous runs in behind or moments where someone could turn hold the ball up for a central runner.

Things improved once Lowell Wright came into the game at the 65th minute, which moved Musse and Wähling out wider and helped Cavalry unlock more space in between the Forge defenders, especially with Sergio Camargo able to drift between half-spaces in search of those lanes.

“It was a little bit frustrating,” Cavalry midfielder Shamit Shome said after the game. “I think we controlled the game well, we had possession, we got into their box. Not enough shots on target, not enough chances. We should have scored; I had a chance, I think Sergio [Camargo] had a chance, we’ve just got to execute in the box. We talked about it against a team like [Orlando City SC], there’s big games where we’ve got to be able to score goals. I think right now we’re missing that, but when that clicks, we’ll be firing.

“I think that’s what we’re waiting for, and it’ll come. We haven’t scored enough this season, and I think we all believe that in this last stretch we’ll start banging in goals and carry that into the playoffs.”

The nature of the Canadian Premier League is such that teams see each other at least four times a year; Wheeldon Jr. and Smyrniotis are very familiar with one another’s tactics after six years in this league, and as such it’s become common later in seasons for them to switch things up against each other.

Unfortunately for Cavalry however, the changes they made on Saturday did not prove effective.

Forge attack evolves again with central Badibanga, free-roaming Cissé

For a litany of reasons, Forge have had to adjust their attacking personnel a few times this year. Whether it was Kwasi Poku moving into the striker role, or any of the other rotations between the likes of Béni Badibanga, David Choinière, Tristan Borges and Nana Ampomah in the wide positions, Forge have deployed a variety of different front three combinations. However, they’ve been largely consistent with the way they’ve set up — almost always a three-man attacking line looking to play a similar way, just with different players in those roles occasionally.

This week, the new wrinkle was that Badibanga lined up as the centre-forward in between Choinière and Borges. Badibanga has played almost all of his Forge minutes out on the wing, and Borges has primarily been used as a number 10 in behind the attackers this year.

The new-look attack paid off immediately for Bobby Smyrniotis however; Borges and Badibanga were the two main architects of Forge’s early goal. Badibanga’s backheel pass at the top of the box was a product of him playing more centrally and with his back to goal; Borges’ run into the path of that pass was a product of him coming in from the left wing. If he’d been in his usual role, he might have been on the other side of Badibanga at the time, either inside or at the top of the penalty area.

“With Béni, if he finds the spaces in the pockets and between players he can be creative,” Smyrniotis said of Badibanga’s performance in the new position. “He did a great job of moving the ball; I think in certain moments he probably could have done a better job, and that’s something we’ve already discussed as we’re coming off the pitch.”

Playing in a role more similar to Borges’ usual spot was Elimane Cissé, who was nominally in the number 10 spot but had clearly been given license to traverse the entire pitch. Cissé covered an immense amount of ground, popping up on both flanks of the pitch as well as all over the middle.

Smyrniotis explained that Cissé’s workrate was particularly crucial in this game, knowing how Cavalry like to play.

“Cissé’s an engine; he’s a guy that’s needed in a game like this,” the Forge coach said. “Cavalry a lot of times like to play the ball around their back players quite a bit, to slow the pace down before they can try and get their overloads. I think we took that away with our shape, and the way we were a little bit higher up the field with them threw them off their game, and that also limited their opportunities.”

What will now be interesting to watch is how Forge adjust their personnel again next weekend in Halifax. That’s a game where they may have more of the ball, so perhaps Cissé’s pressing ability could be used in a different way. Kyle Bekker hasn’t started the last two games for Forge, and it seems likely he’ll get back in next week; also, might Jordan Hamilton return to the striker’s spot, with Badibanga going back on the wing?

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Tristan Borges, Forge FC

Now officially Forge’s all-time leading goalscorer with 33 across all competitions, Borges was excellent once again on Saturday night. He had five shots and also won possession nine times, scoring both of his team’s goals in a crucial victory.

What’s next?

Both sides are back in action next weekend, beginning on Saturday, Sept. 14 when Forge visit Halifax Wanderers FC (3 p.m. AT/2 p.m. ET). Cavalry will return home to Alberta, where they’ll host Atlético Ottawa on Sunday (3 p.m. MT/5 p.m. ET).

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