Final Score: Forge FC 2-0 York United FC
Goalscorers: Jensen 52′, Ampomah 86′
Game of the 2024 season: 97
CPL match: 581

Match in a minute or less

Forge FC won at Tim Hortons Field again on Saturday afternoon, beating 905 Derby foes York United 2-0 in the rain to improve their lead atop the Canadian Premier League table to eight points — at least, before the rest of the games in matchweek 25.

It was an even first half as the two sides probed, with York getting used to a heavily-changed team due to a variety of suspensions and injuries. Forge suffered an early blow with Elimane Cissé leaving in the first half due to injury, and York lost captain Mo Babouli at halftime with what looked like a knock to his lower back.

Forge finally opened the scoring early in the second half, as Kyle Bekker found Noah Jensen with a good ball across goal which Jensen smashed home.

The Hammers’ insurance marker came shortly before stoppage time, as club debutant Victor Klonaridis seized on a through ball into the box, and he fed it to Nana Ampomah to score and make it 2-0.

Three Observations

Forge closing in on Shield thanks to stellar home form

Saturday’s win was Forge’s 11th of the 2024 regular season at Tim Hortons Field, which surpasses their club record of 10 set in 2019. Likewise, their 34th point at home breaks their prior record of 32.

This season, Forge have been almost impenetrable at home, with just 10 goals conceded in 13 games. Only one club has managed to take points off them in Hamilton — and that’s Vancouver FC, who are responsible for Forge’s only home draw and loss in 2024.

It’s not to say that Forge have dominated every other team that has come to Tim Hortons Field; they’ve often needed to wait for their opening goal, or had to ease their way in. Still, they have six clean sheets at home — five of them in their last six game matches.

Forge’s home form in 2024 has been comfortably the best in the league, and they’re now just one point away from tying the all-time record of 35 set by Cavalry FC in 2019. It’s a huge improvement from the Hammers, who last year were just fifth in the league in points at home, with 19 points in 14 games.

The win over York was another one where Forge needed to be patient. The first half was quite uneventful; the shots were five to four for the hosts, and there were a combined 16 touches in the penalty area between the two sides, with very few major chances to speak of.

“Traditionally we’ve been excellent at home,” Bobby Smyrniotis said in his postmatch press conference. “Last year was a little bit of an anomaly, that’s something we talked about in the off-season and at the beginning of the year. This field allows us to play good football in itself. Then you look at the electricity the crowd gives us; for a venue that’s 25,000 when it’s full, when you put five to six thousand in here, it’s absolutely brilliant. The fans make it exciting for our players, and they want to make sure that they’re giving everything for them. That’s something we’ve talked about, I think that’s the commitment the guys have made this year.”

Smyrniotis likened playing against York in this match to playing a team with 10 men — with so many changes to their side, they were forced to be a little conservative and compact, which can be very difficult to break down.

He gave credit to York for taking away a lot of that space between the lines with their well-organized defensive structure, but he knew Forge would be able to find a way to get in behind, and exploit an occasionally high defensive line.

After this win, with just three games left to play, Forge have one hand on the CPL Shield — especially if Atlético Ottawa and Cavalry drop any points this weekend to Halifax Wanderers and Vancouver, respectively. Forge have one game left at Tim Hortons Field — against Ottawa on Oct. 12 — where they’ll attempt to make some history with a league-record 37 home points.

If things fall their way, it’s not impossible that Forge could already have some silverware in their locker by the time they’re next in Hamilton.

Mora proud of makeshift York backline despite tough assignment

With multiple injuries and suspensions plaguing the Nine Stripes, we expected some changes to the York United team on Saturday, but perhaps not this many.

They were missing at trio of young Mexicans to suspension: winger Jorge Guzmán, left-back Orlando Botello, and centre-back Oswaldo León. With Noah Abatneh and Frank Sturing also out injured, York boss Benjamín Mora was left with a very thin defensive group.

Surprisingly though, he didn’t start his lone remaining natural centre-back, Nyal Higgins. Instead, Elijah Adekugbe and Matthew Baldisimo — typically central midfielders — played in the backline, while Juan Córdova played right-back. Baldisimo, perhaps most impressively, started for just the fourth time this year, and the first since May 24 after struggling to get healthy with a shoulder issue.

“If they play like this as a centre-back, they can play for many teams in this league as a starting centre-back,” Mora said of Adekugbe and Baldisimo.

Kembo Kibato, another midfielder, made his first start for York since arriving from Vancouver FC two weeks ago — and he did so at left-back, a position he hadn’t played in the CPL before, although Mora hinted he might earlier in the week.

It was a somewhat strange team for York, but they were well-organized, defending in a 4-1-4-1 with Josué Martínez patrolling the space in front of the centre-backs while Mo Babouli and Tomas Giraldo sat ahead of him as dual number 10s.

The scoreline didn’t end in York’s favour; the first goal was a low cross they didn’t deal with well, and the second a counter-attack when they were pushing men forward in search of an equalizer.

However, they caught Forge offside three times, made 16 successful tackles, and won 58.4 per cent of the duels.

Mora gave particular credit to the right side of his defence. Juan Córdova was the only member of the back four playing in his natural position at right-back, but it’s a position he has not played much under Mora, having moved primarily into midfield. Córdova had one of the most difficult assignments in the Canadian Premier League, having to deal with a Forge left side that combines Béni Badibanga and Daniel Parra.

Although Badibanga had a lot of opportunities with the ball, Córdova limited his effectiveness, as well as Parra’s.

“For me, we did a good job,” Mora said. I don’t focus on the scoreboard, I don’t focus on the 2-0, because that can sound a little contradictory — they did good job, why didn’t you win? Because it’s a difficult task. They did a good job regarding the functionality and the unfolding of what we needed. We applied tactically what we were training, we defended in a mid-block very well, shifting in the zones that we practiced.”

Although York will get their suspended defenders back next week, Mora has definitely learned more about his players and won’t hesitate to deploy them in difficult spots in future.

Forge midfield ticking along as Bekker and Jensen combine

Saturday was just the fourth time in 2024 that both Kyle Bekker and Noah Jensen have started together for Forge. Being players with somewhat similar profiles, the majority of Jensen’s starts have been games where Bekker has been rested.

With Tristan Borges injured though, Bobby Smyrniotis saw an opportunity to play both Bekker and Jensen in the middle, just in front of Alessandro Hojabrpour.

Of course, the headline-grabbing moment will be that Bekker and Jensen combined for the goal, the former driving into the box and playing a good ball across goal before Jensen arrived to score with a finish that was from a more difficult angle than it looked on the initial replay.

Aside from the goal and assist, the statistics aren’t particularly flashy for Forge’s midfielders in this game (although Bekker did create three chances). However, they — along with Hojabrpour — commanded the middle of the park, offering no avenues through for their opponents.

“Any of our combinations in the midfield do an excellent job; you go from week to week, you move that around — other than Ali, who doesn’t move from there,” Smyrniotis said postmatch. “For me, that’s the most important position on the field in the way we want to play; even at the highest level of the game, we’ve all probably heard of a team in Man City with Rodri going out, and how important those players are in football.

“But the other two guys, as we interchange those players, they know their role so well. They know where to move, where to be. That’s what makes it very good. Today was a little bit more difficult because there weren’t spaces between the lines, so you had to move in different spaces. In the first half, Noah did a great job getting forward and finding those gaps, and then you look at our first goal and it’s Bekker moving through the gaps getting forward, and Noah popping up from the opposite side of the field, the rotations they’re used to doing. I think the intelligence of our midfielders to know where to set themselves up, to know where to move if things aren’t working, that’s what they do very well.”

Overall, Bekker and Jensen have started 13 games together in CPL regular season action over the last three years. In those matches, Forge have eight wins, four draws, and just one loss — which was the 3-0 defeat at Ottawa this year right after their win over CF Montréal, where other circumstances might have had a greater factor. Forge have scored 25 goals in those 13 games, and conceded just 10.

It still doesn’t quite feel like both would start together in a final if everyone was healthy, but both can be counted among the best box-to-box midfielders in the league, and they showed it on Saturday.

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Kyle Bekker, Forge FC

The Forge captain was excellent in this game, helping set the tempo in midfield especially in the second half. He created three chances, including the assist for the first goal, operating synchronously alongside Noah Jensen and Alessandro Hojabrpour.

What’s next?

Both sides are back in action next Sunday, Oct. 6. Forge will be in Winnipeg, where they’ll take on Valour FC (1 p.m. CT/2 p.m. ET). Meanwhile, York return home to host Atlético Ottawa (5 p.m. ET).

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