Final Score: Forge FC 1-0 Atlético Ottawa
Goalscorers: Owolabi-Belewu 53′
2024 CPL Playoffs
Semi-Final

Match in a minute or less

Forge FC have booked a place in their sixth consecutive Canadian Premier League Final with a 1-0 victory over Atlético Ottawa on Saturday in the playoff semi-final.

Malik Owolabi-Belewu was the hero for Forge, as just his second goal of 2024, which came early in the second half, won it for the Hamilton club. Meanwhile, an outstanding four-save performance from Jassem Koleilat in goal kept Atleti off the board.

In the 2024 Final, Forge will meet a familiar foe as they head to Calgary to battle rivals Cavalry FC on Nov. 9. This will be the third meeting between the two clubs in a CPL Final, with Forge winning both of the previous two including a dramatic 2-1 victory in extra time last year at Tim Hortons Field.

Three Observations

Forge take the long road, but advance to a sixth straight CPL Final

Forge FC couldn’t have been in much worse form coming into Saturday’s semi-final. They were winless, and goalless, in three straight, and now faced the prospect of failing to reach the CPL Final for the first time in club history.

But for a club that has built its well-earned reputation on winning matches regardless of the circumstances and even if they were not entirely convincing on Saturday, the Hamilton club found a way again, and their reward is a sixth straight trip to the Canadian Premier League’s biggest match.

“I always say the most important thing is to be there, to be in that game,” said Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis. “Nothing in life is linear. It’s not always one way to do it, to go over the mountain, through the tunnel, around the door in different ways.

“Obviously our place in the table, what we did in the season gave us that opportunity. And here we go again for the sixth time.”

Saturday certainly wasn’t a vintage Forge performance. Especially after they had taken the lead in the 53rd minute they scraped at times tooth and nail to get over the finish line as the visitors held 64.8 per cent of possession in the second half and had 15 shot attempts with 19 touches in the Forge box.

“I don’t think it was our best performance overall, but in a playoff game, in a do-or-die situation it has to get ugly,” said Forge goalkeeper Jassem Koleilat. “We showed that we’re a team that can do everything. When it got ugly, we did the job. So whether it’s an individual moment or a team effort, we showed as a group we can just get down and dirty and do the job.”

Having won their 14th match at Tim Hortons Field in all competitions, a club record for a calendar year, they will now have to go on the road to Calgary for the 2024 CPL Final on Nov. 9. With everything they have experienced in the past six seasons, however, that won’t faze them one bit as they chase their third straight championship, and fifth in the league’s six-year history.

“We’ve done it in all different ways,” said Smyrniotis. “Away from home, at home, on an island for 45 days, we’ve done it in different ways… this is what you want to be playing for.”

Forge backline, missing starters, comes up big to hold off Atlético Ottawa

In their most important match of the season to date, Forge FC’s backline looked quite different from what it has for the majority of 2024.

For the past three matches, with left fullback Daniel Parra unavailable due to a suspension, Forge have been playing Malik Owolabi-Belewu in his position.

Owolabi-Belewu, traditionally a central defender, is a very different profile to Parra — strong at the back but not quite as likely to get forward and create moments of offence down the flanks.

On Saturday, however, he was the hero for Forge, getting on the end of a Kyle Bekker corner in the 53rd minute to head home the winner.

“That’s what these games are about,” said Smyrniotis. “It’s about moments. Last week was about a moment. Today was about a moment. It’s about resiliency. It’s about all that fun stuff that goes into it. And I’m pretty sure next week will be the same.”

Aside from the goal, Owolabi-Belewu was still his outstanding defensive self, winning seven of nine duels and making six clearances as well as some outstanding last-ditch tackles.

Smyrniotis was forced to make a further change to his lineup, as Garven Metusala was unavailable through injury. In his place, Dom Samuel was given just his fifth start of the campaign for Forge, and his first as a central defender, slotting in alongside Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson.

From the opening moments, Samuel showed he was up for this match, chasing down Ballou Tabla on a ball in behind and sheepherding the dynamic Atleti attacker out for a Forge goal kick. He finished the match having won seven of 10 duels, two tackles and two dribbles completed.

Behind the backline, Jassem Koleilat put on an absolute masterclass in goal, making multiple brilliant saves. The best of the bunch, perhaps, was a close-range denial of Manny Aparicio which he got just enough of to deflect the ball off the post.

He put on a clinic of brave and decisive goalkeeping, making four saves and three clearances, while winning two aerial duels to deny multiple Atleti chances. On the rare occasion that the ball did get behind him, his teammates were there to make clearances, as Alessandro Hojabrpour did twice in a chaotic second half sequence, even if Koleilat told media with a smile that he had the second one covered.

Koleilat says that Saturday’s performance is a reminder that so many players on this team don’t get as much credit as they deserve. He sees how they work day in and day out at training, so that when their opportunity comes they take it.

The Forge goalkeeper was able to learn in this environment, especially when he played just five of the first 18 matches of the season —  particularly from the veteran starting in front of him on Saturday.

“Dom is a guy I look up to a lot, especially in the beginning of the season, I wasn’t maybe on the field as much as I wanted to be, but he’s a guy that always kept me going, so to have him in front of me with some big moments, I think that helped a lot,” said Koleilat.

Atlético Ottawa come close on multiple occasions, but fail to win game of moments

For the only team in the league that beat regular season champions Forge FC three times this season, Atlético Ottawa will be kicking themselves as they leave Tim Hortons Field on Saturday that they couldn’t make it a fourth.

The game was there for the taking for the visitors, as an injury-hampered Forge side looked off the pace for large moments, leading to several close calls for Atleti. They had more shots, possession and final third entries, but came up just short in match-defining moments.

“We felt that we could play one more game and the ball wouldn’t get into their net,” said Atlético Ottawa manger Carlos González. “I think we’ve done everything well, but only the detail of the corner. I think we’ve done a pretty good game. We can be very satisfied on the performance, very satisfied on the face and the image the team has given today in a very difficult field against the champions of the regular season. We’ve been dominant in many moments, we’ve controlled the game, we’ve created chances. But the reality is they have scored in a corner, and we had a couple of posts, one they save on the end line. So as I say, we have been satisfied [with the effort], but we are not happy of course.”

Playoff matches come down to details, and as the Atleti coach mentioned the detail that made the difference on Saturday were the four corners that Atlético Ottawa conceded in the first six minutes of the second half. On the fourth, Owolabi-Belewu headed home.

“I feel like we gave too many corners to probably the best set-piece taker in the league,” said Atlético Ottawa midfielder Manny Aparicio. “One of them was bound to get on someone’s head.”

Now Atlético Ottawa are left to reflect on a season that began with so much hype surrounding their roster composition, but ultimately came up short in all three competitions in which they participated. Overall, however, the club feels like there are a lot of positives to build on for coming years as they continue this project.

“The last couple of years here, there’s been a lot of turnover,” said Aparicio. “So obviously building off this core group that they brought in and just learning from each other. Today it was, I don’t really know but from the starting 11, off the top of my head there’s probably one or two, three players that were here last year.”

There were actually four, Nate Ingham, Tyr Walker, Ollie Bassett and Rubén del Campo, in the starting eleven who were with Atlético Ottawa in 2023. But Aparicio’s point is well made, and with many of those other key starters likely to return for 2025, Atleti will be looking to learn from the lessons of coming so close in both competitions this season, but ultimately coming up short.

“A very demanding season in which we felt that we’ve been very near to winning in the regular season, and also we’ve been near to winning in the playoffs,” said González. “One of the main targets, the aim of the club was to be a contender, to fight for titles against clubs like Cavalry and Forge. So I think we’ve done that, and now we have to do the next step in the future.”

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Jassem Koleilat, Forge FC 

The Forge goalkeeper was outstanding in keeping a clean sheet on Saturday, consistently denying Atlético Ottawa during a second-half bevy of chances to help the Hamilton club hold on for the victory.

What’s next?

Forge advance to play Cavalry in the 2024 Canadian Premier League Final, hosted at ATCO Field in Calgary on Nov. 9 at 3 p.m. ET/1 p.m. MT. It will be the third time the two sides meet in a CPL Final, with the Hamilton side having won on both previous occasions including last year. For Atlético Ottawa, this is the end of their run, and they now look to build on the lessons learned this season in 2025.

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