Final Score: Forge FC 1-1 Halifax Wanderers
Goalscorers: Badibanga 79′; Nimick 29′ (pen.)
Game of the 2023 season: 80
CPL match: 447

Match in a minute or less

Forge FC and Halifax Wanderers left Tim Hortons Field with an even share of the spoils on Saturday night, as they battled to a 1-1 draw in Hamilton.

The Wanderers took the lead in the first half, as Jordan Perruzza won a penalty just before the half-hour mark and Dan Nimick stepped up to smash it down the middle for his second goal from the spot against Forge this year. The visitors fought hard to hang onto the lead and searched for a second goal, but eventually the home side’s breakthrough arrived in the second half.

Forge won a free kick at the edge of the penalty area, and recent addition to the squad Béni Badibanga lifted a gorgeous strike over the wall and in at the near post for a 79th-minute equalizer that ultimately would settle the score at 1-1.

Three Observations

Tight, fiery draw offers ‘playoff-like’ intensity

Halifax head coach Patrice Gheisar opened his postmatch comments suggesting that this draw felt, in some ways, like a playoff game.

There were similarities in this game to the last time Halifax played at Tim Hortons Field back in April, when the Wanderers led for most of the second half after scoring in the first, only for Forge to find a way back late — that time it was via Woobens Pacius, and this time it was Béni Badibanga.

For both sides the goals came from dead-ball situations; Halifax have now seen Dan Nimick put two penalties past Triston Henry this year — which can be a difficult thing to do in football when a goalkeeper has already faced a penalty from a player before. For Forge, it was Badibanga who curled a perfect free kick into the top corner.

This game did have many of the trappings of a cup match — cagey opening stages, impactful set-pieces, and a whole lot of physicality. With 83 total duels in the game, each team was clearly up for a fight, and the match did end up with six yellow cards dished out — a handful of them from Halifax in the late stages while they were clinging to a lead.

Forge had four corners in the match and three free kicks from dangerous positions — including the one they scored on. Bobby Smyrniotis was particularly happy to score from a dead-ball situation like that, pointing out that the set-piece goal has been missing from his side’s arsenal for much of this year, whereas in other seasons they’ve scored — by his reckoning — 10 to 15.

Gheisar said after the game that he had asked his team to deliver a playoff-like energy level in this match, which seems like it’s required for teams to get results in the CPL at the moment.

“If you prepare yourself for the big test every day, if you train like it’s a game and you take every game like it’s a playoff game, when the playoff game actually does come you don’t feel the nerves and anxiety,” Gheisar said. “I said today, this is a playoff game on the road. Next weekend will be a playoff game at home. These are the games we’ve got to make count. For me, if this is a playoff game I’m happy going on the road and taking a point going back to our house. That’s kind of the formula we’ve created — win at home, go on the road, disrupt, disrupt, disrupt.”

They did indeed disrupt for large stretches, keeping Forge’s attack at bay for long periods of open play (holding them to just two shots on target the whole game, with none in the first half). They couldn’t hold back Forge forever, though, and the reigning champs were patient en route to finding the equalizer they needed.

So, both sides remained pretty stagnant in the league table — which remains a logjam this weekend. With a point each, Forge finished the night in third (but just a point off first place), while Halifax — two points behind the Hammers — sit in fifth.

“It just seems like nobody wants to make movement in the standings,” Smyrniotis quipped postgame.

Indeed, every single point could make a difference in the next few weeks.

Wanderers proving difficult to beat, remain undefeated vs. Forge in 2023

It’s not an easy thing to do in the Canadian Premier League to get a result against Forge FC, who are deservedly champions of three of the last four seasons. Halifax, however, have managed to do so three times this year — two draws in Hamilton plus their dramatic win at home.

Under Patrice Gheisar, the Wanderers have managed to become extremely difficult to beat — they’ve lost just five times this year, which is joint-fewest in the league as it stands.

In this match they showed an extreme commitment to their organized press and defensive workrate, with particular credit due to Dan Nimick and Cale Loughrey at centre-back and Mo Omar in midfield for helping break things up. Five Wanderers made at least two tackles in the game, and Nimick alone made eight clearances.

The Wanderers are certainly frustrated not to leave with three points — they definitely felt at halftime they were unlikely to win 1-0 and needed a second goal. Still, there’s not much they could’ve done about the way they conceded — it was a wonderful strike from Badibanga, and the foul that gave Forge the free kick was probably a necessary one to prevent a more dangerous attacking move.

So, the story with the Wanderers remains that they’re a group who continue to prove they’re made of tougher stuff than any other Wanderers side in club history, which should serve them well down the stretch.

“It’s a group of young men — we’re the second-youngest in the league, and I have a feeling by the time the season finishes we’ll be the youngest team in the league on average — that’s brave and has the desire to win and play the right way,” Gheisar said postmatch. “I think those are two really dangerous things. We have the commitment to want to press as you saw tonight, being away on the road. We have the commitment to try to keep the ball in our own 18-yard box, which makes me nervous but it’s exciting to see.

“I think our depth is going to give us a lot of energy that we need. Our guys have the highest level of desire to do something incredible, and make this a year for all of us to remember.”

Early long balls cause problems, Forge make adjustments as necessary

The Wanderers came into this game with quite a deliberate attacking game plan, with striker Jordan Perruzza — starting his second game for the club after joining on loan from Toronto FC — directed to run at Forge’s centre-backs and beat them on the turn.

Perruzza’s pace and energy proved to be an issue for the Forge backline, as defenders got sucked in to try and stop him which opened up space for Halifax to play long balls over the top.

Bobby Smyrniotis pointed out after the game that the long switches seemed to be the main way Halifax were able to threaten in the first half, with the directness proving to be a handful for Forge’s fullbacks in particular — he mentioned that there were five or so moments in the game where Halifax hit a ball 60 yards or so to find an attacker (usually Perruzza) and get over the top of the backline.

Forge adjusted their line height somewhat in the second half to prevent those situations, and they had more success tracking Perruzza and defending those balls — there was one moment where Halifax found Perruzza in massive space for a transition attack, but Manjrekar James did an excellent job recovering to steer the ball away from danger.

After the first 45 minutes, Smyrniotis saw fit to adjust his midfield as well, with Lorenzo Callegari and Mo Omar doing very well for the Wanderers in the central areas. He made a substitution, bringing youngster Khadim Kane out and putting Tristan Borges into midfield in his place — which he explained was intended to bring Kyle Bekker into the game more and allow him to link up with Badibanga.

“We just wanted to move things around and get a few more dynamic players a bit forward,” Smyrniotis said. “Bekker started in the first half dropping a bit deeper, so we wanted to push him higher up the field; Béni was a little isolated in his movements on that one side of the pitch, so we wanted to get Bekker higher, get a bit more of a dynamic player laterally in Borges higher up the pitch, and then you have to sacrifice one of the guys who was actually doing a pretty good job.”

Ultimately, the change was successful, with Bekker getting very involved in the latter 45 and Badibanga getting more of his touches toward the half-spaces rather than near the touchlines which helped him combine.

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Mohamed Omar, Halifax Wanderers

The midfielder — returning to the squad and wearing the captain’s armband after missing the last two games — was excellent, especially off the ball for Halifax. He made two tackles, won six duels, and led all the Wanderers starters with 91.2 per cent passing accuracy.

What’s next?

Both teams are back in action next Saturday, Aug. 26; the Wanderers return home to Halifax for a date with Valour FC (4 p.m. AT/3 p.m. ET), while Forge head to the nation’s capital to play Atlético Ottawa (7 p.m. ET).

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