Final Score: Forge FC 3-0 Halifax Wanderers
Goalscorers: Poku 15′, 28′, Apmomah 69′
Game of the 2024 season: 61
CPL match: 545

Match in a minute or less

Forge FC picked up their sixth home victory of the 2024 Canadian Premier League season on Saturday, 3-0 over the Halifax Wanderers.

Despite playing a Halifax team who were able to hold the majority of possession, the Hamilton side struck early and often with Kwasi Poku scoring a brace inside the first 28 minutes — putting him into a tie for the league lead in goals with eight on the campaign. Nana Ampomah, meanwhile, added his first CPL goal in the second half.

The victory puts Forge within four points of first place Atlético Ottawa, with a game in hand over both them and second place York United, whom they currently have the head-to-head tiebreaker against as well.

Three Observations

Forge lethal in transition, as they ‘flip the script’ on Halifax

Saturday night’s match saw a very different performance from Forge FC than supporters at Tim Hortons Field have been used to this season — or for most of the club’s history for that matter.

The usually possession-heavy side gave up the ball for large stretches of the game, especially after scoring twice within the first 23 minutes, and in the end finished with a season-low 34.2 per cent of the ball. They also finished with their sixth home victory of the season, 3-0 against the Halifax Wanderers.

“You look at some games a little bit differently sometimes, and you just look at the history over the last few games with Halifax and we’ve dominated a lot of the play and possession and they’ve been able to hit us on the counterattack,” said Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis. “Sometimes, it’s not a bad thing to flip the script in many ways, make the opponent feel comfortable, but really it’s uncomfortable for them.”

When they had to ball Forge put it to good work. Captain Kyle Bekker’s ability to play tremendous line-breaking passes, and switch the play accurately, consistently kickstarted Forge attacking moments — including Forge’s first and third goals.

They were once again clinical in front of goal, creating just six shots on the night, five of which came from two-goal scorer Kwasi Poku, but four of which were on target.

Nana Ampomah, meanwhile, scored his first goal for Forge on a tremendous second-half strike, as well as winning a penalty in the first half. Given how many chances he has already been able to create for himself in his short Forge career, it undoubtedly feels like the first of many.

On the defensive side of the ball, Malik Owolabi-Belewu, playing as left back with Daniel Parra unavailable through suspension, was absolutely outstanding in thwarting dangerous Halifax attacks. He won 15 of 20 duels, while making four tackles and still finding moments to push forward down his flank offensively — with three crosses.

Despite being under pressure for large amounts of the game, Forge did an outstanding job of keeping Halifax out of the truly dangerous areas around their box, and maintaining their defensive shape throughout the 90 minutes.

It may have been a different approach than usual for Forge on Saturday, but it was unquestionably effective, and at the end of the day they were thrilled with another three points at home that very much puts them in the middle of an exciting all-Ontario race at the top of the table.

Poku scores another brace as he moves to the front pack in the CPL’s Golden Boot race

It is wild to think that just over a month ago Kwasi Poku scored his first league goal of the 2024 CPL season, in the second minute of stoppage time at the Wanderers Grounds back on June 15.

On Saturday night in Hamilton, against that very same Halifax side, Poku scored his seventh and eighth goals of the CPL season, all of which have come in the past seven matches. His second goal on the night tied him with York United’s Brian Wright and Atlético Ottawa’s Rubén del Campo for the CPL Golden Boot lead.

He also now has ten in all competitions as well, having found the back of the net twice in the Canadian Championship, and has a pair of assists.

Since moving to striker in late May, the 21-year-old continues to put together one of the most impressive goalscoring runs the league has ever seen. His confidence appears to be increasing weekly, as does his grasp of the striker position.

He opened the scoring on Saturday in just the 15th minute on a goal that while it may seem like another simple tap-in, but came as the result of clever attacking movement to find space in between the Halifax central defenders. The goal was an example of the key area where Poku has perhaps progressed the most since stepping into that position.

Kwasi Poku opens the scoring for @ForgeFCHamilton at Tim Hortons Field!#CanPL I @onesoccer pic.twitter.com/D1ZUDnmsYl

— Canadian Premier League (@CPLsoccer) July 27, 2024

“It’s his movement,” said Smyrniotis. “If you look at the movement and you see the zone where he scored his first goal it’s excellent. It’s not only the goals, it’s some of the other plays, he’s again gotten on the end of the header in a good spot. The mark of a guy who is going to score goals, or any striker, male or female, it’s about where you get.”

Poku added a second in perhaps more fortunate circumstances in the 28th minute after he scored on the rebound of a penalty kick that bounced directly back into his path. But he was perhaps unlucky not to have scored his first career hat trick, finishing the game with five shot attempts and four big chances.

Coincidentally, Poku also scored his first professional goal against the Wanderers in a 1-0 victory back on October 9, 2022. That was the last time that Forge had defeated Halifax — with this being their first win against the Wanderers under Patrice Gheisar.

“Kwasi is very clinical,” said Ampomah. “He’s scoring goals, he’s in top form, so as a winger you know if he’s in the box he’s going to do the job. I’m happy for him, very, very happy for him. He’s a good player, he fights. So I can’t wait to see him playing in one of the biggest clubs in the world, and I know he’s going to do it.”

Given Ampomah himself has played in the German Bundesliga, for the Ghana national team and the Belgian league, this is undoubtedly high praise and a look at how the Forge striker is being viewed right now both by his teammates and beyond.

Halifax Wanderers control the ball, but unable to control the match’s big moments

It is incredibly rare that a team comes into Tim Hortons Field and out-possesses Forge FC.

In fact, it hadn’t happened in the 2024 season until the Halifax Wanderers came into town on Saturday and held 65.8 per cent of the ball — and completed 90.8 per cent of their passes.

“In my time as a fan, and then a coach in this league, I’ve never seen Forge go that deep,” said Halifax head coach Patrice Gheisar. “So that’s a compliment we gotta take and say, Okay, we’re doing something right’. We made 550 passes, and they 250, but we need to get a goal. It felt like every time they came down, they scored.”

Halifax consistently got the ball into good areas as well, with a stunning 208 total passes in the final third — compared to just 53 for Forge, and 16 shot attempts. They also had 11 corners, and created some decent opportunities off of them forcing some good saves from Jassem Koleilat in the Forge net.

But in the end, they had just two shots on target, and in the key moments in attack failed to capitalize. With just 1.08 expected goals on sixteen shot attempts, the difference between the two teams on Saturday night was largely how they performed in the opposition box.

“Today we didn’t do well enough, I guess, to come away with the three points, but I think there’s a lot of good things to take away from that game,” said Halifax midfielder Jérémy Gagnon-Laparé. “One, not having our shoulders drop when Forge scores the second one. I really believe there were a few moments where we could score and got one and that could have turned the game around. But that didn’t happen today.

“So we’ll regroup, we’ll get back home and go again on Monday.”

That match, on Monday, August 5 when they host Vancouver FC, will represent the first match in the second half of their season. Halifax currently sit seven points outside of the playoffs, albeit with a couple of games in hand. But despite the loss, they feel Saturday again demonstrated a number of the reasons why they believe they will climb back above that line during the second half of their season.

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Kwasi Poku, Forge FC

Two more goals, for the Forge striker came during a tremendous effort on Saturday as he consistently occupied the Halifax defenders, and offered the Hamilton side important verticality and speed when they won the ball back. He is undoubtedly the league’s most clinical player at the moment, and is scoring in different ways each week.