Final Score: Forge FC 0-0 CA Independiente de la Chorrera
Goalscorers: None
2021 Concacaf League
Round of 16 (Leg 1)

Match in a minute or less

Forge FC had to settle for a draw with Independiente on Tuesday night as they opened their two-legged Concacaf League round of 16 tie at Tim Hortons Field. Despite some very dangerous chances at both ends of the pitch, neither team managed to find the scoresheet on a rainy night in Hamilton; Independiente looked to have scored in the early stages, but Forge were spared by an offside flag. Later in the first half, the home side had a golden opportunity to take the lead with a penalty kick, but the Panamanian goalkeeper managed to get a hand to Daniel Krutzen’s attempt from the spot as these sides saw out the scoreless affair.

Three Observations

Hard-won clean sheet hugely valuable for second leg

In a two-legged tie with the away goals rule in place, keeping the other team off the scoresheet in your home leg is priority number one — perhaps even moreso than scoring in that game — especially when the home fixture is the first of the two matches. Preventing Independiente from bagging that all-important away goal is easily the greatest silver lining to this draw for Forge, who will have taken at least some of the pressure off for the second leg, knowing that if they can score a goal the opposition will need to score two.

This certainly was not an easy clean sheet to secure for Forge, though. With a flexible back five defensive formation — fullbacks Kwame Awuah and Jonathan Grant usually tucking in to form a fairly narrow line that prevented Independiente from working through the middle — they made themselves very difficult to break down on the few occasions that Independiente attacked with an extended buildup move.

Forge definitely had a few nervy moments at the back — Dominic Samuel and Daniel Krutzen both had a couple of last-ditch clearances to knock the ball away from an otherwise-unmarked attacker, and Triston Henry made a couple very good saves (including a great diving effort early in the first half) — but regardless the Hammers did all they had to do.

In the early stages, Forge might have managed to take some of the bite out of the Independiente attackers’ cutting runs in behind by trapping them offside three times in the first 10 minutes (including the one where Independiente looked to have scored), because they didn’t seem as dangerous with those sorts of attacks from then on.

As Bobby Smyrniotis pointed out after the game, Forge very rarely go more than one game without scoring.

Forge adapts better to slick conditions, fast turf

With rain on and off in the Hamilton area all day (much more on than off in the second half), the turf at Tim Hortons Field was clearly quite wet and slippery, which meant the ball moved quickly along the ground. In a stretch shortly before halftime, it seemed both sides went through a period of adjusting, with a few Independiente passes in particular missing their mark or ending up well ahead of the target due to how quickly the turf was moving — not to mention a few instances of players themselves slipping in the middle of buildup play.

One of the major advantages of playing at home, though, is that Forge are much more familiar with the playing surface in their home stadium, having now played eight games on this pitch in 2021. Bobby Smyrniotis pointed out before the game that it’s important to know how an individual field plays, and it certainly looked like Forge knew that better on Tuesday night, having seen the wet turf before.

In the second half, Forge’s passes seemed far more accurate with players anticipating that they needed to move faster to get to the right spaces. Eventually, they began using it to their advantage, with through balls along the ground going much further than they might otherwise on a stickier pitch. Later in the game, Forge began playing short, quick passes that made the ball zip between lines, as they looked to fight through an Independiente side that became increasingly compressed as Forge pressed harder.

“Us being used to it obviously is an advantage,” Tristan Borges agreed postmatch. “Being a new turf, we’ve been getting used to it more and more every single training session, but it was nice. Today the ball was moving very fast, we were on top of it, we did well, and obviously it’s a little bit more of an advantage just because we’re used to it.”

Of course, as the home side Forge had a litany of other comforts — including the home crowd, with the Barton Street Battalion out in good numbers for a rainy Tuesday night.

Second-half reset gives Forge control of tempo

By the end of the game, Forge certainly looked like the side in control and much more likely to score, but that was not always the case. For stretches of the first half, especially in the early going, they were unable to get on the ball as much as they liked and spent quite a while defending, with all the better chances going to Independiente.

When they did manage to get the ball in the first half, they typically went quite direct with it as the three centre-backs often played it directly forward to David Choinière or Tristan Borges on the wings. Forge found their fair share of opportunities from that, but Independiente also managed to expose them with a high press a few times.

Coming out of the dressing rooms for the second half, Forge looked much more composed on the ball. They looked a little more like they typically do in CPL play, with the three centre-backs playing much more patiently with the ball and working it through midfield or up the wings with the help of fullbacks. Eventually, as Forge began dictating the pace of play, Independiente backed down from their press and settled into more of a block to force the home side to break them down.

That’s surely part of the reason why Bobby Smyrniotis made so many attacking substitutions for the last 20 minutes or so — Mo Babouli, Garven Metusala, Emery Welshman, Paolo Sabak, and Joshua Navarro all eventually came in to try and throw a different style of attack at the Independiente defenders, looking for that final creative ball to beat the centre-backs. It didn’t quite pay off, but Forge still looked much more dangerous than the opposition in the entire second half.

Smyrniotis mentioned after the game that he’d tried to make adjustments with his side midway through the first half, but it was much easier to properly reset them and explain what had and hadn’t been working at halftime — which explains why they looked more comfortable coming out of the break.

“I think we switched a little bit early on, just to show the guys how we’re getting through some zones very easily, and we wanted to focus on that in the second half,” Smyrniotis explained postgame. “I think the guys coming out in the second half had a clear picture of it from the first half, sometimes it’s not as easy to adjust within the run of play but I think we did an okay job, but in the second half we hit all of those areas. We’ve created opportunities, we’ve created sequences, we just needed that one to get in the back of the net.”

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Elimane Cisse, Forge FC

The Senegal-born midfielder was extremely influential for Forge in possession, moving from end to end and across both flanks to press, receive passes and look for dangerous space for through balls, although none of the attacks he started quite managed to find the net. He has an exceptional ability to be crucial to both the attack and defensive shape simultaneously.

What’s next?

Before returning to this competition, Forge FC have a CPL match this Saturday, September 25 when they host Pacific FC (7 pm ET). Following that, they’ll head down to Panama to take on Independiente in the reverse leg next Tuesday, September 28 (6 pm ET). Watch all matches live on OneSoccer.