Final Score: Forge FC 1-1 HFX Wanderers
Goalscorers: Marshall 16′, Awuah 90+6′
Game of the 2021 season: 50
CPL match: 185

Match in a minute or less

Overcoming two key injuries inside the opening quarter of an hour, HFX Wanderers looked destined for a crucial win away from home with Alex Marshall’s 16th minute goal holding up until the very end when Kwame Awuah’s mishit cross fooled Christian Oxner in the Halifax goal in the final seconds as Forge salvaged a single point in a 1-1 draw Sunday afternoon in Hamilton. Failing to create too many dangerous scoring opportunities, the Hammers were far from at their most dangerous while the visitors — lining up in an untraditional 3-5-2 formation — showed a real defensive solidity and tactical cohesion until Awuah’s effort cancelled out all their hard work at the death.

Three Observations

Wanderers let win slip away against ‘flat’ Forge

At this stage of the season and given the Wanderers position in the league table, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to take moral victories away from matches where they’ve let points slip away.

Without context, a draw away to the defending champs is a decent result for Halifax but given the way they performed and the manner in which they conceded, Sunday’s 1-1 draw was a tough pill for head coach Stephen Hart to swallow post-match: “I just don’t know what to really make of it, to literally give away a goal of that nature with just seconds left on the clock… it’s difficult to accept.”

Given the way the game played out, Forge head coach Bobby Smyrniotis was the happier of the two managers after the final whistle despite recognizing his side’s shortcomings in this one: “Overall, I think we’re flat. We came out in the game and we held the ball around, but maybe we didn’t have that spark that we wanted. I don’t know if it was fatigue from this last week, travel, the game, the emotion of playing in Concacaf… this one’s done, we’re off to the next one and we’ve got to put our focus on these next three games.”

Sunday marks the third straight match in which Halifax has opened the scoring and yet they have just one point from those three contests to show for their efforts. If they hope to make a genuine push for the playoffs, they’ll need to find a way to string together results with their strong starts and good overall performances.

HFX show tactical versatility in fresh 3-5-2 formation

The lone goal HFX did end up conceding came from the perimeter — albeit in unconventional fashion, an effort Awuah himself admitted after the match was a mishit cross — but for the first 90+ minutes, their new-look three man backline and overall changes to the system seemed to suit the Wanderers quite well against Forge.

While the opposition at hand may have played a major factor in how Halifax lined up on Sunday, Hart suggested it was an option his group have had up their sleeve since the preseason:

“It’s something we had been working on earlier in the season before the lockdown… and we just thought today it would be a good opportunity to attempt it. We still have some things to figure out, especially our ball movement, because in the second half, we had a tendency to panic and make rush passes, we really couldn’t keep the ball.

“Later on in the second half, we did much better, we actually created a glorious opportunity to go two nothing up and I think the game would have been over then.”

The system was effective in limiting Forge’s ability to get into dangerous areas in the attacking third but it also made the most out of some of Halifax’s attacking options, namely Morey Doner in a right-wingback role. With three natural central defenders providing cover behind him, Doner had a license to roam throughout the game, creating the lone goal with a lung-bursting run and ensuing cutback cross.

Gagnon-Lapare was nearly the beneficiary of another delivery from Doner on the right, the ‘glorious opportunity’ Hart referred to post game, but the natural deep midfielder failed to hit the target.

While it remains unclear how leading scorer Joao Morelli might slot into this 3-5-2 —something of a 3-4-2-1 attack — if Hart can assemble an XI that suits the formation effectively, it provides Halifax with an interesting option down the stretch against opposition they feel could be exploited by the tactical tweak.

Forge find a way to get a result on an off-day

It’s something of a cliche in football but Forge’s ability to collect points and take positive results away from games in which they failed to perform at the level they strive for shows why they are back-to-back champions in this league.

Coming off a couple of challenging matches in Central America, it’s understandable that the Hammers began the game against Halifax a little lethargic and while Forge defender Kwame Awuah acknowledged the grind that the last two weeks have been for his side after the game, he suggested the team won’t dwell on the congested fixture list:

“I can’t make any excuses, we’ve been playing games consecutively, travelling and obviously coming from a very emotional game down in El Salvador, because of its importance and its intensity but a lot of the guys were kind of flat, we showed up flat for this game.”

“It wasn’t the execution that was the problem, everybody misses passes but I think it was just the intensity and the hard work the extra five steps, five meters that we couldn’t make up in the first half… we just have to take it for what it is and then try to move on and learn from this game.”

Picking up their first draw of 2021, Forge now sit tied with Valour on 19 points for third place in the table but own a game in hand over the Winnipeg outfit. While Smyrniotis didn’t sugarcoat the way his team performed on Sunday, he was content with the draw and suggested a response from his side on Wednesday against Atlético Ottawa will be needed: “One point is better than no points, especially when you’re sitting behind in the 95th minute, so we’re happy with a point as we come out of this and this just makes the next one even more important as we keep on going.”

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Marcello Polisi, HFX Wanderers

Adjusting to a fresh formation and asking several players to line up in a position not necessarily natural to them, Polisi was a crucial piece in Hart’s tactical alignment, tasked with transitioning the ball from defence to the attack and providing a calming presence in possession once Halifax had the lead. The Coquitlam native led the Wanderers in passes completed, 24 of which were in the attacking half, as well picking up a team-high 74 touches as he effectively dictated the play in the middle of the park.

What’s next?

Both teams are back in action on Wednesday as HFX hangs around Ontario to take on York United at York Lions Stadium (6 pm ET/7 pm AT) before Forge hosts Ottawa at Tim Hortons Field for the second time this month (8 pm ET). Watch all matches live on OneSoccer.