Final Score: Forge FC 3-0 York United FC
Goalscorers: Bekker 29′, Borges 34′, Parra 53′
Game of the 2024 season: 28
CPL match: 512

Match in a minute or less

Forge FC took down York United FC for the third time in 2024 on Saturday, as they won the second 905 Derby of the Canadian Premier League regular season by a convincing 3-0 scoreline.

Kyle Bekker opened the scoring just before the half-hour mark, jumping on a misplayed pass from the back and shooting into an open goal from the top of the box. Five minutes later, Tristan Borges doubled the lead with a gorgeous strike from distance, hitting it with his left foot into the far corner from the edge of the penalty area.

Daniel Parra sealed Forge’s win early in the second half, as he feathered home a good setup pass by Kwasi Poku to make it 3-0 and put the game out of York’s reach, as the Hammers sailed to their fourth win of the CPL season.

Three Observations

Forge continue derby dominance as attack returns to form

While the 905 Derby has, historically, been fairly even at Tim Hortons Field, one side has had a clear upper hand this year.

The CPL season is only a month and a half old, and already Forge have beaten their rivals from Toronto three times — and scored three goals in each match. The Hammers have lost just once in the last two years to York, winning five of the seven meetings since the start of 2023.

Forge entered this game on a somewhat frustrating run of form — not including their Canadian Championship win over CF Montréal — having scored just one goal in the course of a three-game winless streak in CPL play.

Last weekend’s drubbing at the hands of Atlético Ottawa, however, is looking increasingly like an outlier due in part to fatigue from the midweek marathon in Montréal. Forge were back to their best on Saturday, playing more like the side that began the CPL campaign with three straight wins.

York made plenty of their own mistakes in this derby — more on them later — but Forge were ruthless in capitalizing on those weaknesses.

With 54 per cent possession, Forge turned 53 final third entries and 21 touches in the box into 16 shots — seven of them on target. Their efficiency in converting time on the ball was much better than it was last weekend in Ottawa, where 79 final third entries became just six shots (and zero goals, of course).

Their head coach Bobby Smyrniotis pointed to several reasons why his side looked back to their best in this game — not least of which, the full week of recovery and training.

“It’s easier when you have a week in between and you’re not coming off of such a physically and emotionally draining midweek game that we had last week, but that’s part of what you do in this league,” Smyrniotis said. “This week I thought the guys were a little bit more fresh getting out there. Mostly what we asked of them was to control the tempo — know when we’ve got to go a little bit quicker, when to slow things down.”

Smyrniotis added that, with York missing in-form striker Brian Wright, he knew they’d have to change the way they attack, so he preached patience in finding out the best moments for Forge to go forward.

They were indeed patient in the first 25 minutes, surviving a couple early York chances before taking control and scoring twice to put the game all but out of reach. With that, Forge are once again back in good spirits, and will head into Calgary next weekend with renewed confidence and energy.

York ‘shoot themselves in the foot,’ forced to pay for errors

The past month or so has been a little hard to gauge for York United; they entered this game on a three-game unbeaten run, but it had still been a turbulent few weeks with a coaching change last Tuesday before Friday’s game against Halifax.

Unfortunately for the Nine Stripes, this game in Hamilton was a story of more lows than highs, whereas the previous game was the opposite. York set up in a similar 4-1-4-1 shape but weren’t able to establish an advantage on the wings like they had last week. In fact, it was Forge playing more heavily in the middle — just 14.1 per cent of their possession came in the central third, to 30.9 per cent for York.

Although Forge were dangerous and clinical with their opportunities, York didn’t necessarily make things difficult for their rivals in several of those moments. The first goal came from an error — Thomas Vincensini coughed up the ball when two Forge attackers closed him down after a goal kick, and Kyle Bekker had a wide open goal to shoot at.

The second goal came from a moment where the backline was beaten for pace by Kwasi Poku; with two defenders chasing him toward the end line, nobody marked Tristan Borges, a player who should not be left with that much space to shoot.

And then, the third goal — again, the backline and midfield weren’t quite sharp enough; it was too easy for Borges to cut in from the right, and Poku had too much space standing between the centre-backs.

GOAL 🔨🔨🔨

It's three for @ForgeFCHamilton! Daniel Parra finishes off a great build-up from the Hammers to triple the lead 🟠

Watch #CanPL on OneSoccer 🔴 pic.twitter.com/KuHIADztEv

— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) June 1, 2024

“We know the quality that Forge have and they’re already a team where it’s always a challenge to play against them,” York’s interim head coach Mauro Eustáquio said postmatch.

“We kind of shoot ourselves in the foot, that doesn’t make it any easier. I thought the team started well, we had a game plan, we stuck to it, we were keeping the ball moving back and forth; [the first goal is] an individual error, one of those types of situations that happen but they can’t happen, so it’s up to us to continue to build confidence.”

Eustáquio did give his goalkeeper Vincensini credit for recovering after the error, and he made four key saves in the match.

This was Eustáquio’s second game at the helm for York and, according to what club president Ricardo Pasquel suggested just over a week ago, it might be his last in charge before a new permanent head coach is appointed.

All in all, the Nine Stripes remain in decent position, and Eustáquio remains grateful for having an opportunity to coach his first two professional matches.

“It’s been growth,” he said on Saturday. “Not only myself, but the players and the club, we’re going through a growing process. We’re going to have good days, we’re going to have bad days. We’re not the best club in the world when we win, but we’re also not the world club in the world when we lose. It’s about having that emotional stability.

“Obviously let the losses sink in because we have to feel how bad that feels, and enjoy the wins, but also understand that one win is not enough. We want to change that culture here at York, we want to build on consecutive wins and that’s something we’ll continue to try and do.”

Kwasi Poku flourishing in central attacking role

In the early stages of this season it wasn’t clear how exactly Kwasi Poku would fit into the Forge team this year. He was primarily used as a left-back last season in a hybrid role, using his pace up and down the flanks to take on defenders and track back in pursuit of balls played over the top.

The arrival of Daniel Parra, however, meant there are not many minutes available at left-back anymore. Parra has been one of the standout players in the whole league this year so far in that position, and has started every single Forge match since the start of the CPL season.

That meant Poku spent the first five games of the campaign on the bench. It had been a frustrating few months for the 21-year-old after an injury in the CPL Final saw him removed at halftime, and then in Forge’s Concacaf Champions Cup opener against Guadalajara he was injured again just 10 minutes in.

Recently though, Poku has begun to thrive again. He has started five consecutive matches now, and has found himself a new place in the side.

With injuries to Terran Campbell and Jordan Hamilton, Forge have been left without a centre-forward. Bobby Smyrniotis raised some eyebrows by deploying Poku as his number nine against CF Montréal last week, but that choice paid off instantly with Poku scoring what ended up as the winning goal in that Canadian Championship tie.

Poku was quieter in the role last Saturday in Ottawa, but in this game he was outstanding as a striker yet again. His run in between the York centre-backs to chase down Alex Achinioti-Jönsson’s ball over the top set up Borges in space for his goal.

Then later, Poku added a second assist on the day by finding a gap between the central defenders again, holding up the ball before finding Parra for the third Forge goal.

Smyrniotis explained on Saturday that he had been contemplating trying Poku in the striker position for a while, having discussed it with his staff even last year after seeing Poku’s ability near the goal in training.

“He’s a young guy, he’s got a lot of ability and sometimes you’ve got to look beyond what you see,” Smyrniotis said. “He’s a player who, if you look at him in all of our small-sided games, he’s finishing in and around the goal. He’s good on the turn, he holds the ball up; on the flip side, he’s got all the tools to be a top left-back or wing-back and so on. It’s something we’d been discussing as a staff, and sometimes when there’s a need, you fill that need with somebody. With our two strikers out at the moment there was an opportunity to test this out, and so far I think it’s been going very well.”

It’s possible Poku splits his time between the wing and the middle once Campbell returns, but he’s making a very strong case to keep that job.

CanPL.ca Player of the Match

Kwasi Poku, Forge FC

The 21-year-old was outstanding in the centre-forward role again, providing two assists and saving the clean sheet with his goal-line clearance in the second half. Poku only attempted 11 passes in the game but every single one was accurate and effective, as he also won the ball twice in the final third and made two tackles.

What’s next?

Forge will head on the road next week, travelling to Calgary to play Cavalry FC on Saturday, June 8 (5 p.m. ET/3 p.m. MT). York United will be back at home on Sunday, June 9, as they host Vancouver FC at York Lions Stadium for the second time this year (6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT).

Watch all CPL and Canadian Championship matches live on OneSoccer. In addition to its website and app, OneSoccer is now available on TELUS channel 980 and on Fubo TV. Call your local cable provider to ask for OneSoccer today.