2023 CPL Regular Season — Match #66**
** **Forge FC vs. Vancouver FC
** **July 28, 2023 at 7 p.m. ET / 4 p.m. PT
** **********Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ontario
** Watch Live: OneSoccer // Tickets available here
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The weekend begins for the Canadian Premier League on Friday night in Hamilton, where Forge FC will welcome Vancouver FC to their house for the second time this season looking for their first ever win against the expansion club. The Hammers play their 18th game of the year in the midst of an intense title race, currently sitting one point behind league leaders Cavalry FC and level on 26 with Pacific FC. Forge have a 7-5-5 record so far, but they’ve started picking up steam of late winning two of their last three plus a draw at home with Valour FC they could well have won. Last time out, Forge went into Starlight Stadium out west and emerged with an impressive 2-0 win over Pacific, thanks to well-taken goals by Kwasi Poku and David Choinière. Forge have recovered well from a June slide that saw them win just one of six games, including a rare three-game losing streak. Since getting back on the horse with a 4-0 win at York United, though, the reigning champions have looked far better. Vancouver were one of the clubs responsible for Forge’s slump in June, beating them 2-0 in Langley on June 20. That was VFC’s first ever home win, and a game where TJ Tahid and Ameer Kinani pounced on some sloppy defensive work from Forge to score. The CPL newcomers remain at the bottom of the table with a 3-4-9 record and 13 points, but they’ve still been a thorn in Forge’s side this year. In their first trip to Hamilton, Vancouver put on an impressive defensive showing to scrape a 0-0 draw, the first clean sheet in club history. Indeed, Forge are now looking for their first ever goal against VFC. Head coach Afshin Ghotbi said this week that, in order for his side to make the playoffs, he believes they need to win seven of their remaining 12 matches, which is prompting him to treat every single match like a final. As far as squad availability goes, Forge have been dealt a more favourable hand for this game than Vancouver. Bobby Smyrniotis said Thursday that everyone in the squad, except for Jordan Hamilton, is healthy and available. That said, it’s unlikely that new signing Beni Badibanga — announced by the club on Thursday — will be ready just yet. Vancouver, meanwhile, have two players suspended — Ameer Kinani and Pele Martínez — plus a few players injured, with Ibrahim Bakare sounding like a possible injury doubt, among others. Expect a hard-fought match from these sides, as Forge chase the regular season title and Vancouver look to battle their way back into the playoff picture.
OneSoccer is also available as a linear channel on Optik TV (Ch. 980), the pay-TV service operated by Telus, one of Canada’s ‘big three’ telecoms companies, as well as on streaming service fuboTV Canada.
3 THINGS TO WATCH
- **Díaz leads developing Vancouver attack: **VFC have scored the second-fewest goals in the league with just 15 in 16 matches, with their attack missing some bite early in the season. Recently, though, coach Afshin Ghotbi has been able to overhaul his attacking system thanks to the additions of Alejandro Díaz and Miki Cantave. The two have brought a wealth of experience and quality to a Vancouver team that needed both, and both players have been immediately successful — Díaz with two goals in his first two games, and Cantave with a goal and a lot of attacking involvement in his first four with VFC. With the young backline continuing to improve and midfield becoming more solid, Vancouver are better able to provide service to their attack, which now feels much more dangerous. “The concentration that [Díaz] brings into training and then he gets rewarded with half a chance, and every chance he’s very goal dangerous and he’s scoring,” Ghotbi said. “This helps me as a manager and a coach when I explain it to [young players] and they actually see it live in front of them.” * Forge finding top gear at right time: After that difficult stretch in June that saw Forge stagnate in the table, the Hamilton club is now playing its best football of the year, having dominated York and Pacific this month for clean-sheet wins. “If we look at it I don’t think we’ve been close to our standard,” Bobby Smyrniotis said of the year as a whole. “The quality’s there in the guys, and sometimes it needs a kickstart from different areas. We started the season well then went into a slide; as we’ve seen this seems to be a common thread throughout the league. I think we’re playing good football at the right moment, but I’ve said it before, sometimes you’re only as good as your next one.” * Achinioti-Jönsson’s hybrid role a natural evolution? The question over the past two years has often been: Is Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson a centre-back or a midfielder? Last Friday, though, Bobby Smyrniotis offered a new option: maybe he’s both. The Swede played a hybrid role against Pacific, starting in the backline in defence and the early build-up and stepping forward into a double-pivot with Alessandro Hojabrpour with Forge in possession — much like John Stones does for Manchester City. It’s not likely to be a trick Forge pull out of their bag every game, but it’s definitely a good option for Bobby Smyrniotis going forward. “It’s all about being flexible for us and being able to show the opponent different looks,” Achinioti-Jönsson said Thursday. “If they don’t know what to expect it makes us harder to read and figure out. Personally I think it works well because I get a little bit of the best of both worlds.”
PROJECTED STARTING XIs
**Forge FC: **Henry; Rama, James, Achinioti-Jönsson, Poku; Sissoko, Hojabrpour, Bekker; Borges, Campbell, Pacius
Vancouve**r FC: **Irving; Cameron, Romeo, White, Crawford; Bitar, Garcia, Simmons; Hundal, Díaz, Cantave
ALL-TIME SERIES
Forge FC wins: 0 || Vancouver FC wins: 1 || Draws: 1
Last meeting:
June 20, 2023 — Vancouver FC 2-0 Forge FC
KEY QUOTES
“I think full focus is there. We know it’s important for us to score against this team; as they go, they can get a goal or stay in the game and it gives them a lot more energy. We’ve seen when you can score first on them they have to change a little bit the way they play, and that gives you more opportunities in the game.” — Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis “I have to be very honest, Forge is by far the best team in this league. They’re another level; every member, they’re a fantastic team, and I do believe that at the end of the year they will be the team to beat… They play very beautiful football, and I have to applaud their team. Kyle Bekker for me is the best player in the league, he’s also another level as a footballer and also the most complete player we have in the league. So we’re very excited to play such a good team in such a fantastic venue.” — Vancouver FC head coach Afshin Ghotbi