Dimitry Bertaud has been the best goalkeeper of the CPL’s first month—it’s pretty hard to be better than no goals allowed in the four games played so far—but he’s had lots of help in constructing the Bertaud Barricade.
Heading into Saturday’s matinee (2 p.m., OneSoccer, CBC Gem), in the distinctly unwelcoming atmosphere of Wanderers Grounds, Bertaud and his stout backline—with reliable peel-back help from a series of midfielders—have not only permitted CPL teams to pot zero goals but have also limited even the reasonable chances to score, which have nicknames like Slim and None.
After a solid 1-0 road victory over Pacific FC on the West Coast Sunday evening, and despite injuries to defensive stalwarts shredding the lineup over the early going, Forge is now just one game shy of the CPL record for clean sheets from the season’s first kickoff. Pacific themselves set that in 2023, with five straight shutouts beginning on opening day. The individual record is held by Johnathan Sirois of now-dormant Valour, who had six shutouts in his first half-dozen games of 2021 under the post-pandemic bubble in Winnipeg, but his team—with a sub in net to give Sirois a rest—lost the fourth game of the season.
“When we recruited Dimitry we knew he was always an exceptional talent with what he did playing for Montpellier, and his DR Congo national team,” says Jelani Smith, Forge’s director of soccer operations. “And that’s what we expected. With our centre-backs and the whole back line we expect more to come. I expect him to break a lot of records.
“Our backline deserves great credit. Marko Jevremović and Rezart Rama have been exceptional for a defence that did not begin the season healthy, and Antoine Batisse has been amazing. And now we’ve got Dan Nimick back, and Daniel Krutzen got into the game Sunday after his injury. And Bourgeois deserves some kudos.”
After a limited amount of time in the first three games, rookie left back Maxime Bourgeois, playing on a college contract, showed enough to earn his first professional start against Pacific and was an energetic, skilled presence, defending well but also pushing the counter-attack deep up his side of the pitch.
Despite being reconstructed with Batisse’s off-season signing, Krutzen coming out of retirement for the season and the 23-year-old Bourgeois getting field time, the defenders have been impressive in their ability to adopt a variety of styles and to keep the attack outside for steady stretches as they did in a win over Atlético, a draw with Cavalry and the one-nil road win Sunday.
That’s a function of skill, coaching, and perhaps most importantly communication, and that communication starts and continues all game, between the uprights. Bertaud sometimes looks like he’s swapped his goalkeeper mitts for a conductor’s baton. He initiates the counter-attack, or plays it conservatively with an outlet delivery, and whatever he chooses is an indication in itself of what he feels the rhythm the offence should pursue.
As a result, while the Forge offence searches for more finishing touch in the final third of the pitch—they’re so close, so often—Forge has remained undefeated with 10 of 12 possible points, including all six on the road, despite scoring just four goals in four games. They remain alone in first place, two points up on offensive-minded Cavalry, with the offensive-minded Wanderers on the near-horizon in back-to-back games.
Pacific, despite its defensive vulnerabilities, is another team that can mount a dangerous attack but Forge was able to limit the Tridents to just a couple of dangerous opportunities with Marco Bustos putting the best one over the net.
Forge never felt out of control, but they had to substitute earlier than normal, with Brian Wright coming in to replace starter Ismael Oketokoun, who had an injury in the 54th minute and was playing superbly. Knowing Bertaud and the backfielders had a good seal on things, head coach Bobby Smyrniotis opted for offensive substitutions in the second half and it paid dividends. Wright had a good chance, and so did Tristan Borges. And it appeared Batisse had scored in the 46th minute off a Mo Babouli feed but on review it was ruled offside.
Wright scored his second goal of the season with a classic falling-away reaction header to win the game in the 80th minute. Babouli’s corner lofted beautifully to Ben Paton, whose shot was deflected to Wright. That goal was challenged too, but stood. Babouli’s corner had been earned by Wright’s quick turn and touch that was deflected out of play.
“I think we were pretty good in the first half but we were just missing that final touch in the final third but we knew that if we just stuck with it we would sneak one out,” Wright said.
So the Forge packed up another three points and now switch from the left coast to the right one. While they’ve only lost four games to the Wanderers over the two teams’ seven-year history, with 14 Hamilton wins and 11 draws, the 15 games played in Halifax have been as tight as tree bark. All Forge’s four losses to the Wanderers have come in Nova Scotia, while they’ve won four and drawn seven.
“Any time, the Wanderers Grounds is a tough place to play and they’ve had some fair results against us there,” Smith said. “But with us not conceding this year, I like our chances.”
As they did last year, Forge will play twice within a week in two different competitions against HFX Wanderers; Saturday in CPL play then the following Saturday in the single-elimination first round of the Canadian Championships. Forge beat Halifax in the opening round of last year’s nationals to advance to the quarter-finals against CF Montréal.
They’ll encounter a team of change as Halifax sagged badly in the latter portions of the schedule last year and brought in 14 new players, including veteran keeper Marco Carducci, a two-time Golden Glove winner in his seven Cavalry years. Newcomers Thomas Meilleure-Giguère on defence and midfield Lorenzo Callegari are also impactful and holdover Isaiah Johnson leads the league with two goals and two assists.
But the most important change was the hiring of new head coach and general manager Vanni Sartini, the Florence native who has revamped their system. He was a head coach in his native Italy and was part of the staff which guided Livorno’s promotion to Serie A. He was interim, then full-time, head coach of Vancouver Whitecaps of MLS and laid the foundation for the current Caps’ success when he was at the helm from 2021–24.
“It’s a great injection of new life, new ideas and new personality,” Smith said of Sartini. “He was the initiator of the Whitecaps’ turnaround and the DNA of that is still there.
“It’s a transitional year for a lot of clubs and Halifax is included in that with a new coach putting his stamp on it.”
One of those stamps is that Halifax likes to take shots and Forge loves to prevent them. The Wanderers are tied for the league lead with six goals over their 1-2-1 start to the season but they’ve also surrendered a league-high six.
They also have allowed 57 shots toward their net, so counter-attacks will likely be part of Hamilton’s game plan.
Forge has permitted a ridiculously low 18 shots toward their own goal with Vancouver next lowest among teams who have played four games at 34 attempts. Five teams are at—or on pace for, after three games—47 or more.
When you’ve allowed barely half of the shots toward net that even the second-stingiest team has permitted, that’s a team trait. It takes a village of defenders to raise the Bertaud Barricade.