Simply put, the Hammers must lean a little more—make that a lot more—into their swing.
Forge FC head into the second leg of the TELUS Canadian Championships quarter-final (Sunday, 4 p.m. OneSoccer) looking to maintain Hamilton Stadium as their Fortress of Solitude, after a 1-1 road draw Wednesday against dogged Montréal-based semi-pro side CS Saint-Laurent.
The Forge did not bring much of their A game, despite Nana Ampomah’s early skill-dripping goal which put them up 1-0. The home side inhaled some momentum later in the first half, forcing Hamilton keeper Dimitry Bertaud to make saves and to high-point snag dangerous lobs into the box.
Although the Forge had a golden chance to pull ahead in the dying moments of the two-game total-goal series with an unmarked Ismael Oketokoun skying a great feed from Tristan Borges, Saint-Laurent’s determination merited the draw, and maybe more, against the more highly regarded CPL league-leaders.
“To be honest, it’s what we expected. We’ve been in these games before,” Smyrniotis said. “We know Saint-Laurent is going to play with a lot of intensity, a lot of effort.”
“As the game went on, I think it showed that it was our third game in a week playing in plus-30, plus-40 weather. It takes its toll.”
“We weren’t good at all in many phases of the game. We play 45 games this year and have to be realistic with the players. The players know exactly what they did on the pitch and what they didn’t do today.”
“They know what the task at hand is on Sunday and we also know we’re going to see a team that’s playing with all of their passion and their heart for 90 minutes.”
The game was played at Laval’s Stade Boréale, where Forge edged FC Supra Du Québec 2-1 in a CPL match just two days earlier. Normally Saint-Laurent would use Centre Sportif Claude Robillard in north Montréal, but the pitch was unavailable.
“It’s a difficult field to play on, the bounces, the ball moves much differently. Turf is turf, but from one to another it’s different,” said Smyrniotis, adding that was part of home-field advantage which, if Forge recalibrates properly, will switch to their favour in Sunday’s rematch.
But Saint-Leonard has fast outside play, gets scrappy midfield mucking from former CPL player Cédric Toussaint, and are heavily motivated by their underdog status. After eliminating Inter Toronto earlier this year in the CanChamps and HFX Wanderers a couple of years ago, they’ve got a collective belief that they can take it to a third CPL club, even one that has not yet lost at home this calendar year.
Forge started strongly with Kyle Bekker lobbing a picturesque high cross to the right side to the talented Ampomah, who beamed a low left-foot laser to the far post from about 18 yards out.
But Hamilton’s normally stout rearguard corps then had several somnambulating lapses, and Saint-Laurent eventually capitalized when former CPLer Zakaria Bahous, a force all afternoon, hypnotized a fistful of them and drilled home the tying goal in the 56th minute. It is rare for so many Forge defenders to falter at the same time, and Bertaud clearly was not impressed.
It’s re-stating the obvious that this weekend at home the Hammers cannot afford to provide that kind of leeway to a side as hungry for an upset as Saint-Leonard is.
Hamilton had started six different players from Sunday’s league-game starting XI, including 17-year-old Aghilas Sadek and USports star Maxime Bourgeois. Still, after a promising start in which they showed control and flow recognition, they could not find rhythm or sustained buildups.
“It could have been better from all the guys,” Smyrniotis agreed. “To be clear, when we put 11 guys on the pitch it’s 11 to win, it’s not to rotate, to see who we’re playing.”
“We’ve been on the flip side of this a few times, and you know you have to be at the top in these games. A lot of times it’s a battle; you have to battle for each and every play.”
That’s true of most matches but especially true in knockout competitions.