How big is this?
Big enough that Forge FC goalkeeper Dimitry Bertaud—who has played over 100 games through more than a decade as a senior player and an international for both France and the Democratic Republic of Congo—will now experience a championship final for the first time in his career.
“I’m very proud of the team and all the guys,” said Bertaud, who made two big saves early and the biggest, perhaps of his career, late as Forge FC beat tenacious upstart FC Supra du Québec 1-0 Tuesday night to advance to the one-game final of the Canadian Championships on October 21. They won the two-game total-goals semifinal 2-1 on aggregate.
Forge FC survived a last-second scare that would give the Tin Man a heart attack, but got what they deserved, as they played a controlled game, withstood early Supra chances and then used the counter-attack speed of their younger players, particularly the emerging rookie winger Maxime Bourgeois, who absolutely set the tone, with a delicate assist for Ben Paton’s deciding goal in the 25th minute.
It was a bit of a Pyrrhic victory as the Hammers won the game and a berth in the final but lost their all-time best player and franchise spiritual leader Kyle Bekker to a knee injury in the 24th minute. He’ll have an MRI Wednesday morning, but head coach Bobby Smyrniotis called the victory “bittersweet” because of the injury to Bekker, who has battled back from cancer treatments to regain his old form and had scored his first goal of the season in a 3-0 win over Ottawa in a key league match just three days earlier.
Paton, who wasn’t slated to come into the game until much later, came off the bench to replace Bekker and scored the goal on a deft feed from Bourgeois, who mesmerized outside defenders as he shimmied into the box, then directed the ball back to Paton, who easily directed it home from the middle.
“It was a great feeling to come in early and get a goal on the first touch,” Paton said. “Obviously the circumstances were not great (because of Bekker).
“It was about timing, and it was a great pass. I saw the ball coming and just tried to arrive late. We knew they leave space at the top of the box and the ball just got to me with perfect timing.”
This will be Hamilton’s second trip to the national final, but the first time in a full-tournament format. In 2020, they won the pandemic-shortened Island Games and were to meet Toronto FC, the MLS representatives for the Canadian title. But through negotiations that allowed TFC to advance to the 2020 Concacaf League, that “2020” title game was not played until June 2022, with Toronto narrowly prevailing on penalty kicks.
Now, the Hammers will play another MLS side; either Vancouver Whitecaps, who beat Hamilton in a two-game semifinal last year on their way to their national title win over Toronto, or CF Montréal, whom Forge has eliminated in the Canadian Championships each of the past two seasons.
“When you start the season there’s four trophies, including Concacaf Champions Cup,” Smyrniotis said. “All of them are something you strive for. We have come close to making the finals the last four years, so it’s great that we’re here now.”
Smyrniotis was remarkably low-key about the victory, partly because of the injury to his captain and de facto on-field coach, whom he’s been close to most of Bekker’s soccer-playing life, and partly because this was only the second game of a huge three-games-in-eight-days week which began Saturday against Ottawa and concludes with a massive game in Calgary Saturday against league-leading Cavalry FC, who lead the Forge by four points.
“My head’s already in on the next game,” he said outside the locker room Tuesday night. “This one’s done, and we’re going to play in the tournament again in October, but we’ll figure that out then.
“It’s obviously great for the team after playing excellent football on the weekend, and that gives you momentum, and we can say, ‘Hey guys, we can do it this way, or we can do it that way’ when we go into Calgary on Saturday.”
Supra, which surrendered a goal five minutes into stoppage time in the opening leg, a 1-1 draw two weeks ago in Laval, pressed early and forced Bertaud to make big saves on league-leading scorer Loïc Kwemi and Ibrahim Condé, but Forge then had the bulk of the scoring chances for at least half an hour, with Paton heading one just wide, 18-year-old Aghilas Sadek putting a brilliant shot off the crossbar and having several open looks.
Given Supra’s success in scoring early goals off the counterattack in a 1-0 league win in late August and the 1-1 draw in leg one of the national semifinal, they played a tight defence and used savvy, gap-plugging defending to keep the ball outside or at distance.
They generally played the game they wanted to play with a low block defence, enforced by veterans like Antoine Batisse and Dan Nimick, and supplemented by substitutes Manjrekar James and Levonte Johnson.
“We talked about this,” Smyrniotis said. “These games take a lot of courage for the players, to sometimes be different on the pitch.
“There’s a difference between a game like today and next Saturday and (CPL) games after that. You go up in the game, and they’re going to get out of their comfort areas, get out of their zones, and that’s going to create things. So, we’ve talked about being patient and being compact in our block because once you do that, they may make 22 passes, but it’s from a long way out.
“You have to try to find a balance in these games because you can’t just play it fully one way, especially when you played just two days ago in another very intense match.”
Supra head coach Nicholas Razzaghi said he was proud of his team’s fight, as he should be, but also complained that there wasn’t a late penalty kick awarded after what he saw—and challenged—as a clear foul in the box. Review let the play stand.
Still, keeper Bertaud had to make one last big save with Supra flooding the box less than a minute from the final whistle. He stopped Matisse Chrétien with a starfish-style save, but the ball then went to an open Riad Bey whose shot went over the net from in tight to allow Bertaud to record his second blank sheet within 72 hours. If neither of those things had happened, the game might have headed into two extra 15-minute halves.
“It was just a reflex because the striker was very close to me,” Bertaud said. “I could touch it and got it, but then I saw another player alone, and I can say we were a bit lucky he put it over the net. When I saw him alone, I felt bad—yes, my heart was in my throat.
“But I’m so happy to be going to a final.”
Bertaud credited his younger teammates like 21-year-old Hoce Massunda, Sadek, Bourgeois and penetrating attacker Ismael Oketokoun, the 20-year-old Spaniard who came off the bench to stretch the field and also provide some creative service into the box.
“They’re very good players, and are good professionals already,” he said.
The indefatigable Bourgeois, who was the league’s player of the week for his two goals against Ottawa, shone again. Besides his playmaking, he headed away a sure goal from Matisse Chrétien on the goal line.
“He’s a product of his work ethic,” Smyrniotis said. “He works hard all the time and that pays dividends. Work hard and all of a sudden, you start getting success.”
So now, the Canadian Championships and the attendant Voyageurs Cup slip onto the back burner, as Forge recalibrates to try to win a third consecutive CPL Shield as regular-season champions. Plus, they’re close to formally clinching a playoff spot as one of the top four teams, and that can lead to a North Star Cup for the playoff title, which they’ve won four of their seven years in the league.
“We have time to think about the Canadian final later,” Bertaud said. “We have games before that, game after game. So, we have to prepare now for the next game in Calgary. A big one.”
Another big one.