They’re going to have to take the long way around.

And on the way the highest-scoring team in the league has got to figure out how to pick up some goals.

Perennial rival Cavalry FC defeated Forge FC 1-0 in front of 6521 disappointed fans at Tim Hortons Field Sunday afternoon to earn the right to host the CPL Final in Calgary in two weeks.

But the Forge still have a good chance to reach their sixth straight final as they’ll host Atlético Ottawa in a second semi-final on Saturday afternoon (4 pm) at Tim Hortons Field. Ottawa, who loaded up on proven CPL veterans, edged visiting York United 3-2 in penalty shots—the only miss coming from former Forge star Mo Babouli—just a few minutes before Forge-Cavalry kicked off.

Forge fans won’t like to hear this, but give the Calgary side a lot of credit for coming into a hostile environment, taking advantage of a Hamilton defensive miscommunication to secure the opening goal before 30 minutes had been played—into the wind, no less—then going into a low block, keeping Forge outside much of the time and forcing the home side to try to penetrate a middle where eight, nine, and sometimes 10, defenders in or around the box. The Cavs were content to let the Hammers participate in a shooting gallery.

Still, Forge had some quality chances, especially once multi-talented Nana Ampomah was moved from central striker to the outside where he put constant pressure on the Cavalry wide defence and delivered some creative service.

But the Forge have hit an ice-cold scoring stretch at the very worst time and have not scored a goal—not one—since Noah Jensen’s strike beat Valour on October 6. in Winnipeg to clinch first place in the regular season, and with it the automatic berth in the Champions Cup. Since then they’ve lost three straight, including Sunday’s disappointment, and haven’t put the ball in the net. The scoring drought has now reached nearly four hours of play—224 minutes plus stoppage times—an uncharacteristic Sahara for an attacking team which led the league in goals. They need to find a scoring oasis, immediately.

“Yeah, it’s not good timing to have three games like that without our finishing boots on, as we call it,” said Forge midfielder Alessandro Hojabrpour, who has scored some big CPL goals in his career. “There’s really no time to think about it, to be honest, we just have to go to the next game and work on it during training. And we have to show up with a good mentality believing that we’re going to score.”

Hojabrpour had a strong match, saving a goal with an alert goal-line clear off a perfect Callum Montgomery header just before Cavalry’s volcanic-hot Tobias Warschewski bullied his way to an excellent goal, the only one the Cavs would need to host the final CPL game for the first time since 2019. It was also the first time Cavalry had beaten Forge in post-season play and the first time in three years they’d won in Hamilton’s east end.

Forge just couldn’t find the back of the net: with the game still scoreless, Ampomah had a couple of opportunities in tight scrambles, one just failing to drop in, the other when he probably could have headed it rather than waiting for it to play off his feet; Kyle Bekker had one nearly go in in the first half and rifled one just over the crossbar in the 84th minute; veteran Cavalry goalkeeper Marco Carducci made a couple of stops, Fraser Aird prevented a ball getting through to unmarked Béni Badibanga waiting on the far post,  and Hojabrpour had one of the best chances of the night for either side when Ampomeh threaded a pass to him just outside the box. But he drilled it right to the waiting Carducci in the middle of the posts.

“I was just kind of indecisive in where I wanted to put it,” Hojabrpour explained. “Should I go back across the goalie? Should I open up?’ and I ended up shooting it right down the middle.

“There’s also the belief that the ball is going to come. If you’re 100 percent sure that the ball might come to you then you probably are more ready. The belief maybe wasn’t there but with a quality player like Nana I probably should be thinking this ball’s going to come, then prepare myself to be where I want.”

Although they created a number of chances, even when Calgary’s low block dropped even lower after Warchewski’s early, and decisive,  goal, Forge lacked clinical finesse around the box. Although their goals have been generated from a lot of sources this season, it seemed like the lack of a true, healthy, No. 9 has been catching up to them. They sold emerging striker Kwasi Poku to a European side, veterans Jordan Hamilton and Terran Campbell have battled injuries, and high-profile Victor Klonaridis—brought in for games exactly like these—was out injured; and it didn’t help that talented Daniel Parra, who can navigate a lot of offence from the backfield, has been suspended for two games.

Ampomah started the game as a striker, with the assignment of playing behind the back line to create space, but they played low, then lower after they scored. Then Bobby Smyrniotis moved Badibanga to striker and Ampomah to his more natural outside spot, and later in the game brought in Hamilton to join Badibanga as a second striker.

“Obviously today we created chances, it was a matter of taking the last good choice: taking the right touch at the right moment, being at the right place at the right moment,” said Badibanga. “Thank God we still have one more chance and I know that we’ll be ready.”

Ampomah, his close friend and roommate added, “I feel we had some chances. I thought the goalkeeper played well, but we were unlucky to not score goals. It’s something we have to look at, something the coach spoke to us about that we’re not scoring. That’s something we’ll be working on in training.”

Some miscommunication between the centre-backs and Hamilton goalkeeper Jassem Koleilat gave Warchewski the opening he needed to score the goal which changed the way the game had to be approached. The strong 6-foot-2 German was a dangerous force with his pressure and has now scored six goals in the last four games, and won the league’s Golden Boot Award. Cavalry head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr said, “Tobi was our front three today!” and that wasn’t a stretch.

Wheeldon’s opposite number, Smyrniotis, said his team created a lot of chances and was already looking ahead to preparing for Atlético, who’ve beaten Hamilton three times this year, including a 2-0 loss in Hamilton, the game after Forge had clinched the CPL Shield. Ottawa is still smarting from the 2022 final, which Forge won right in the nation’s Capital. They’ll have to take a similar route this year—win a home playoff match and play the final on the road.

Last year, the Hammers beat the Cavs 2-1 on Tristan Borges’—he left Sunday’s game early—memorable Olimpico goal in one of the best overtimes ever played.

“There’s a reason this club has been the top club in the CPL for the past six years,” Smyrniotis said. “You’ve got to have that confidence, but nothing is guaranteed. The story just doesn’t rewrite itself, you have to write it, so it’s what you put into it, the effort you put into it, and sometimes it’s not going to work out the way you want. That’s football, that’s sports.”

Centreback Alex Achinioti-Jönsson, a key Hammer leader since the inaugural 2019 season said, “

“They took advantage of the chance they had, and we didn’t.

“I think overall, we were doing some good things. We were a little too weak defensively in the first half. I think we were dominating offensively, until the goal but that doesn’t matter in playoffs.

“Thankfully, it’s not one and done and we have Saturday to get ready for and prepare for, and that’s what we have to look at …but not fully forgetting what happened here today because I think there are good things you can take from it.

“Looking at the next game..that’s the most important part now.”