Like in the old doctor jokes, which do you want first, the good news or the bad news?
Well, the bad news for Forge FC on Saturday was that they were out-laboured by visiting Valour FC in the first half, surrendered their only goal of the young season, came away with only a single point, again didn’t finish on enough good chances, missed on a penalty kick, and were unable to open a season for the first time with three straight wins and remained in a three-headed logjam for first place in the CPL.
The good news is that Forge is in a tie for first place, found their trademark industriousness in the second half, rallied for a 1-1 draw to remain undefeated and even their uncharacteristic first-half sluggishness provided Head Coach Bobby Smyrniotis with a forum for some teaching moments.
And, perhaps most importantly, Brian Wright scored his first goal as a Hammer.
Wright Time, Right Place
In soccer parlance, it’s called “opening your account”, and there was a clear sense of satisfaction, even relief, that the striker who was voted the Player’s Player of the Year last season, had—on Easter weekend—broken his 2025 goose egg.
Wright tied the game in the 50th minute when centre back Alex Achinioti-Jönsson, off to a brilliant start this season, drove a lane deep into Valour territory and laid a cross which Mo Babouli hit high into the air, and seemingly over the net. But the strong headwind held the ball up and in play, Winnipeg goalkeeper Johnathan Vicosi misinterpreted it and tipped the ball to Wright in tight. He made no mistake from there.
After some glorious but ultimately unrewarded chances in the first couple of CPL games and the first leg of the Champions Cup against Monterrey, Wright was glad to rescript the scoreless narrative.
“I wouldn’t say I was ‘pressing’,” Wright said. “In the first game, I had an opportunity in the first half, and then last week, I had an early opportunity on a cross from Nana and one that Bekks (Kyle Bekker) played me too.
“I just think in certain moments I’m still a little rusty, maybe, but at the same time I think I’m getting in good areas and my teammates are finding me so I just have to be clinical when I can be clinical.”
That’s how Smyrniotis framed it, too. He praised Wright’s constant focus and effort and reiterated that strikers just must stay ready, especially deep in the box, in case there’s an unexpected bounce or keeper error. You can’t unwrap a present if you’re not there when it arrives.
“He’s doing a lot of the right things on the pitch,” Smyrniotis said afterwards. “His movement in behind stretching the opponent, I think that’s a good thing. For any striker you want to put the ball in the back of the net, so obviously (the goal) helps. It doesn’t matter how it comes.
“We always talk about strikers being in the right place at the right time and never giving up on any type of play and that was that type of play: it was good entry into the box with Jönsson moving forward, good execution by Mo and we follow up with a goal.
“I think it’s very good for him just to get that out of the way, but I think his work and his movement off the ball has been good. And if you keep doing the right things, good things happen.”
A Halftime Wake-Up Call
Smyrniotis was far less complimentary of his team’s play as a whole in the first half, which they exited down 1-0 on striker Shaan Hundal’s first goal of the season in the 11th minute.
Valour was vigorous throughout the half and were repeatedly able to find a way over Forge’s high press. They made eight tackles in the half to just three by Forge, who were often beaten to the ball, and Valour picked off seven Hamilton passes. While Valour has historically had more success against Forge than any team in the CPL—they’ve now had eight wins and four draws in 23 head-to-heads—most of that has come in Winnipeg. But even in Hamilton, they play Forge with sustained toughness, and they were full value for their first point of the season and, they reasoned, could possibly have harvested all three.
At the intermission, Smyrniotis wrote two numbers on the team’s whiteboard: 60 and 100. The latter referred to the mark on a scale of 0-100 of Valour’s work rate, the former to Forge’s. And he joked, he had inflated his own team’s rating by about 25 per cent. The message was clear—keep playing this way and the score will stay this way—and it was obviously heard. Less than five minutes into the second half Wright put Forge on the board.
“One thing I always talk about with our team is that the effort always has to be at a maximum,” Smyrniotis said. “We know Valour’s effort is always going to be maximum when playing against us. I think they did a very good job in the first half, just strictly from energy, running all over the place.
“And we weren’t clean on some of the things we needed to do on the ball, which was uncharacteristic. So maybe there was a level of ease coming into the match, and all of a sudden, you’re down a goal, and now you have to spin the match. We did a good job of coming back, tying the game and creating some opportunities but again, the energy level needs to be higher.”
Forge looked like they might rescue a full three points when Tristan Borges made a nice cross into the box to Maxime Filion, whose nudge bounced off a Valour defender’s arm, creating a penalty kick, the first of the year in the CPL. Dan Nimick, who has scored 12 of his 14 league goals on penalty kicks, stepped to the spot. He’d scored twice in his HFX Wanderers’ career on penalties against Viscosi, but his only career miss also came against Viscosi.
Make that two. Viscosi dove to his right and pushed away Nimick’s shot, which was targeted, but not powerful enough. The keeper was mobbed by his teammates.
“Not a lot of guys can do something which costs them, make a little mistake, and they don’t have the head space to build back from it….in the same game, let alone the next game,” Hundal said of the morale boost the save provided to Valour for the final few minutes. “It shows you how good a keeper he is to come up big for us after a mistake he made. But we were never worried (about him). We had faith.”
Smyrniotis has the same faith in Nimick: “A lot of times it’s automatic. This time it didn’t work, next time it will.”
With Forge not playing again until they visit York United in Toronto next Sunday, Smyrniotis gave the team a day off from training on Monday. Both he and Wright called the first half ‘bang average’ but were encouraged by the energy and tactical surge in the second 90.
“I thought we were better in the second half than we were in the first, and we were able to get the goal early on,” Wright said. “The conditions played a role in that (goal). It’s pretty windy here typically.
“I was just trying to stay optimistic. The first two games I hadn’t scored, and the ball dropped to me. Obviously, I want to score in every game. To open my account today feels really great. Everyone’s been saying, ‘Today is the day, today is the day.’ …So having my teammates believe in me each game, to get the first goal, is great.
“I feel you can’t harp too much on the games as they go by. Just try to be optimistic, just keep trying to keep in the right areas and hopefully the ball falls to you in the right areas. I was fortunate today, and I’m grateful, and I’ll try to keep it going from there.”
HAMMERS AND NAILS:
- Valour Head Coach Phil Dos Santos was serving a suspension from last year and the club was handled by assistant Daryl Fordyce, who played three seasons for Valour
- Tristan Borges delivered several nice services for Forge
- Brian Wright’s goal was his first since Aug. 2 last season when he was with York United
- Valour fullbacks Zach Fernandez and Themi Antonoglou had impactful games
- Valour forward Kris Twardek was a force, and his nice bicycle pass in the box set up Shaan Hundal for the tap-in to give Winnipeg the early lead.