Professional athletes don’t need extra motivation – that’s implied in the ‘professional’ part—but Kyle Bekker, as pro as they come, knows that a little extra incentive can never hurt.
So, on Saturday afternoon, his Forge FC will want to apply an immediate tourniquet to the inspirational flow suddenly surging through the collective veins of visiting York United FC.
Although Hamilton has beaten the Nine Stripes twice already this year—in the York United’s home opener in northwest Toronto and in the preliminary round of the TELUS Canadian Championship at Tim Hortons Field —by an aggregate of 6-1, York has caught a bit of a tailwind, both on and off the pitch.
After opening the CPL season with only one win in four games, over the past two weeks, York has beaten lower-tier Valour and HFX Wanderers at home and taken a point out of Calgary with a 2-2 draw against Cavalry.
Amid that, they fired their coach Martin Nash and replaced him in the interim with Mauro Eustaquio, the assistant coach. There are rumours that a Mexican coach is on his way to join the team, which was bought in December by the Pasquel brothers from Mexico City.
“We know, obviously, when a team switches a coaching staff, it lights a fire within the group,” Bekker was saying this morning. “It can go one of two ways and I think for this group, it’s galvanized them: guys are playing for positions, they’re playing for time.
“So we know they’re going to come out with something to prove. We beat them twice this year, too, so they’re going to want to get us back for that. We have to be ready we have to be prepared.”
While Forge FC has been in all five CPL championship finals and won four, in the past four seasons York has finished fourth once, fifth twice and sixth once. In head-to-head competition, Hamilton has won 14, drawn two and lost seven overall, but at Tim Hortons Field York has often played commendable football and has won four times in seven games here. A year ago today they won 2-1 in Hamilton, for instance.
Both teams have 10 points, although Forge has played one less game, so if York can win tomorrow, they’d temporarily leapfrog the Hammers into fourth place.
They’ve been using an attack from the flanks and getting good play in and around the box from Brian Wright, whose four goals rank second in the league, and Austin Ricci, who has three and is among the CPL leaders in taking shots. He and defender Noah Abatneh were named to the CPL team of the week. Their teammate Max Ferrari has been winning duels, which is essential against a potentially ferocious attacking unit like Forge.
“This year we’ve had two of our better matches against them and a lot of that is sticking to our principles,” said Forge head coach and sporting director Bobby Smyrniotis. “They have to adjust to counteract that. We’ve worked on multiple scenarios if they do adjust to certain spots on the pitch. We’ve had some good games against them and that has to be our guiding principle.”
Forge, meanwhile, won its first opening three CPL regular season games for the first time in its six-year history and stunned the North American soccer community by eliminating CF Montréal from the Canadian Championships last week.
But in their last three games of CPL play they have extracted only one of a potential nine points, with a draw at Pacfiic, a home loss to Vancouver FC and a fatigue-driven 3-0 loss to Atlético in Ottawa, less than 72 hours after their physically-and-mentally draining victory in Montréal.
Smyrniotis isn’t concerned over leaving eight CPL points on the table in games against the teams directly above Forge in the standings.
“No,” he says firmly. “If you look at the games, it has nothing to do with the kind of football we’re playing or things like that. It’s just the way things have gone and we haven’t been quite as prolific as we want to be around the goal. Take away that last game against Ottawa; we can’t be excited about Wednesday and then get down about Saturday. You have to take everything in stride. It’s a matter of sticking to your football, and things work out.”
This is a bit simplistic, but Forge simply has to score more and take more consistent advantage of those attractive set-ups that leave them with quality chances.
“I think the big thing we have to focus on is our energy,” Bekker says. “What we’re doing off the ball, the movement runs in behind, the counter-movement when we have the ball, just to create more options and just be a little bit more dynamic.”
Does the captain have any concern about harvesting only one point from the last three CPL games?
“I don’t know if concern is the right word, but it’s something we have to be mindful of,” he replies. “Obviously we’re not happy with the results but within those games, there have been a ton of positives. We’ve created lots of chances, and we haven’t been as ruthless in the final third as we’d like to be. We know that and we’ve talked about it. I think it’s important to be aware of it but it’s not something we have to panic about.
We just have to be mindful.”
HAMMERS AND NAILS: Game time Saturday at Tim Hortons Field is 4 p.m. and a crowd of over 5,000 is anticipated … fans will see the new installation in the Stipley area of the south plaza, featuring two giant Hammers over the concession booths , one symbolizing Forge FC the other the Tiger-Cats … local soccer fans are ecstatic about Wednesday’s draw for the Canadian Championship semi-finals which will pit against MLS side Toronto FC, who beat Hamiilton in a shootout for the pandemic delayed 2020 national title played in 2022. The dates for the two-legged series will be announced soon … Forge defender Alex Achinioti-Jönsson leads the CPL with 438 passes. York’s young Noah Abatneh is third with 428 … Hamilton leads the CPL in passes and passing percentage. Still, York is not far behind … York swapped players on loans with HFX Wanderers, receiving 21-year-old midfielder Tomas Giraldo, with the option of eventually making it a permanent deal.