It’s a good thing Forge FC had a wake-up call at home on Saturday because they certainly won’t catch CF Montréal sleeping Wednesday night.
The Hammers gave up two first-half goals to Vancouver FC in their 2-1 loss at Tim Hortons Field —their first loss of the CPL season — and despite their trademark pressure, exerted in the second half, couldn’t get the equalizer.
On Wednesday Hamilton will meet a chastised Montreal squad which is coming off a severe 5-1 spanking by TFC and must also play on Saturday against Nashville who throttled them 4-1 just three days before they travelled to Tim Hortons Field for the opening leg of the Canadian Championship quarter-finals.
That game ended 1-1 after Forge dominated early, forcing Montréal head coach Laurent Courtois to bring in four players he says he hadn’t planned on using against the CPL team. Forge’s 1-0 halftime lead, which could have been double that, was wiped out by one of those substitutes, Bryce Duke, seven minutes into the second half. When Bobby Smyrniotis made his substitutes, the power balance switched again and Forge could have won it late, as Sebastian Breza made a big save to preserve the draw.
So, to advance to the semifinals against Toronto FC, the Forge have to win or draw while scoring at least two goals, because away goals are the tie-breaker. If it’s 1-1 after 90 minutes the teams go directly to penalty kicks.
“We think they’re going to come out aggressively, show they can play some better football than they did here,” says Forge FC centre-back Alex Achinioti-Jönsson I think they’re going to be more energized.
“They’re playing at home, we’ve played there a couple of times: we know they’re good at home.”
Indeed, Stade Saputo is a tough place to visit, especially for Forge, which hasn’t scored a goal there in national championship appearances the past two years. They were beaten 3-0 two years ago and 2-0 last year.
But Montreal has fallen upon hard times, stirring unrest in the fan base, as they’ve dropped to 3-3-7 and a dismal 13th place in the MLS East, closer to last than to a playoff spot, and have the worst goal differential in the entire league at minus-14. They’ve won only once in the last 11 games through all competitions and have lost four straight MLS games.
And two weeks ago, sporting director Olivier Renaud quit the team.
They are also depleted by injury and had eight players missing last Saturday in Toronto including young Uruguayan star Matias Coccaro, who also missed the first leg here and will be out another month or so, and the likes of Raheem Edwards.
Unless they go on a mad tear through the final two-thirds of the season, they will miss the playoffs, so their only real chance of making it to the Concacaf Champions Cup is through the Canadian Championships, with its automatic berth for the winner. Three wins, beginning Wednesday, and they salvage a run at that hardware.
It’s Forge’s job – using their backline structure and their offensive creativity–to remind CF Montréal that they are struggling mightily. They need to force the same kind of reality into the home side’s heads that they did in Hamilton two weeks ago: meaning Montreal might have eight times the payroll and play in a higher-ranked league, but Forge is fully capable of an upset.
And if they can get any kind of jump, they might make the crowd nervous (like a hockey audience in Toronto) and possibly take them out of the game: Stade Saputo supporters are very vocal but they also know soccer and they know when a home team isn’t delivering the goods.
Achinioti-Jönsson, who is just one behind the CPL leader in passes and has played one fewer game, will be one of the keys if Forge is to have a chance of advancing. He’s physical and tall and, like all the backs, has to clear the first ball put into the box. As Smyrniotis likes to say it’s so often the secondary play in the box, often from someone moving up, which is the real killer. That happened on Vancouver’s sudden opening goal in the third minute on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Smyrniotis says his side will try to play its game, with some nod to what the other team is doing, but more focussed on what Forge does well, which is attack with crosses and snaking one-twos. Montreal likes to start possession in its own box and set up its attack by finding the pockets either midway up on the flanks or if that draws coverage, to a hole in the middle. That can look brilliant when it facilitates a quick break with numbers, but it occasionally can leave room for a counter-punch.
“We know that they’re going to play possession football so I think it’s about us being organized in what we’re doing, and bringing a lot of energy in our press and our defence,” says Achinioti-Jönsson, who’s been with the club since Day 1. “We have to be aggressive and organized. I think we’ve shown that we play good football even when we’re not at top energy. But for this game, especially, we need to bring everything we have.”
While Hamilton has yet to score a goal in Stade Saputo they hadn’t scored a goal anywhere against Montréal until former Montréal Impact product David Choinière stunned them in the first half of the opening leg. He and Tristan Borges have been outstanding playing off each other all season, and Montréal found out two weeks ago what the likes of those two plus Béni Badibanga, Daniel Parra, Ali Hojabrpour and of course, Kyle Bekker can do as they proceed upfield.
Conversely, despite injuries, Montréal poses a constant threat. Sunusi Ibrahim is young and fast and has owned the Hammers with four of the five goals against them in Montréal, including a hat-trick two years ago. He also had Montréal’s only goal last weekend in Toronto.
Meanwhile, Forge FC has some injuries of their own and is still waiting for the arrival of stars Elimane Cissé and Ghanian attacker Nana Ampomah. They haven’t been given full approval to enter the country and it seems absurd that it should be taking this long. Like Mo Babouli a few years ago, both were signed to be featured in games against this type of opposition—and international ones like February’s Champions Cup games against Guadalajara but if Hamilton doesn’t prevail Wednesday, there will be no more such games until at least the New Year.
With Montréal trying to prove something to themselves and their fans, they’re expected to try to press for the opening goal, which would put Hamilton in a much deeper hole.
“The important thing is to not panic if they do get one,” Achinioti-Jönsson emphasizes. “We’re still one goal away from being in a good situation.
“Even on an off-day this year we create a lot even though we’re not playing our best intensity. When we bring that intensity and we add in the football we’ve been playing we’re brilliant and we’re a tough team to beat.
“We have to keep faith.”