Steve Milton’s weekly Forge notebook
Listen to Steve Milton on the Forge Audio Network
Spotify
Apple Podcast
Now, this is a lot more like the Forge FC schedule logjam to which local soccer fans have been accustomed over several stretches during the last half-decade.
It’s a classic Hammer trifecta: three home games in two separate competitions over just 11 days. Ever wonder why this club has always gone for quality depth? Here’s Exhibit A. On second thought—given how often they played internationally, in the post-season, and deep into the Canadian championships—it’s more like Exhibit M or N.
Saturday at 4 p.m., the struggling Valour FC comes into Tim Hortons Field in a regular-season CPL game. The Manitobans have had difficulty finding their equilibrium and haven’t found the net in more than a game and a half after jumping out to a 1-0 lead in their opening match. It’s been 6-0 for the other guys since then.
Then on Wednesday (7 p.m.), it’s the opening round of the Canadian Championship against York United FC, who will be looking to avenge their 3-0 home-pitch loss to an uber-dominant Hamilton side Sunday in Vaughan. For those who forget how important the national tournament is, if you can win it—and Forge almost did a couple of times—it’s accompanied by a direct entry into the Concacaf Champions Cup. Bobby Smyrniotis and his staff aren’t shy about saying that’s one of the club’s primary goals. This, and every year.
Only six days after the York game, HFX Wanderers come into town for the CPL’s first-ever School Day Match. Set your alarms because that’s an 11 a.m. kickoff on Tuesday, May 7. While Forge FC is blazing the trail with this experiment, most teams in the league will be watching and taking notes. Some might even dispatch reps here in person.
Those are three different opponents, and currently, they’re the bottom three teams in the CPL. But a couple of cautionary notes on drawing too much from that: the season is only two weeks old; it’s unlikely that any of them will go winless all year; each of them has some players who can inflict damage; teams are always “up” to play Forge; and finally, the ball is round and bounces a lot.
Additionally, while the Hammers are always exerting internal pressure on themselves, there is already a bit of external pressure. They’re off to the first 2-0 start in team history, but those B.C. clubs, Pacific and Vancouver FC, also have deposited six points in the bank, and the Forge wants to keep pace. There’s a Champions Cup berth for the overall Canadian championship winner, but there’s also one for the CPL team which finishes first in the regular season. Every club wants to keep alive the possibilities in both competitions for as long as they can.
Forge was on the front foot almost all the time.
It’s old news now, but the Forge didn’t just win a 905 Derby game Sunday at York Lions Stadium; they absolutely dominated it. The score flattered the Nine Stripes who mounted some promising early parries, but a couple of alert blocks and catches by Chris Kalongo, on his way to a clean sheet, plus yet more blocks from the emerging left-back Malik Owolabi-Belewu, seemed to blunt the rebuilding York’s collective spirit.
Tristan Borges was brilliant again, setting up a pair of goals and often drifting over to the right side relentlessly zig-zagging with batterymate David Choinière to make everyone dizzy, particularly the left side of the York defense. Choinière got a pair of goals, and the other went to Beni Badibanga, who’s got a pair himself. Nobody in the CPL outside of the Forge pair has more than one goal yet. And Borges, who scored in the opener, already has three assists in two games, and that’s hard to do in soccer, with its stingy awarding of set-up credit.
Nobody’s saying anything, but you get this strong sense that Badibanga and Owolabi-Belewu—and perhaps others—are being heavily monitored not only by MLS sides but by higher-paying international leagues and that Forge could be headed toward some incoming transfer fees in the near future.
Forge is drawing increasingly well at the turnstiles, but the May 7 morning game against Halifax’s Wanderers is projecting into another time zone. Area schools have shown amazing interest, and some are incorporating soccer into their curriculum units in a variety of subjects.
The entire east side stands will be open, top to bottom, and the entire east side stands have already been sold out, top to bottom. But don’t worry, there are plenty of tickets still available, and they’ll be going on sale soon. Subscribers and others who want to go to the game have all been moved to the west side, and they’ll have a perfect view of the mayhem on the other side of the field.
If you’ve never been to a school day game—and this one should be the highest-attended ever, in any sport, in this city—we’d highly advise it. It can be hard on the eardrums, but the excitement level is contagious. It’s a good chance for parents of the kids who’ll be there, and of those who’ve adopted soccer as their favourite sport, to get some understanding of what it is that attracts the younger generation.
Identifying with soccer and the home team
A younger generation was also at Tim Hortons Field on Monday this week for another Hamilton Sports Group outreach program—the Ticats’ FirstOn the Field flag football event for elementary school kids.
A usually cynical sports writer witnessed a poignant scene as the students from one of the schools involved waited their turn at the players’ field entry gate on the west side. They knew they were not supposed to “touch anything,” and they knew they’d be soon heading out to Simoni Lawrence’s high-energy football games and drills, but a group of them couldn’t help themselves. They were attracted to a large photo hanging just outside the Caretaker’s Lounge on the bottom level of the stadium. It pictures the starting 11 from the 2021 Forge team, and everyone in the group reached up and admiringly pressed their index fingers onto the face of a different player. Some said, ‘my favourite,’ others said ‘him,’ but all were clearly in thrall to these players and the sport.
They were caressing a photo of a group that is reflective of the Canadian society they live in and a sport that has the largest cohort of enrollment of their age group in this country. Maybe they could see themselves in that photo.
It was absolutely, excuse the pun, touching.
Five years in, CPL players are finding new opportunities
When Leon Hapgood, who’d been Cavalry FC’s Technical Director for two years and Tommy Wheeldon Jr.’s assistant coach prior to that, was announced as an assistant coach for big-money, Big-Apple, NYCFC a couple of months ago, it was a prominent victory for part of the CPL’s original master plan.
In the years leading up to the formation of the CPL, team owners and league executives kept emphasizing that not only would the new league expand and nurture the talent pool on the pitch, but it would create employment and advancement for men and women in every aspect of the sport: coaches, trainers, event organizers, therapists, ticket-sellers, travel secretaries, equipment people, scouts, and office workers. That has indeed happened.
And along that line, we thank the incomparable Kristian Jack, the CPL’s Vice-President of Media, who passed along this little gem.
Every single team in this league has now got at least one former CPL player who has retired and now holds an important off-pitch position. Cavalry leads the way with Mason Trafford as Commercial Director, Oliver Minatel as Head of Recruitment and Player Development, Tofa Fakunle as Assistant GM, and Jay Wheeldon and Nik Ledgerwood as assistant coaches. Drew Beckie is Team Manager, and Karl Ouimette is in business development for Atletico Ottawa; York has Mauro Eustaquio as an assistant, and Jordan Wilson is a OneSoccer analyst; Valour’s Daryl Fordyce is an assistant coach and director of youth development; Mark Village is goalkeeper coach for Vancouver FC, the same job Jan-Michael Williams holds for HFX Wanderers; and Jamar Dixon is Manager of Football and Player Development for Pacific FC.
Then, of course, there’s Forge’s David Edgar, who’s worked wonders in building Forge’s backline as an assistant coach, is soon heading over to Europe for practical work in his UEFA B coach course, and will then move on to his A levels. Eddie, who had a brilliant playing career, has a brilliant coaching future ahead of him. And his present is pretty darn impressive as well.
Hammers and Nails: David Choinière was named the CPL’s player of the week. Four Forge players were named to the Best 11 of the week: Choinière, Tristan Borges, Chris Kalongo, and Daniel Parra. Could have been more too … Choinière and Beni Badibanga lead the CPL with two goals each, Borges’ three assists are tops in the league, and Malik Owolabi-Belewu is tops in tackles with eight and in interceptions where his stunning 10 are three more than anyone else has mustered.