Nana Ampomah is shy, soft-spoken and kind.

Off the field.

On it, he’s authoritative, challenging, and if you’re playing against him, you’d better know exactly where he is at all times.

That’ll be a tactical handful for Valour FC when they visit Forge FC on Saturday (6 p.m., One Soccer) at Hamilton Stadium.

The 29-year-old winger is a threat to score or set up a goal every time the ball ventures into his area. In Forge FC’s comprehensive 2-0 away victory at Pacific FC last weekend, he was a force up front, provoking defenders with old-school directness and making pinpoint passes. That he didn’t have an assist, or more, is another example of how raw statistics rarely tell the complete story, and the CPL got it right when he was one of the four Forge named to the league’s top XI of the weekend.

“He’s an excellent player and– I keep on saying this– we still haven’t seen the best of him,” says Hammers Head Coach and Sporting Director Bobby Smyrniotis. “He got here last year without having a proper pre-season and struggled a bit with injuries.

“But look at his year statistically. Apart from goals and first assists (two of each) he was involved in eight goals. That really brings things to the attack, and that’s something we saw, particularly in the first half, against Pacific. He gave us great energy in the first three minutes of the game, playing a ball through to Brian Wright. Then kind of a similar play to Mo Babouli later on. He was dangerous throughout, and I think game by game he’ll be bringing more levels out.”

Against Pacific, Ampomah orchestrated three superb scoring chances and was a sustained threat, with four dribble penetration attempts and 16 contested duels. For a player whose mindset had been so laser-focused on scoring throughout his career, he was also trying to live up to Smyrniotis’s new mandate for his attackers to be more aggressive and quick-footed in defending.

“He made a big commitment to defending, and it’s something I’ve asked from all our guys in the front line,” Smyrniotis said. “We have to score goals together; we have to defend together. So, it’s excellent to see that from Nana.”

In turn, Ampomah seems satisfied to see that for himself. If the Hammers can keep instituting the aggressive pressure in the final third of the pitch—pinching the opposition backline and goalkeeper into hurried passes and less-desirable escape routes, they’re going to win a lot of games.

“The most important thing is the three points,” he says. “It’s always good to follow the directions of the coach. So, for me, more dedicated defence is something I had to do if I wanted to play.

“I feel like it’s good to help the team on defence because having good defence is when you do well with the attack. I want to help the team, so we all defend and we all attack.”

Ampomah was identified early in his life as a natural attacker. Growing up in Ghana, he played for that country’s training centre run by legendary Brazilian club Santos F.C., yes, Pelé’s home club. When he was 20, he went to Belgium to play for KV Mechelen’s U-21 side.  He then signed his first senior pro contract with Waasland-Beveren in Belgium’s top league. He played three of his four years there with fellow Béni Badibanga, his best friend and his roommate in Hamilton last year.

Then it was off to Germany’s Fortuna Düsseldorf, with a loan spell to Royal Antwerp back in Belgium. He suffered injuries back in Düsseldorf, was sent to the second team in 2023 and left the club after the season. Over his European career, he scored 25 goals in 138 games across all competitions, including 18 goals in Belgium’s top league.

On the recommendation of Badibanga, he signed with Forge 16 months ago, but visa issues kept him off the club until June.

He showed some brilliant moments but also had to acclimate himself to a new team, a new league, a new city, and artificial turf. His entire soccer life, he had always played and trained on natural grass. This year, he feels much more comfortable.

“The first season, I didn’t have preparation. I came in June, and the season was already going. And coming from real grass to artificial grass was a big change for me. The way the ball runs, the changes of direction, everything is different than on grass. But you get used to it.”

The last time Ampomah and the Hammers saw Valour was in October when they clinched their second North Star Shield—and a Champions Cup berth— on Noah Jensen’s goal, right in Winnipeg.

Valour’s Evolution and Forge’s Early-Season Focus

Valour had a strong second half last year, although they lost their final three games to miss the playoffs and brought back some core pieces of their lineup—notably goalkeeper Jonathan Viscosi, striker Shaan Hundal and left back Themi Antonoglou, who was a finalist for CPL defender of the year-, and midfielder Diogo Ressurreição –while still making several new additions.

They brought in some established CPL players such as centre-back Rocco Romeo (Valour previously, and Vancouver), right back Zach Fernandez (HFX Wanderers) and winger Kris Twardek (HFX Wanderers), while Kian Williams, who tied for the club lead in scoring two years ago, returns from a year off because of injury.  And Ressurreição will be joined in the middle tier by fellow Portuguese midfielders Bruno Figueiredo and Xavier Venâncio.

It’s a club with more depth in the past, but they are still a team which has never qualified for the postseason. And they were outplayed by Pacific in their only game so far this year. They have done surprisingly well against Hamilton over the years, winning eight of the 22 head-to-heads, losing 12 and drawing a pair. Forge, though, is 7-2-1 against Valour in Hamilton and, of course, wants that imbalance to continue this weekend.

“It’s the same thing as against Pacific last week,” Smyrniotis said when asked to forecast what his team might encounter against Valour on Saturday. “I think it’s way too early to figure out what a team is. They’ve played one game.

“But we do know they’re a hard-working team, and they’ve played some of their best matches against Forge. We just need to be prepared to execute what we need to be able to do. That’s the biggest focus.

“After you’ve played everybody once, then you have a clearer picture of where the tendencies of teams are, where some of the weaknesses are that you need to exploit. So, we still stay on that model.

“We usually focus 80 per cent on ourselves and 20 percent on the opponent, but we’re probably about 95-5 at the moment.”

Part of that 95 per cent was a more efficient use of set pieces. And that’s been a fruitful pursuit so far.

“One thing we challenged ourselves on this off-season is being better on set-pieces,” Smyrniotis explains. “In this league, no team has had more corner kicks than Forge. We need to take advantage of those moments because there are times in a game where it doesn’t matter what’s gone on, free kicks or corner kicks can change a game right on the spot.”

And another part of the 95 per cent is the calculated use of the press up front—the afore-mentioned aggressive defence—for long chunks of a game, which keeps the other team in its own zone longer, combined with the defenders holding a higher line when Forge controls the ball on the attack.

“We’ve got two wins in good fashion, playing some good football and integrating a lot of the new guys into the lineup,” Smyrniotis says. “So, all around we’ve been happy, but we know you can’t just rest on what you’ve done so far.

Hammers and Nails:

• Forge defender Dan Nimick leads the CPL with 7 interceptions and goalkeeper Jassem Koleilat is tops with 2 clean sheets.
• Alex Achinioti-Jönsson is third in interceptions and fourth in passes.
• Mo Babouli ranks with 5 shots
• Defender Zayne Bruno, who impressed in his pro debut two weeks ago before incurring a red card, returns to the lineup after the mandatory one-game suspension
• Nana Ampomah, Khadim Kane, Achinioti-Jönsson and Kyle Bekker were named to the Week 2 all-CPL team.
• Appropriately ,the on-field Easter egg hunt on the Hamilton Stadium pitch right after Saturday’s game is sponsored by the Egg Farmers of Canada
• As the Forge development network continues to expand, the club has entered a new technical partnership with FC Laval’s boys youth program.