Valour FC will head home from a two-match trip to Ontario very happy this week, as they defeated Forge FC 1-0 at Tim Hortons Field on Wednesday night to win their second straight game away from home and halt the Hamilton side’s three-game winning streak.
Coming off an extended rest period since their last contest ten days prior, Forge made just two changes to the lineup that beat HFX Wanderers a week and a half ago, with Garven Metusala returning to the side as well as Alessandro Hojabrpour. As ever, captain Kyle Bekker commanded the middle, as he became the first player to make 100 appearances for a Canadian Premier League side.
Valour, having played at York United on Sunday, still made just one change to the squad, with Stefan Cebara stepping into defence in place of the suspended Rocco Romeo.
Keeping pace after their win over the weekend, Valour entered the game with plenty of energy, paying several visits to the attacking third in the first 20 minutes or so, although some good final-ball defending from Forge prevented the Winnipeg club from testing Triston Henry. Still, Valour continued to press forward and found a few dangerous set-piece opportunities.
Forge, though, responded with some transitional attacks of their own, including a couple that came close to opening the scoring via the foot of Tristan Borges — though not quite.
Neither of the two teams really seemed able to break the other down in the first half, as they saw out a scoreless 45 minutes and headed to the dressing rooms with all to play for.
The home side had the lion’s share of possession to open the second half, buzzing around the penalty area but not quite turning that into dangerous shots on target. Instead, it would be Valour who broke the game open just after the hour mark.
After Walter Ponce won possession in midfield and played it forward, Sean Rea spotted a gap in the Forge backline for a counter-attack, and he threaded an excellent pass across the pitch to William Akio, who got free of his mark and bore in on goal all alone, finishing the chance coolly to the right goalpost to make it 1-0.
Forge nearly equalized just three minutes later, as Woobens Pacius nearly caught Valour by surprise with a quick shot after a throw-in, but ‘keeper Jonathan Sirois reacted well to steer it aside.
Trailing at home with 20 minutes to play, Forge coach Bobby Smyrniotis went to his bench to try and get back into it. He deployed Terran Campbell and Emery Welshman up front, taking off striker Woobens Pacius and fullback Garven Metsuala as Forge changed their formation somewhat to get more attackers on the pitch.
The hosts found some new life with about eight minutes to go, as Valour’s Walter Ponce slide clumsily into a Forge attacker, prompting referee Fabrizio Stasolla to show him a second yellow card and put the visitors down to 10 men for the final few minutes of the match.
Forge swarmed around the attacking third for the entirety of the last 10 minutes, essentially, but ultimately the Valour defence held firm as they won a second straight game in Ontario and moved to just one point back of fourth place in the table with their fourth win of the year.
BOX SCORE
Goals
61′ — William Akio (Valour FC)
Discipline
31′ — Yellow: Walter Ponce (Valour FC)
72′ — Yellow: Jonathan Sirois (Valour FC)
80′ — Yellow: Brett Levis (Valour FC)
82′ — Second Yellow: Walter Ponce (Valour FC)
88′ — Yellow: Alessandro Riggi (Valour FC)
90+2′ — Yellow: Rezart Rama (Forge FC)