Final Score: Atlético Ottawa 0-1 Forge FC Goalscorers: Choinière 90+1' Game of the 2023 season: 25 CPL match: 392
Match in a minute or less
Forge FC remained at the top of the CPL standings on Saturday as they defeated Atlético Ottawa by a narrow 1-0 scoreline at TD Place. After 90 full minutes of scoreless football -- kept that way by the dazzling goalkeeping heroics of Forge's Triston Henry -- it would, in the end, be David Choinière who broke Ottawa hearts yet again as he came off the bench to score in stoppage time for a close-fought 1-0 win for the Hamilton side.Three Observations
Atlético Ottawa can't solve brilliant Triston Henry as home woes continue
The hosts in this game would probably concede that they were a little more sluggish than the opposition in the first half. Ottawa had 31 per cent possession and just one shot (off target) in that opening frame as Forge were all over them at times in possession. Encouragingly, though, Atleti came out of the dressing rooms reinvigorated in the second half, almost immediately taking control of the game. In the first 20 minutes of the half they had eight shots to Forge's none, six of them on target. For all that pressure, though, they were unrewarded. The primary reason for that? Triston Henry. The Forge goalkeeper set a career high in saves on Saturday with eight, and more than just a few of them were exceptional reflex stops. Indeed, this was perhaps the easiest Man of the Match choice so far this CPL season. For Ottawa, though, frustration continues to mount. They still have yet to win at home this year (a draw and three losses), and against Forge specifically they've still never scored at TD Place. As it stands, Atleti remain outside the playoff spots and they'll be no better than seventh by the end of the weekend -- dead last if Halifax claim a point or more. That's particularly frustrating considering Ottawa weren't by any means poor on Saturday. On the balance, they certainly deserved at least a goal, beating Forge in the expected goals battle 1.04 to 0.65. Carlos González suggested postmatch that this was in fact one of his side's best performances of the year so far, and to leave it empty handed is disappointing. "My feelings are that we couldn't do much more to win the game," he said. "I think we did a lot of good things, but this is football sometimes. You create, you dominate in certain moments, you defend well, but in one detail -- probably in the only chance in which we made a couple of mistakes in the same action -- they score and they punish us in minute 91." He also has particular credit for Henry, whom he suggested rescued Forge from a possible defeat on Saturday: "I think that Henry maintained them in the game," González said. "Probably if Henry wasn't there today, it would be at some moment 2-0 easily, because I can remember five, six chances quite clear."Forge rotation offers new-look shape, difference-makers off bench
With a short turnaround between Wednesday's Canadian Championship game and this Saturday league match, Forge opted to rotate their lineup considerably, with seven changes to the XI that took on CF Montréal. Coach Bobby Smyrniotis chose this game to push Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson into midfield again, switching to a back three with Kwasi Poku and Malcolm Duncan (making his first pro start) as left and right wingbacks, respectively. It's not often that Forge FC play with a back three, but they chose to in this game to match up more directly against Ottawa's. With Bobby Smyrniotis wanting to give the likes of Ashtone Morgan, Rezart Rama and Manjrekar James a day off, his left-back options were the more attack-minded Kwasi Poku and natural centre-back Malik Owolabi-Belewu. Rather than pick one over the other, Smyrniotis decided to play to the strengths of both players. With a 3-5-2 shape, Poku was able to get forward up the left flank while Owolabi-Belewu handled much of the defensive load in the space behind him. Up front, Smyrniotis again opted for a different look for his side, putting Woobens Pacius and Terran Campbell up together as dual strikers while Noah Jensen sat behind them as an attacking midfielder. The pair of forwards ended up a little isolated at times in the first half with Ottawa trying to cut off their service, although the balls that did get through were typically in very dangerous situations -- Campbell, in particular, had two shots from just 12 touches in the opening 45. According to Smyrniotis, getting Pacius and Campbell close together to pin back Ottawa's central defenders was part of the game plan, although they were missing a bit of dynamism going forward with Jensen being the lone attacking midfielder in front of Bekker and Achinioti-Jönsson, rather than the more usual Forge shape with Bekker and Aboubacar Sissoko in front of Alessandro Hojabrpour. "Traditionally when we play with midfielders in the half-spaces we get more runs in behind, and that's what we were missing a bit today," Smyrniotis said. "We had a little bit of wide penetration in the first half, but we didn't have a lot of that half-space movement, so you give up something to gain something in that little tactical battle." In the end, though, it would be some familiar impact players producing the winning moment. David Choinière and Tristan Borges came off the bench together in the 67th minute and both were involved in the goal -- as was another substitute, Sissoko. Forge's depth continues to be astounding, with so much quality on their bench in this game plus Hojabrpour, Rezart Rama and Jordan Hamilton up in the stands for this one.Dueling back threes lead to momentum swings, tactical chess match
Both teams had extended periods of this match where waves of possession led to frustration and nothing on the scoresheet. With a pair of similarly-shaped 3-5-2 setups going head-to-head, it was a bit of a tug-of-war in the first half as both sides looked for the right spaces to exploit. Smyrniotis explained that his drastic shape change -- Forge having played in a 4-3-3 or 4-1-4-1 pretty much every game so far this year -- was largely a direct product of what he learned the last time Forge played Ottawa (a few weeks ago in the Canadian Championship). "A lot of times with Ottawa's shape there tends to be a pocket between the centre-backs and their two midfielders in Bassett and Acosta," Smyrniotis said. "We thought of maybe plugging a player in like Jensen to be in that area, maybe trying to pin Dos Santos, Assi or whoever were the wider players a bit further back, give us more ball tempo into what we were doing." Smyrniotis later added: "This is the second time we've played Ottawa this year. We're playing them another three times. It can't be the same thing each and every week, that's what makes this league very tough. We're an eight-team league that will play each other four to six times over the season." Ottawa, meanwhile, have a little more experience in a similar formation although their defensive line was comfortable shifting from a back three to a four with left wingback Maxim Tissot dropping when out of possession and Karl Ouimette controlling the right side behind the more attack-minded right wingback Jean-Aniel Assi. Tissot, however, did end up joining the attack fairly often, as Ottawa seemed to target a lot of their counter-attacking chances along the left side to target inexperienced Forge wingback Malcolm Duncan. Ottawa's aggressive wingback play helped them create a lot of their incisive chances in the early second half, but it did leave a few too many caught upfield when it was Forge going the other way on the break -- which led to the goal. "In their defensive structure they were dropping a little bit lower with Dos Santos and Assi," Smyrniotis said of what he saw Ottawa change in the second half. "That could work for us in allowing some of our backs and midfielders to roll out and get the ball but it also made them more dangerous on the counter-attack because you get this false sense of security when you're attacking." Ultimately, there were plenty of tactical nuances at play in a fine-margin match like this between two very good coaches. This time, as it often has been, it was Forge who had the better of it.CanPL.ca Player of the Match
Triston Henry, Forge FC Unequivocally, one of the finest goalkeeping performances in CPL history. Henry made a career-high eight saves, many of them astonishing reflex stops on the line to secure what was by no means an easy clean sheet for Forge.What’s next?
Forge return to Hamilton for a midweek clash against York United on Wednesday, May 31 (7 p.m. ET). Atlético Ottawa, likewise, are at home for their next game, a battle on Saturday, June 3 with Halifax Wanderers (7 p.m. ET). Watch all matches live on OneSoccer. In addition to its website and app, OneSoccer is now available on TELUS channel 980 and on Fubo TV. Call your local cable provider to ask for OneSoccer today.Continue reading...