April 21, 2024...MATCH ANALYSIS: Forge's fluid front four dominate in 3-0 victory over York United (from canpl.ca)

MATCH ANALYSIS: Forge’s fluid front four dominate in 3-0 victory over York United
2024-04-21
by MITCHELL TIERNEY, DIGITAL CONTENT PRODUCER (@MITCHELLTIERNEY)

Final Score: York United 0-3 Forge FC
Goalscorers: Choinière 45+1' 67', Badibanga 61'
Game of the 2024 season: 8
CPL match: 487
Match in a minute or less

Forge FC dominated the first 905 Derby of the 2024 Canadian Premier League season, defeating rivals York United 3-0 on Sunday afternoon.

Despite an outstanding crowd at York Lions Stadium for their 2024 home opener, Forge struck first just before half-time on an excellent effort from David Choinière. They build on that lead in the second half through two quick goals from Béni Badibanga, and again from Choinière to compete his brace.

It was the fourth straight victory for Forge at York Lions Stadium, and the fourth straight time they have kept a clean sheet against their regional rivals. The Hamilton side have won both their matches to start the 2024 campaign, while York United have lost their first two games.

Three Observations

Strong start to the season for Forge FC

Five years into their history, it is hard to find boxes that the Forge side haven’t yet ticked. They did so during the opening week, however, winning the first match of the season for the first time in club history.

They followed that up by doing something that they have only done one other time, winning their second CPL match of the year. Most years, Forge take a bit of time before they start picking up results, but with two impressive victories under their belt they might well be considered ahead of schedule in 2024.

“The guys have done a good job on the tactical part of the game,” said Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis. “I always say I don’t like leaving games to chance and luck, and we want to be able to create our opportunities from something that we’ve worked on, or something that we do. In the first games, that’s what we have been doing, so that’s something very positive.”

What has been most impressive, perhaps, is how many players have stepped into expanded roles so quickly and capably. Chris Kalongo was excellent again in net, picking up his first clean sheet of the season while making four saves and three clearances.

In front of him, Malik Owolabi-Belewu has been a revelation so far this season, while Malcolm Duncan and Daniel Parra are both showing quality across a new-look backline.

In the past, Forge have perhaps spent the first few months of the season sorting out their tactical identity, this year they are picking up big results in the process.

Forge FC’s fluid front four dominates 905 derby

Early in the 2024 season, Forge seem to have found the perfect attacking mix in a front four of David Choinière, Tristan Borges, Béni Badibanga and Terran Campbell.

The tactical flexibility and understanding between the group was again on display against York United, as their ability to interchange and combine created a lot of problems for the Nine Stripes — ultimately playing a role in all three goals the club scored on Sunday.

“I think the most important thing is that they’re quality players, our most important job as coaches is to make sure we don’t restrict that quality,” said Smyrniotis. “We want to get them into certain parts of the field where their best qualities can be shown. It’s a big part of what we do and how we play, it’s which zones we put certain players in, because they may start in a position in a formation, but that’s not really important to us.”

The below chart shows the positions in which Forge’s attackers, Campbell (14), Badibanga (39), Choinière (7) and Borges (19) created offensive opportunities (showing key passes, assists and shot attempts).

Tristan Borges spent the first half drifting, and often interchanging, with David Choinière down the right flank. They overloaded that side, leading to a number of chances. It also allowed Choinière to drift centrally on the opening goal, which he finished off with a lovely first-time strike.

In the second half, the wingers switched sides with Badibanga playing down the right and Choinière down the left. On Forge’s second goal, Borges held up the ball brilliantly in the box, before poking it to a wide open Badibanga on the left.

Borges has been outstanding this season in terms of his chance creation, picking up two assists and six chances created on Sunday. He also showed outstanding effort to get around Nyal Higgins to set up the third goal. Whether or not the ball actually crossed the endline, he was rewarded — as was Choinière who again was in a perfect position in the box to finish off his second goal.

York United disappointed they couldn’t give outstanding crowd more to cheer about

Slow starts at home were a lethal habit for York United last season. After allowing 13 first half goals at home last season, and scoring just four, York United came within a few seconds of getting over that bad habit — before Choinière struck with one of the last kicks of the opening half.

York had started the match reasonably well, finding space behind the advanced Daniel Parra down the right flank on a couple of occasions early — including a strike from Clément Bayiha that forced a good save from Kalongo.

“Real naive goal to give away on the last kick of the half, which hurt going into halftime,” said York head coach Martin Nash. “I don’t think we rebounded from it. I think the second half we didn’t play with urgency, we didn’t get stuck in, we just kind of played a little bit, gifted them two goals with naive defending. So very frustrating, shows we have a lot to work on.”

He said there were particular learning lessons for the team’s young centreback pairing of Noah Abatneh and Nyal Higgins who had a difficult time managing Forge’s waves of attack — particularly with their dynamic attacking movement.

What perhaps disappointed the York side most is that they were not able to give what was an outstanding crowd at York Lions Stadium more to cheer about. For their home opener, the club managed their biggest crowd since 2019, ushering in a new era for York United.

“It was too bad we couldn’t perform the way we needed to give them something to go home happy, yeah it was a great atmosphere, great to see a lot of people in the stands,” said Nash. “What we’re trying to build as a club here around a game day, it’s a very good start.”

CanPL.ca Player of the Match
David Choinière, Forge FC

The 27-year-old was at his attacking best on Sunday. His brace came on four attempted shots, and ten touches inside the York box as he consistently got into great positions.

What’s next?
York United are back at home on Friday, April 26 as they host Vancouver FC (7:00 p.m. ET). Forge, meanwhile, host Valour FC on Saturday, April 27 (4:00 p.m. ET). The two sides are set to meet again on Wednesday, May 1 in the opening round of the 2024 Canadian Championship (7:00 p.m.).

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