Captain Noah Jensen was the hero in Hamilton on Friday, as the Forge midfielder scored twice en route to his side’s 2-0 victory at Tim Hortons Field over Pacific FC, keeping his side atop the Canadian Premier League in matchweek 21.
Both teams offered a slightly different look for this game after exhausting Canadian Championship ties against MLS teams earlier this week. Forge made six changes to the side that played Toronto FC on Tuesday, with Jensen — wearing the captain’s armband for the first time — Dominic Samuel, and Malik Owolabi-Belewu coming back into the team, among others including goalkeeper Chris Kalongo returning after four straight games on the sidelines. Pacific, meanwhile, made five changes, as Moses Dyer made his first start for the club and Christian Greco-Taylor came in at left-back, with Devin O’Hea leading the line up front.
After an entertainingly back-and-forth first 20 minutes, where both sides had a couple of decent opportunities to test the opposition, Forge broke through first. Jensen had already troubled Emil Gazdov once, but his second attempt a few minutes later found the back of the net. Jensen brought down a cross at the top of the box and struck the ball on the half-volley, beating the Pacific defence and Gazdov with a powerful shot to make it 1-0 for the hosts.
However, the home side’s fortunes turned 10 minutes after their goal, as winger Nana Ampomah went down with a leg injury, prompting Bobby Smyrniotis to make a first-half change for a second consecutive CPL match. This time, Smyrniotis turned to youngster Amadou Koné to fill the role in their attack.
Forge took their lead into halftime, which prompted Pacific assistant coach Armando Sá — patrolling the touchline in place of the suspended James Merriman — to act with a double change. He brought O’Hea and Zakaria Bahous off the pitch, putting Adonijah Reid up front and Cédric Toussaint into midfield.
The second half went on in similar fashion to the first, though — perhaps eerily so. Fifteen minutes into the second frame, Jensen once again brought down a ball in a large pocket of space just outside the box. With nobody closing him down, Jensen unleashed another rocket of a strike and found the net for a second time from distance with his third goal of the year.
Pacific spent plenty of time on the ball throughout the rest of the half — as they had done all game — and ultimately outshot Forge, but high-quality chances inside the box largely eluded them. Dyer came close around the 75th minute with a clear look at Kalongo, but Forge’s Samuel arrived and remained on his feet to break up the episode before Dyer could get a shot away. Again it was Dyer, about 10 minutes later, who put the ball in the back of the net in transition, but he was ruled to be offside and Pacific remained scoreless.
As Forge held on to the two-goal advantage and secured three points, they cemented themselves in first place in the CPL, taking a five-point lead above Atlético Ottawa and Cavalry — with both sides still to play in week 21. Pacific, meanwhile, remained outside of the playoff picture, sitting in seventh place and six points adrift of the postseason spots.
BOX SCORE
Lineups
Forge FC: Kalongo; Samuel, Achinioti-Jönsson, Metusala, Owolabi-Belewu (Duncan 69′); Schiavoni (Borges 69′), Hojabrpour (Kane 69′), Jensen; Choinière, Hamilton, Ampomah (Koné 39′)
Pacific FC: Gazdov; Dada-Luke, Meilleur-Giguère, Ceceri (Quintana 86′), Greco-Taylor (Amedume 86′); Bahous (Toussaint 46′), Young (Tircoveanu 70′), Dominguez, Yeates; Dyer, O’Hea (Reid 46′)
Goals
25′ — Noah Jensen (Forge FC)
59′ — Noah Jensen (Forge FC)
Discipline
15′ — Yellow: Marco Dominguez (Pacific FC)
61′ — Yellow: Kevin Ceceri (Pacific FC)
