Vancouver FC picked up the first home victory in club history at Willoughby Community Park on Tuesday evening, beating Forge FC 2-0 on a pair of first half goals.
David Choinière had the first scoring opportunity of the match, smacking the outside of the post five minutes in. After a high cross into the box from Kwasi Poku, the ball fell to Choinière at the back post, who volleyed it off the upright from a difficult angle at point-blank range. The home side hit the target for the first time in the 14th minute as Gabriel Bitar called Triston Henry into action from outside the penalty area, but his shot was stopped easily by the Forge goalkeeper.
The Hammers had another good opportunity to take the lead in the 26th minute. After a brilliant save from Callum Irving kept a Kyle Bekker free kick out of the net, Dom Samuel went for the rebound and an open goal, but a breakdown in communication saw him come together with a teammate, and the ball was bundled wide of the target. A few minutes after that error, Aboubacar Sissoko got in behind the VFC backline and smashed a shot that had Callum Irving beat, but it struck the inside of the right post and bounced away from danger.
Less than a minute later, Vancouver FC went the other way down the pitch and took the lead on a tidy finish from TJ Tahid. The 16-year-0ld ran onto a low pass from Ameer Kinani, coolly slotting it past Triston Henry to give the home team a 1-0 advantage. Samuel tried to get in front of Tahid and block it, but slipped as the young VFC forward executed his one-touch finish.
That goal came against the run of play to some extent, but four minutes later the momentum was swung firmly in Vancouver FC’s favour. Khadim Kane attempted a routine backpass to Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson but missed his target, passing the ball straight to Ameer Kinani.
The Vancouver forward rounded Henry and beat the scrambling Achinioti-Jönsson to score his first goal of his CPL career, doubling his side’s advantage.
Halftime substitute Tristan Borges was one of the players leading Forge’s push to get back into the game after the break, but their efforts would be in vain. The 2019 CPL Player of the Year had several shots at goal, and set up a few others, but Forge were struggling to hit the target, and spent much of the half hitting the ball into the box and hoping someone would get on the end of it.
Seconds after Manjrekar James forced a save out of Callum Irving with a header from a corner, Kyle Bekker nearly tested the Vancouver goalkeeper in the 83rd minute, firing a shot from the outside of the box that fizzed past the far post. Irving dived for that one as well, but let it go wide for a goal kick.
That’s the closest the Hammers would come to a goal in this one, as Vancouver held on for their second victory of the season, and the first home win in club history. The victory ends an eight-game winless run, with arguably VFC’s best performance to date.
