July 9, 2022...Match Analysis: York United 0-2 Forge FC - CPL Match #52 (from canpl.ca website)
Match Analysis: York United 0-2 Forge FC — CPL Match #52 2022-07-09 by MITCHELL TIERNEY, DIGITAL CONTENT PRODUCER (@MITCHELLTIERNEY) NEWS Final Score: York United 0-2 Forge FC Goalscorers: Borges 29', Pacius 77' Game of the 2022 season: 52 CPL match: 302 Match in a minute or less Forge FC picked up a big 905 Derby win over York United 2-0 at York Lions Stadium Friday night, exacting a measure of revenge for a 1-0 loss in their first meeting back in early May. Tristan Borges scored on a deflected long-range strike in the first half, while Woobens Pacius put the game to bed with a second half goal less than a minute after coming onto the pitch. With the win, Forge climb into third in the Canadian Premier League table, just four points behind league leaders Cavalry FC. York, meanwhile, is now winless in nine and remains just a single point ahead of last-place FC Edmonton. Three Observations Forge show different offensive looks to reignite attack After being held scoreless in back-to-back matches for the first time this year, not to mention in front of their home crowd, Forge came into this match on a mission to finally make good on their forays into the final third. Forge’s offensive woes have mostly come this year against clubs who have sat back and forced the Hamilton side to break them down. Expecting more of the same from York today, they came equipped with a plan of attack that ultimately paid off. “We’ve seen a tendency of late with teams sitting a little bit deeper on us so we wanted to try and find the space in behind the opponent a little bit quicker and maybe that was either going to open up that space behind or the second ball coming in the midfield, which would give us maybe an easier way to attack and I think we accomplished that in a lot of situations in the first half, and those second balls also gave us the opportunities for some of those longer shots.” Forge used those long-range efforts to great effect during the match. They had seven efforts outside the box over the course of 90 minutes, including a long-range strike from Kyle Bekker that forced a brilliant save from Niko Giantsopoulos, and the deflected goal scored by Tristan Borges. One other aspect of York United’s gameplan that Forge quickly keyed in on was the fact that young debutant Ronan Kratt was starting on the same left flank as Max Ferrari. Knowing that Ferrari was not a natural fullback, Smyrniotis quickly got the message to his players that he wanted them to attack down that flank and see if they could exploit that inexperience. While he felt like his group got away from that at times during the match, they clearly prioritized an attack down that left flank, with 58.6 per cent of their attacks during the match coming down the opposing right side. Tristan Borges, who started the match on the left-wing, often shifted over a lot closer to the right to exploit this weakness. Bold Triple Sub, including the removal of Kyle Bekker, preserves win for Forge It is not very often that Kyle Bekker’s number 10 shows up in red on the substitutions board, especially when Forge has 11 days before their next match and only has a one-goal lead. But that was the bold decision that Smyrniotis chose to make in the 75th minute as part of a triple substitution that also saw the removal of Emery Welshman and Terran Campbell. On came Woobens Pacius, Noah Jensen and Orlendis Benitez. Forge clearly needed a shakeup, as in the eight minutes before they were introduced York had the vast majority of possession, and three dangerous shot attempts. “We were dropping a little bit on the field and that’s not something that I like,” said Smyrniotis, later adding, “I thought we were just giving up a little bit of space sometimes which often comes through a little bit of fatigue. We also weren’t the greatest and sharpest on the ball so I thought just freshening up two players.” The impact was felt immediately, as Woobens Pacius scored less than a minute later and really seemed to kill any chance of York getting a result from this match. Jensen, meanwhile, was brought on in order to help the team possess the ball better and did that well with 8 of his 7 passes completed. As did Benitez, who even had a decent chance of his own late in the match. “It was already 1-0 for us when I came into the game, it was pretty simple just keep the score or score a goal,” said Forge attacker Woobens Pacius. “I think I helped my team by scoring that goal. It was a good play with Ash [Morgan], a good cross, and then I was just there at the right moment. So it is a team goal.” It was the 21-year-old’s fourth goal of the season. With Terran Campbell struggling to find his form with Forge this season (he had a team-low 25 touches, and just one shot against York), Pacius’ ability, whether off the bench or in the starting lineup continues to be critical for Forge’s attacking depth. Nash left frustrated by another York United performance that he didn’t feel was good enough It felt like the same old story for York United, who did more than enough to score on the night but left the pitch for the eighth time in the last nine matches without a goal, and the sixth time with a loss. They had 1.28 expected goals and 13 shot attempts on the night, even creating a big chance. “The message was that it wasn’t good enough in the end, again,” said York United coach Martin Nash of what he told his players after the match. “We can create all the chances we want, but if we can’t put the ball in the net we are not going to win games. So you ask people to step up, because I think as a group now we do enough in a lot of games to win, I feel. We get a bunch of opportunities, great chances, we had a bunch of 0-0 games this year that we should have won in my opinion personally, but enough is enough. We have to have guys step up, take the bull by the horns so to speak and put chances away.” He went on to say that he feels his club has trained harder than they play at times this season. There were times during the match when York showed good intensity and fight, but a lot of that passion was misguided. Frustrations boiled over late in the match, as multiple York players were given yellow cards in the final moments of the match for off-the-ball fouls. Nash bemoaned the fact that his team was letting their emotions get the better of them when they really should have been fighting for a much-needed goal. York midfielder Jordan Wilson also didn’t hide his frustration after the match, saying that he feels defeated with how this recent stretch of matches has gone. He spoke about the fact that it feels like the club is always playing on the back foot, having scored first just three times this season (both of their wins, against Cavalry and Forge, and in a 1-1 draw with FC Edmonton). “The locker room right now is tough, it is tough because we haven’t been winning, we went two months without a win,” said Wilson. “I can’t remember a time in my life when that has happened. In another [league] we are in the relegation zone so I mean like the vibes aren’t really there. But I’ve said to the boys publicly I do not want to go three months playing dud games, games that don’t matter, let’s try to rally together now and have at least a push for playoffs, or playing games that matter.” CanPL.ca Player of the Match Rezart Rama, Forge FC With most of Forge’s play coming down his flank, Rama had the most touches of any player on the pitch tonight. He turned that into an assist on Borges’ goal, and a match-high 22 passes into the final third. What’s next? York at back at home next Friday, July 15 (7:30 p.m. ET) for a match against Pacific FC, who are still yet to beat York this season in all competitions. Forge, meanwhile, has a bit of a break before they are back in action, at home against FC Edmonton on Tuesday, July 19 (6:45 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.
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