Laurent Courtois knew that Forge FC was going to wait for CF Montreal firmly. After a first half below expectations, the head coach had to adjust his game plan.
The arrival of substitutes in the second half helped the Bleu-blanc-noir draw a 1-1 draw at Forge FC on Tuesday afternoon in the first leg of the quarter-finals of the Canadian Championship.
In front of a noisy crowd of 14,923 spectators at Tim Hortons Field, including several thousand schoolchildren, the Montrealers seemed short of solutions in the first half. They even returned to the locker room with a 1-0 deficit, a sign that things were not really going as planned.
The arrival of Bryce Duke, Raheem Edwards, Ariel Lassiter and George Campbell, however, changed the situation. Courtois’ troops attacked more insistently and Duke finally scored an important goal away from home.
“The idea behind these changes was to bring energy and get back to scoring,” explained the CF Montreal head coach. It’s possible that we didn’t spend too much energy heading into Saturday’s MLS game. This was not the original plan. »
For the first time since 2019, the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the tournament use a home-and-away format. In the event of a tie in total goals, the club which has scored the most goals abroad will have the advantage.
“We play games to win and we don’t want to give up a goal. If it had been a knockout match, it would have been the same. The difference with a two-way format is that it makes things more tactical on the way back. There may be adjustments to make. But today, we had to play our style of football,” mentioned Forge head coach Bobby Smyrniotis.
Undefeated in three games this season in the Canadian Premier League (CPLan), the Forge had nothing to reproach against a club that plays at a level above its own.
David Choinière hit the target for the Hamilton team. Had it not been for the saves of goalkeeper Sebastian Breza in the final moments of the match, CF Montreal could even have returned home with a defeat in their baggage.
“We faced a very good team,” insisted Courtois. We knew there would be times where we had to be careful and we knew they could capitalize in transition. They did it. It could have gone either way today. »
The return match will take place on Wednesday, May 22, at Saputo stadium.
The two teams face each other at the Canadian Championship for a fourth consecutive year. CF Montreal won the three previous duels, which took place in direct elimination.
Forge FC qualified for the quarter-finals of the 2024 tournament by defeating York United FC 3-1 last week. The Montrealers, for their part, obtained a pass as finalists in 2023.
The winner of this quarter-final will cross swords in the semi-final with CS Saint-Laurent or Toronto FC, two clubs which will launch their hostilities Wednesday evening, at the Claude-Robillard Sports Complex.
Before the clash, persistent rumors circulated regarding the departure of CF Montreal’s vice-president and chief sporting officer, Olivier Renard. Asked about this, Courtois and Duke did not want to elaborate.
In two times
The Bleu-blanc-noir did well from the first minute of play, as Ousman Jabang pushed Jordan Hamilton from behind in the penalty area. However, the referee did not award any penalty during the sequence.
CF Montreal regained its senses a few moments later, and Mason Toye fired a long left-footed shot. Goalkeeper Christopher Kalongo, however, dove to his right to push the ball away.
The two teams then exchanged a few breakthroughs into enemy territory, but the defenses limited the dangerous chances in the penalty area.
Forge FC finally found a way to open the scoring, in the 31ste minute. On the counterattack, Beni Badibanga spotted David Choinière on the right side of the penalty area. The Quebecer armed his shot well and deceived Breza’s vigilance – even if the latter touched the ball.
The visitors tried to respond five minutes later. Sunusi Ibrahim collected the ball on the right flank and made a cross towards Ilias Iliadis. His more or less successful shot was blocked by Kalongo, who then pushed the ball over his cage.
Courtois made his changes after returning from the locker room and two of them made the difference, in the 52nde minute.
Edwards made a nice pass to Duke in the penalty area. The small midfielder worked well with Mathieu Choinière, and after seeing his first shot blocked by Badibanga, Duke threaded the needle to tie the game 1-1.
“The message at half-time was tie or win away. I wanted to get into the match and create things. I was able to score and that was the plan. We wanted to confirm the result then,” Duke said.
The Montreal squad calmly applied a lot of pressure to commit turnovers and put the Forge FC defense on their heels. The latter held out for around ten minutes before the game stabilized.
Forge FC thought they could snatch victory late in the match, but Breza needed all of his six feet and four inches to stop a good shot from Noah Jensen.