The 2020 Forge FC season was the second season in the history of

Forge FC Forge FC, also known as Forge Football Club, Forge FC Hamilton, or Hamilton Forge FC, is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Hamilton, Ontario, that competes in the Canadian Premier League, the top tier of Canadia ...

. Forge were the defending league champions, having defeated

Cavalry FC Cavalry Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer club based in the Calgary metropolitan region of Alberta. The club competes at the top of the Canadian soccer league system in the Canadian Premier League, and plays their home matches ...

in the 2019 Canadian Premier League Finals. In addition to the domestic league, the club competed in the CONCACAF League, advancing to the quarter-finals for the first time. On September 19, Forge defeated

HFX Wanderers FC Halifax Wanderers FC, also written as HFX Wanderers FC, is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The club competes in the Canadian Premier League (CPL) at the top of the Canadian soccer league syste ...

2–0 in the 2020 Canadian Premier League Final to win their second consecutive league title. As champions, they qualified for the 2020 Canadian Championship Final and the

2021 CONCACAF League The 2021 CONCACAF League (officially the 2021 Scotiabank CONCACAF League for sponsorship purposes) was the 5th edition of the CONCACAF League, a football club competition organized by CONCACAF, the regional governing body of North America, Centr ...

Review

On January 22, Forge FC announced they had transferred reigning CPL Golden Boot and

Player of the Year Several sports leagues honour their best player with an award called Player of the Year. In the United States, this type of award is usually called a Most Valuable Player award. Association football In association football, this award is held on b ...

winner

Tristan Borges Tristan Daniel Borges (born August 26, 1998) is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Canadian Premier League club Forge FC. Early life Borges began playing youth soccer with Vaughan Azzurri, V ...

Belgian First Division B The Challenger Pro League, previously known as 1B Pro League is the second-highest division in the Football in Belgium, Belgian football Belgian football league system, league system, one level below the Belgian Pro League. It was created by the ...

side

Oud-Heverlee Leuven Oud-Heverlee Leuven (), also called OH Leuven or OHL, is a Belgian professional football club from the city of Leuven. It was created in 2002 from the merger of three clubs, '' F.C. Zwarte Duivels Oud-Heverlee'', whose registration number it i ...

for a fee reported to be close to $300,000. Before the start of the new season, the club supplemented their roster with several new signings including

K.R.C. Genk Koninklijke Racing Club Genk (), commonly known as KRC Genk or Racing Genk, is a Belgian professional football club based in the city of Genk in Belgian Limburg. Racing Genk plays in the Belgian Pro League and have won four championship title ...

academy product

Paolo Sabak Paolo Sabak (born 10 February 1999) is a Belgian professional association football, footballer who plays as an Midfielder#Attacking midfielder, attacking midfielder for RVC Hoboken. Club career Genk Sabak is a youth product of K.R.C. Genk. He ...

, former Montreal Impact and

Canada men's national soccer team The Canada men's national soccer team () represents Canada in international Association football, soccer competitions since 1924. They are overseen by the Canadian Soccer Association, the governing body for soccer in Canada. They have been a m ...

fullback Maxim Tissot, and former

Toronto FC Toronto Football Club is a Canadian professional Association football, soccer club based in Toronto. The club competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the Eastern Conference (MLS), Eastern Conference. The team plays its home matc ...

attacker

Molham Babouli Molham "Mo" Babouli (; born January 2, 1993) is a professional footballer who plays as a forward for Forge FC. Born in the United Arab Emirates, he represented Canada at youth international level and currently plays for the Syria national team. ...

Canadian Premier League: ''The Island Games''

The Canadian Premier League originally announced its schedule on February 21. The season would have begun on April 11 and concluded on October 4 with a balanced, 28-match schedule. In response to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the CPL paused all pre-season training on March 13 before later postponing the start of the season on March 20. On July 29, the CPL announced a revised, shortened season format to be played exclusively at the

University of Prince Edward Island The University of Prince Edward Island (UPEI) is a public university in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, and the only university in the province. Founded in 1969, the enabling legislation is the ''University Act, R.S.P.E.I 2000.'' H ...

from August 13 to September 19 in a

bio-secure bubble A bio-secure bubble, also known as a bubble, or hub city, was a hosting arrangement for sporting events that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic, under which events were held at a centralized site, often behind closed doors, with strict quarant ...

. Dubbed ''The Island Games'', the season would begin with a round-robin preliminary round. The top four teams would qualify for a round-robin group stage; the top two teams from the group stage would qualify for a single match

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final examination or finals, a test given at the end of a course of study or training *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which d ...

. Forge opened their season on August 13 with a 2–2 draw against

rival A rivalry is the state of two people or Social group, groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each ...

club

in the opening match of ''The Island Games''. Over the following weeks, Forge completed the CPL's preliminary round, ending with 2–2 draw against

Valour FC Valour FC is a Canadian professional soccer club in Winnipeg, Manitoba, which competes in the Canadian Premier League and plays their home matches at Princess Auto Stadium. The team is coached by Phillip Dos Santos and community owned throu ...

to qualify for the second round group stage with a record of 3 wins, 3 draws, and 1 loss. In the group stage, Forge opened with a 1–1 draw against

before defeating

Pacific FC Pacific Football Club is a Canadian professional soccer club based in Greater Victoria, British Columbia. The club competes in the Canadian Premier League, playing home matches at Starlight Stadium located in Langford. History On May 5, 20 ...

2–0 to put them on the verge of qualifying for the final. Needing just a draw in their final group stage match, Forge defeated Cavalry FC 1–0 to qualify for their second consecutive CPL final. Forge faced HFX Wanderers FC in the 2020 Canadian Premier League final. This was the third match between the two clubs at ''The Island Games'' with both previous matches ending in 1–1 draws. Forge won the final 2–0 to repeat as CPL champions and qualify the club for the

and the 2020 Canadian Championship Final. Following the season, captain

Kyle Bekker Kyle Edward Bekker (born September 2, 1990) is a Canadian professional soccer midfielder and team captain for Forge FC of the Canadian Premier League. Club career Youth Bekker was born in Oakville, Ontario and began his youth soccer career wi ...

was named the CPL's

and goalkeeper Triston Henry was awarded the Golden Glove.

CONCACAF League

Forge qualified for the

2020 CONCACAF League The 2020 CONCACAF League (officially the 2020 Scotiabank CONCACAF League for sponsorship purposes) was the fourth edition of the CONCACAF League, a association football, football club competition organized by CONCACAF, the regional governing body ...

by winning the 2019 Canadian Premier League finals to become CPL champions. This was their second consecutive season in the

CONCACAF League The CONCACAF League was an international association football competition organized by CONCACAF as its secondary continental tournament for clubs from North America, Central America and the Caribbean. It was announced on 8 May 2017. The compet ...

after making it to the round of 16 in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

. The competition was originally scheduled to begin on July 28, but this was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. On August 7,

CONCACAF The Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football, abbreviated as CONCACAF ( ; typeset for branding purposes since 2018 as Concacaf), is one of FIFA's six continental governing bodies for association football. Its 4 ...

announced they had rescheduled the tournament to begin play on October 20 and conclude on January 28, 2021. CONCACAF conducted the tournament draw on September 21. Due to travel restrictions introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, all rounds of the tournament were played as single leg ties hosted by the higher seeded team. As the lowest seeded team, this guaranteed that Forge would not play any home games. Forge opened its CONCACAF League run in the preliminary round away at

Salvadoran Salvadorans (), also known as Salvadorians, are citizens of El Salvador, a country in Central America. Most Salvadorans live in El Salvador, although there is also a significant Salvadoran diaspora, particularly in the United States, with smalle ...

club C.D. Municipal Limeño on October 22.

David Choinière David Choinière (born February 7, 1997) is a Canadian soccer player who plays for Canadian Premier League side Forge FC. Early life Choinière began playing soccer at age five with Celtix du Haut-Richelieu. In 2011, he joined the Montreal I ...

struck first for the Hammers, opening the scoring in the 21st minute before the Salvadorans tied the game later in the first half. Overcoming a 64th minute

red card A red card is a type of penalty card that is shown in many sports after a rules infraction. Red card may also refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Red Card'' (album), 1976 release by Streetwalkers * Red card, suit (cards) of hearts or di ...

to Jonathan Grant, Forge won 2–1 to advance to the round of 16 thanks to an 83rd minute goal by Anthony Novak. After the match, Forge travelled directly to

Panama City Panama City, also known as Panama, is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has a total population of 1,086,990, with over 2,100,000 in its metropolitan area. The city is located at the Pacific Ocean, Pacific entrance of the Panama Canal, i ...

to prepare for their next match. In the round of 16, Forge faced

Panamanian Panamanians (; feminine ) are people identified with Panama, a country in Central America (which is the central section of the American continent), and with residential, legal, historical, or cultural connections with North America. For most Pan ...

side

Tauro F.C. The Tauro Fútbol Club is a professional soccer club based in the district of Pedregal east of Panama City, Panama. It was founded on 22 September 1984 and has participated in the Liga Panameña de Fútbol, Panamanian Football League (LPF) since ...

on November 3. Forge took an early lead once again, this time from a goal by Molham Babouli, before Tauro equalized in the 18th minute. Late in the second half, Novak drew a penalty for Forge which Daniël Krutzen converted in stoppage time to secure another 2–1 win for Forge. The win propelled Forge into the quarter-finals, a new best result for a CPL team. Following a break when the team was able to return home, Forge returned to action on December 1 for a quarter-final matchup against Haitian club Arcahaie FC with a chance to qualify for the

2021 CONCACAF Champions League The 2021 CONCACAF Champions League (officially the 2021 Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons) was the 13th edition of the CONCACAF Champions League under its current name, and overall the 56th edition of the premier footbal ...

. The match was played in

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

as Arcahaie did not have a suitable venue. David Choinière drew a penalty just before halftime which Daniel Krutzen scored to give Forge the lead, however Arcahaie capitalized on a Triston Henry error in the 57th minute to tie the game. Despite outplaying their opponents, the game ended tied 1–1 and headed straight to penalties. Arcahaie's goalkeeper made two saves while their penalty takers converted all of their kicks to defeat Forge 4–2, knocking the Hammers out of the CONCACAF League. Despite their elimination, Forge then travelled to

Tegucigalpa Tegucigalpa ( )—formally Tegucigalpa, Municipality of the Central District ( or ''Tegucigalpa, M.D.C.''), and colloquially referred to as ''Tegus'' or ''Teguz''—is the capital and largest city of Honduras along with its sister city, Comaya ...

Honduras Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Ocean at the Gulf of Fonseca, ...

to face C.D. Marathón in a play-in match to qualify for one of the CONCACAF League's final two spots in the CONCACAF Champions League. This was centre-back David Edgar's final professional match as he had announced that he would retire at the end of the year. Marathón took the lead in the 18th minute from a header off of a

free kick A free kick is an action used in several codes of football to restart play with the kicking of a ball into the field of play. Association football In association football, the free kick is a method of restarting the game following an offe ...

which proved to be the only goal in a 1–0 final, qualifying the Hondurans for the Champions League at Forge's expense. The match was "ill-tempered" with four yellow cards shown to Forge, three to Marathón, and both Kyle Bekker and coach Bobby Smyrniotis sent off late in the match.

Squad

Transfers

In

Draft picks

Forge FC selected the following players in the

2019 CPL–U Sports Draft The 2019 CPL–U Sports Draft was the second annual CPL–U Sports Draft. It was held on November 11, 2019 in Montreal, Quebec. Seven Canadian Premier League (CPL) teams selected 14 eligible U Sports athletes in total. Format Each CPL team wil ...

. Draft picks are not automatically signed to the team roster. Only those who are signed to a contract will be listed as transfers in.

Out

Club

Kits

Forge FC unveiled its 2020 primary kit on February 27 at an event hosted at

Tim Hortons Field Hamilton Stadium (originally Tim Hortons Field) is a multi-purpose stadium in Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Completed in 2014 with a capacity of 22,500, it was built as a replacement on the same site as the previous stadium, name ...

. The kit was inspired by Hamilton's six regional municipalities and featured a gold patch signifying Forge's status as defending champions. The CPL unveiled all of its clubs' alternate kits on July 30. These "City Edition" kits incorporated unique symbolism for each club, with Forge's kit drawing from the image of Hamilton's Gore Park fountain. Like the home kit, the alternate kit featured a gold champion patch. The kits continued to be produced by Macron and sponsored by

Tim Hortons Tim Hortons Inc., known colloquially as Tim's, Timmies, or Timmy's, is a Canadian multinational coffeehouse and restaurant chain with headquarters in Toronto; it serves coffee, Doughnut, donuts, sandwiches, Breakfast sandwich, breakfast egg mu ...

for a second consecutive season.

Competitions

Matches are listed in Hamilton local time:

Eastern Daylight Time The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five hours behin ...

( UTC−4) from April to October and Eastern Standard Time ( UTC-5) otherwise.

Overview

Canadian Premier League

First stage

=Table

=Results by match

=Matches

= Forge FC's opening match against Cavalry FC was announced on July 29. The rest of the first stage schedule was announced on August 10.

Group stage

=Table

=Results by round

=Matches

= The group stage schedule was announced on September 6.

Final

CONCACAF League

CONCACAF conducted the CONCACAF League draw on September 21.

Preliminary round

The preliminary round schedule was announced on September 29.

Round of 16

The round of 16 schedule was announced on October 27.

Quarterfinals

The quarterfinals schedule was announced on November 5.

Play-in round

The play-in round schedule was announced on December 4.

Canadian Championship

The 2020 Canadian Championship was played as a one-game final between Forge as the CPL Champions and

as the winner of a head-to-head series between Canadian teams from Major League Soccer. It was delayed until June

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

due to scheduling difficulties related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Forge ultimately lost the final in a penalty shoot-out following a 1–1 draw.

Statistics

Squad and statistics

, - , -

Top scorers

{, class="wikitable sortable alternance" style="font-size:85%; text-align:center; line-height:14px; width:85%;" , - !width=10, Rank !width=10, Nat. ! scope="col" style="width:275px;", Player !width=10, Pos. !width=80,

Canadian Premier League The Canadian Premier League (CPL or CanPL; ) is a professional Association football, soccer league in Canada and the highest level of the Canadian soccer league system. The league comprises eight teams, from five of provinces and territories of ...

!width=80,

!width=80, TOTAL , - , 1, , , , Daniel Krutzen , , DF , , 2 , , 2 , , 4 , - , rowspan=3, 2, , , ,

, , MF , , 3 , , 0 , , 3 , - , , ,

Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson Alexander Börje Achinioti-Jönsson (born 17 April 1996) is a Swedish Association football, footballer who plays for Canadian club Forge FC as a midfielder and centerback Club career Helsingborgs IF On 1 May 2014, Achinioti-Jönsson made his pr ...

, , MF , , 3 , , 0 , , 3 , - , , , Anthony Novak , , FW , , 2 , , 1 , , 3 , - , rowspan=4, 5, , , ,

Chris Nanco Christopher Lenroy Nanco (born February 15, 1995) is a Canadian former professional association football, soccer player. He played as a Forward (association football), forward. Early life He began playing youth soccer with Brampton Youth SC. At a ...

, , FW , , 2 , , 0 , , 2 , - , , ,

, , MF , , 2 , , 0 , , 2 , - , , ,

, , FW , , 1 , , 1 , , 2 , - , , ,

, , FW , , 1 , , 1 , , 2 , - , rowspan=2, 9, , , , Kwame Awuah , , DF , , 1 , , 0 , , 1 , - , , , Maxim Tissot , , MF , , 1 , , 0 , , 1 , - , colspan="4", Own goals , , 1 , , 0 , , 1 , - , - class="sortbottom" , colspan="4", Totals, , 19, , 5, , 24

Top assists

{, class="wikitable sortable alternance" style="font-size:85%; text-align:center; line-height:14px; width:85%;" , - !width=10, Rank !width=10, Nat. !width=275, Player !width=10, Pos. !width=80,

!width=80,

!width=80, TOTAL , - , 1, , , ,

, , FW , , 2 , , 1 , , 3 , - , rowspan=2, 2, , , ,

, , MF , , 2 , , 0 , , 2 , - , , , Maxim Tissot , , DF , , 2 , , 0 , , 2 , - , rowspan=4, 4, , , ,

, , MF , , 1 , , 0 , , 1 , - , , , Kadell Thomas , , FW , , 1 , , 0 , , 1 , - , , ,

, , MF , , 1 , , 0 , , 1 , - , , , Dominic Samuel , , DF , , 0 , , 1 , , 1 , - class="sortbottom" , colspan="4", Totals, , 9, , 2, , 11

Clean sheets

!width=80,

!width=80, TOTAL , - , 1, , , , Triston Henry , , 5 , , 0 , , 5 , - , - class="sortbottom" , colspan="3", Totals, , 5, , 0, , 5

Disciplinary record

{, class="wikitable sortable alternance" style="font-size:85%; text-align:center; line-height:14px; width:85%;" , - !rowspan="2" width=10, No. !rowspan="2" width=10, Pos. !rowspan="2" width=10, Nat. !rowspan="2" scope="col" style="width:275px;", Player !colspan="2" width=80,

!colspan="2" width=80,

!colspan="2" width=80, TOTAL , - ! !! !! !! !! !! , - , 2, , DF, , , , Jonathan Grant , , 2, , 0, , 1, , 1, , 3, , 1 , - , 4, , DF, , , , Dominic Samuel , , 2, , 0, , 1, , 0, , 3, , 0 , - , 5, , DF, , , , Daniel Krutzen , , 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 1, , 0 , - , 6, , DF, , , , Kwame Awuah , , 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 1, , 0 , - , 9, , FW, , , , Marcel Zajac , , 2, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 2, , 0 , - , 10, , MF, , , ,

, , 1, , 0, , 1, , 1, , 2, , 1 , - , 11, , FW, , , ,

, , 0, , 0, , 1, , 0, , 1, , 0 , - , 13, , MF, , , ,

, , 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 1, , 0 , - , 14, , DF, , , , David Edgar , , 5, , 0, , 1, , 0, , 6, , 0 , - , 15, , DF, , , , Maxim Tissot , , 1, , 0, , 1, , 0, , 2, , 0 , - , 16, , DF, , , ,

Klaidi Cela Klaidi Cela (born July 16, 1999) is a Canadian soccer player who plays for the Richmond Kickers in USL League One. He plays as a defender. Early life Cela began playing youth soccer at age four with Mississauga Falcons SC. In October 2012, he ...

, , 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 1, , 0 , - , 17, , FW, , , , Kadell Thomas , , 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 1, , 0 , - , 19, , FW, , , ,

, , 0, , 0, , 1, , 0, , 1, , 0 , - , 20, , FW, , , , Gabriel Balbinotti , , 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 1, , 0 , - , 24, , MF, , , ,

, , 1, , 0, , 0, , 0, , 1, , 0 , - class="sortbottom" , colspan="4", Totals, , 20, , 0, , 7, , 2, , 27, , 2

Honours

Canadian Premier League Awards

{, class="wikitable" , - !Name !Award !Status !Source , - ,

, , , - , Triston Henry , Golden Glove , , , - , Bobby Smyrniotis ,

Coach of the Year Many sports leagues, sportswriting associations, and other organizations confer "Coach of the Year" awards. In some sports — including baseball and association football — the award is called the "Manager of the Year" award. Some of the ...

, ,

References

Sources

* *

External links

Official site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forge FC season 2020

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

2020 Canadian Premier League by team Canadian soccer clubs 2020 season