Forge FC weathered the storm last Saturday in a 1-0 season-opening win over visiting Cavalry FC in a rematch of last season's Canadian Premier League championship game.

Outshot 24-7 (6-4 in shots on target), the Hamilton side survived thanks to some fine shot-stopping from Czech goalkeeper Jassem Koleilat.

"I was able to see my team in a lot of different situations within one match," said Forge coach Bobby Smyrniotis, seeing the glass half-full. "I thought in the first half we were excellent. We created some high-quality opportunities, we controlled match rhythm, match tempo all around."

Things changed in the 72nd minute after Forge midfielder Zayne Bruno was sent off for a second yellow card, following Mo Babouli's go-ahead goal in the 58th minute.

"Now you've got to be resilient. You've got to work on a structure that you've worked on in pre-season a little bit," said Smyrniotis. "Players need to adapt. You need to get new players onto the pitch. And I thought all around the guys not only handled it well tactically but showed a great resilience in those last 10, 15 minutes when we always know an opponent will get to the goal, will be a little more aggressive to the goal.

"But the good thing is we were able to neutralize a lot of the things that were coming at the goal from further distances, from wide crosses. And these are all areas of the field where there's a lower percentage of goals being scored."

Still, Forge will no doubt be looking to tighten things up Saturday at Pacific FC, which opened the season by blanking visiting Valour FC 2-0 at Starlight Stadium behind goals by Dario Zanatta and Ronan Kratt.

On Sunday, it's Halifax Wanderers (0-0-1) at York United (1-0-0) and Atletico Ottawa (0-0-1) at Vancouver FC (0-1-0). Cavalry and Valour have a bye.

Koleilat called Saturday's win over defending champion Cavalry a "good confidence-booster for myself but I think it's also a good sign for the team that we were able to face adversity."

But he wouldn't mind a quieter day at the office.

"As a 'keeper. you obviously don't want to do a lot of work. That's the dream," he said. "On a team like ours, here at Forge, I think that's kind of the reputation we've developed — to be really strong and for the 'keeper to just have like one or two saves to make in a game. That would be ideal."

"I hope there's a bit less work to do," he added. "But even if there is, I think the guys are ready for it and will be up for the challenge."

Forge will have to adapt to the tighter confines of Starlight Stadium and some new faces in the Pacific lineup.

"All around they're a new team. That's for sure," said Smyrniotis.

"The biggest thing at this point of the year is how you focus on yourself and being better as a team," he added. "Because you can't take too much from one match (by the opposition). We don't know exactly what they will look like."

Pacific and Forge have history, with the Vancouver Island side winning 1-0 when they met in the 2021 championship game in Hamilton.

"More or less they had our number leading up to that game," said Pacific coach James Merriman. "I think since then we've played them really well, really competitively, in most matches. And we want to continue that.

"It's the second game of the season for us so we need to enjoy the challenge and we know we have to be at our best. We need to be very focused and organized and be on the front foot as well at home. (We) always look forward to this game. Forge plays good football. We took confidence from the last match so we've been preparing well. The guys are ready to test themselves as well and see where we're at."

Forge has played in every championship game since the league started, lifting the trophy in 2019, '20, '22 and '23.

The Hamilton side will be without the suspended Bruno and injured Malik Owolabi-Belewu. Merriman says midfielder Lukas Browning-Lagerfeldt, who came out of the opening game in the 70th minute, was back in training at the end of the week.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 11, 2025.