Fine first step for Forge FC
It wasn’t a win and it wasn’t a loss, but it sure was a beginning
Hamilton’s entry in the Canadian Premier League picks up a point in its inaugural match at Tim Hortons Field. Steve Milton reports
By the end of 90 minutes, and arguably much earlier, it had become a sometimes-bitter soccer game between two neighbouring teams whose paths are destined to frequently cross. It had become real.
No longer a concept gradually emerging from the theoretical mist, no longer just a vision without numbers and names or shots and saves.
“Once we started singing that national anthem we knew it was now a Canadian league,” said national soccer legend Jim Brennan after coaching his York9 FC side to a 1-1 draw with hometown Forge FC in the first-ever Canadian Premier League game Saturday afternoon at Tim Hortons Field.
“We all looked at each other and knew we were finally making a statement here.”
And a pretty entertaining statement it was.
Forge and the CPL accomplished what they needed to accomplish amid the cold and the wind — and, yes, the sunshine — on Opening Day, which was to firmly plant the seeds of belief, then water and fertilize them.
In the stands and in front of a national TV audience on CBC.
Fan association, that symbiotic relationship between field and stands that’s so important in professional sport, has begun now that thousands have witnessed the kits on humans in motion, and can start to put faces to styles and names.
Names such as York9’s Ryan Telfer, who stunned Forge with the CPL’s inaugural goal just three minutes in.
And Kadell Thomas, who accepted Emery Walshman’s threaded cross in the 78th minute to walk into franchise history with Forge’s first score.
And Forge’s Welshman whose bicycle strike skidded agonizingly wide, Tristan Borges with his thunderous stroke, or collected but feisty captain Kyle Bekker.