FORGE FC 2 PACIFIC FC 0
Starlight Stadium has turned into a fortress of clay for Pacific FC. The Island squad was beaten 2-0 by Forge FC on Friday night to fall at home for the second consecutive game following a 2-1 loss to Cavalry FC. Overall, the Tridents’ swoon has reached four games with a draw and three losses to show for its last quartet of outings.
There was a lengthy delay in the game, with players sent to dressing rooms, when PFC forward Djenairo Daniels went down in the second half with a serious-looking injury. Daniels was taken to hospital as a precaution and his condition was reported by the club as “stable and improving.” The game continued with the players allowed a five-minute warmup.
Seemingly once with the whole Pacific Ocean between them and the rest of the league, the Tridents are now tied with Forge FC atop the table with 26 points, although the Island squad has a game in hand on the club from Hamilton, Ont. PFC has seven wins, four losses and five draws to Forge’s seven wins, five losses and five draws. Both teams could be overtaken today if third-place Cavalry FC of Calgary, on 24 points, beats last-place Vancouver FC.
The game got off to a dismal start for the hosts as it took the Hammers only six minutes to score through a touch by sa国际传媒 Under-20 player Kwasi Poku right in front of the net.
“If we can get an early goal in the first half, and really put them on the back heels and make them start thinking, obviously that is something that plays into it,” Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis had said before the game.
It turned out to be a prescient comment.
Matters got worse for PFC when former Montreal MLS player David Choinière found the short side almost hockey style to make it 2-0 at 39 minutes. Both were the types of goals the Tridents would want back.
The game featured the only two teams to have won the North Star Shield as CPL champions, with the Hammers three-time champions and the Tridents having won the other title in the four-year history of sa国际传媒’s long-awaited domestic pro soccer league.
Forge FC leads the season series 2-1 and all-time series against PFC 11-4-2.
Among the PFC-Forge storylines is that former PFC players Terran Campbell and Alessandro Hojabrpour have been with the Hammers since 2022, bringing an added dimension to every meeting between the teams. Campbell is the second-leading scorer in Tridents history with 25 goals in his three seasons on the Island and currently leads the CPL in the race for the Golden Boot scoring title with eight goals.
Hojabrpour, meanwhile, accounted for the biggest goal in PFC franchise history with the header in the 2021 CPL championship game that gave the Tridents the 1-0 victory at Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton.
Pacific FC travels to Winnipeg to place Valour FC next Saturday.
