Hamilton's Forge FC holds a seemingly comfortable 2-1 lead on aggregate heading into the second leg of the Canadian Championship semifinal on Tuesday night.
Except that Toronto FC is practically a new team.
"We're all jelling together in the past month or so, that's been shown," said centre back Kevin Long on Monday. "Every season has its ups and downs, and that's the way it's been going so far.
"It's been an up and down season, but we're in a good bit of form at this moment in time, and we just want to continue that going forward."
TFC's 2-1 loss at Hamilton's Tim Hortons Field to the lower-tier Canadian Premier League side on July 10 was one of those low points.
It was Toronto's seventh consecutive loss across all competitions. Club owner Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment and team president Bill Manning parted ways the next day.
Since then, Toronto FC has been on the upswing, with four wins in its past six matches. The two losses both came at the hands of Inter Miami, which sits atop Major League Soccer's table.
"I don't think we were at our best, and then we've obviously seen (Forge) once now up close, and we've learned a lot from that game," said Long. "We're going to take what we've learned and we're going to try and win again."
Although TFC was slumping heading into the semifinal's first leg and has found its form since, Forge FC head coach and sporting director Bobby Smyrniotis said that momentum doesn't matter in cup play with aggregate goals a factor.
"This isn't about three points, isn't about what's going on in the schedule," he said. "These are one-off matches. Maybe your form isn't great and you're playing for everything in this match.
"TFC has enough quality players that they don't need to look at form and what's going on."
Forge has undergone significant changes too, most notably sending striker Kwasi Poku of Brampton, Ont., to Belgian side RWD Molenbeek for a CPL-record transfer fee on Wednesday.
Poku and Beni Badibanga scored for Forge in the first 14 minutes of the semifinal's first match before substitute Prince Owusu got an important away goal for TFC in the 88th minute.
Smyrniotis said Poku's transfer and other tactical changes don't particularly matter to Forge's chances of advancing to the final because change is inherent in the CPL.
"You play each team in our league four times, you can't keep on showing the same face," said Smyrniotis. "It's important for us as coaches to prepare for that.
"We've become a little bit more of a robust defensive team, I could say over the last while still increasing our output in the attack."
The match comes in a stretch where Toronto FC is playing three times in eight days. The Reds came away with a 1-0 road win over the Houston Dynamo on Saturday, host Forge on Tuesday, and then host D.C. United on Saturday in MLS league play.
"You've got to take it game by game," said TFC head coach John Herdman. "We have an overview, which is the accumulation of minutes, which our sports science and medicine team will do.
"Then you have a group of men who are just by nature, just want to play and compete. They think they're unbreakable until it happens. So you're always in that fine balance."
Herdman is embroiled in controversy from his time leading Canada's women's and men's national teams. Current women's head coach Bev Priestman was sent home from the Paris Olympics after Canada was caught using a drone to spy on opposing teams training sessions before the Games.
A FIFA report said that the practice began when Herdman was in charge of the program. A recent media report said a drone was spotted over Forge's training back in July ahead of the semifinal's first leg.
"To be honest, not much of a distraction," said Smyrniotis. "It was something we were notified about from the outside and, OK, it was there, but I also don't work for CSIS or the CIA to know what's in the air.
"I focus on the ground and on the field. That's our biggest focus going into the match. Whatever else happens outside of it, it's for other people to look into."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 26, 2024.
John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press
