Two players and Coach Smyrniotis received awards. Pictured: Tristan Borges. Photo Credit: Forge FC.
Hamilton’s Forge FC soccer club finished their 2024 season on Nov. 9 after a 2-1 loss to Cavalry FC (Calgary, Alberta) in the Canadian Premier League (CPL) Final.
Cavalry had never won a CPL Final, losing their two previous appearances to Forge FC in 2019 and 2023.
It was different this time however, with Cavalry coming out strong with two first half goals against Forge.
Cavalry’s Tobias Warschewski was brought down in the box and granted a penalty kick which he converted in the 32nd minute to put the team up 1-0.
A few minutes later, in the 38th minute, Sergio Camargo slotted home a goal.
Forge battled back in the second half with a goal from Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson in the 52nd minute, but they were unable to find the tying goal after that despite having the remaining 38 minutes of the game plus seven minutes of stoppage time to do so.
Cavalry is the third team to have ever won the CPL Final, with Forge winning four of the six finals (2019, 2020, 2022, 2023) and Pacific FC winning the remaining year (2021).
Despite losing the CPL Final, multiple Forge players and even Coach Bobby Smyrniotis were given awards for this year’s accomplishments.
Tristan Borges was named CPL Player of the Year at the CPL awards gala, becoming the first player to win the honour twice.
He was also given the award in 2019.
Borges scored eight goals and got nine assists in league play this year.
Borges was chosen out of the five nominees which included two of his teammates, Ali Hojabrpour and Kyle Bekker, as well as Cavalry’s Warschewski and York United’s Brian Wright.
The second Forge player to win an award this year was Kwasi Poku who was named the Under-21 Player of the Year despite being transferred to Belgian club RWD Molenbeek in August.
Poku typically played for Forge as an outside back but was then shifted into the striker position where he scored eight goals in 10 games before his transfer.
Poku also earned a call-up for the Canadian international team during the October international window.
Coach Smyrniotis was the third Forge awardee of the 2024 season, earning Coach of the Year honours.
Despite being nominated for the award six years in a row, this is the first time that Smyrniotis was named the winner.
Although Forge lost in the CPL Final, they still finished 2024 with a trophy after being awarded the CPL Shield for being at the top of the table after the 28-game season.
They also qualified for a spot in the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup, formerly the Concacaf Champions League, the biggest club soccer competition in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
That competition begins in February 2025, where Forge will be playing in a home-and-away match up against either a Mexican club or Major League Soccer (MLS) side.
Potential opponents include the likes of CF Monterrey, Sporting Kansas, Columbus Crew, Colorado Rapids, LA Galaxy (featuring Olivier Giroud), and even Inter Miami CF (featuring Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Jordi Alba, and Sergio Busquets).
Forge’s opponent in the Concacaf Champions Cup will be determined on Dec. 10.
Based in Hamilton, he reaches hundreds of thousands of people monthly on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. He has been published in The Hamilton Spectator, Stoney Creek News, and Bay Observer. He has also been a segment host with Cable 14 Hamilton. In 2017, he received the Chancellor Full Tuition Scholarship from the University of Ottawa (BA, 2022). He has also received the Governor General’s Academic Medal. He formerly worked in a non-partisan role on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
