Steve Milton: Forge FC is back on the pitch

Here's Forge FC already into the second week of training camp, so it's fair to wonder, Where did that winter go?"

Seems like only yesterday that Hamilton's pro soccer team won its third league championship in four years - they lost in the final the other time - before a huge crowd in Ottawa.

That was late October, and this week they are back at their notoriously demanding practice pace at the Redeemer University dome then, if weather co-operates, will hit the outdoor pitch at Tim Hortons Field starting Monday.

But as short as the Canadian Premier League off-season seemed, it was an absolute luxury compared to last year. In mid-February 2022, Forge was already making history as the first CPL team to play in the Champions League, the highest club competition in North and Central America.

Last year we started with three and a half weeks to prepare for Champions League only four weeks after we finished playing in December," says head coach Bobby Smyrniotis, pointing out that the 2021 season had started two months late, in a Winnipeg bubble, and 2020's was a very short tournament in the Charlottetown bubble.

So this is the first normal' off-season we've had since 2019, when we were a brand-new club."

The Forge are no longer a brand-new club, but they are a brand. They're well known throughout the Americas' soccer world because they've played, and done well, internationally every year.

Every season has been different, and this one will be too. For the first time in their short history, the Hammers won't play a big-competition international game, although they will engage in three friendlies" against the top couple of clubs in Costa Rica when they spend two weeks training there, beginning March 16.

And with 19 players returning from last year's championship side that went 16-3-8 in its last 27 CPL regular-season and playoff games, it's by far the Forge's lowest off-season turnover.

Gone are four very familiar faces, all of whom had been with the team since the first season. Johnnie Grant appears headed to York United, backline anchor Dan Krutzen is with Phoenix of the USL, and Chris Nanco, one of the club's original two acquisitions, and veteran Emery Welshman haven't signed anywhere yet.

But among the 19 holdovers there are still six franchise pioneers from 2019 who are in the projected Starting XI. Captain Kyle Bekker was the CPL's 2020 player of the year; goalkeeper Triston Henry is the all-time league leader in clean sheets and was the 2020 Golden Glove winner; Dominic Samuel is one of the toughest defenders in the Canadian game; winger David Choiniere has always scored big-game goals; Alex Achinioti-Jonsson switched positions last season to compensate for team injuries and was named the CPL's defender of the year; and winger Tristan Borges was the inaugural CPL player of the year and the league's first high-money transfer to Europe before returning here for the past two seasons.

We have the main group back here and it's about adapting, which we've always done at a very high level," Borges says.

I think that's what builds championship teams and a championship mentality. I think we're the best team at keeping the core group together. That alone says a lot about how the winning mentality started in the first year from the coaches on down. Keeping the same guys and knowing what everybody's thought processes are is important."

Borges' eight assists were one off last year's league lead, as were the 12 goals of returning striker Woobens Pacius. The 2022 Forge scored eight more goals than any other CPL team and surrendered four fewer than any other side.

And they still are likely to sign a couple of non-Canadians from their worldwide contacts with other pro franchises.

We have a very good group and we want to bring in one or two guys who can make a big difference," Smyrniotis says. Sometimes if you wait, good things can fall into your lap."

That happened with impact imports Omar Browne and Joshua Navarro in 2021.

The Forge will have at least eight friendly matches to prepare for the 2023 season, which opens against rival Cavalry FC on April 15. They'll play three games in Costa Rica and have home dates against League1 side Sigma, strong NCAA teams Syracuse and Akron, York University and the CPL's York United.

Smyrniotis says his team wants to get back to Championship League play for 2024, which can be achieved through three avenues: by winning the Canadian championship, or winning the CPL regular season or playoffs.

It makes it easier, being used to some of the guys in front of you, and how they play," says Henry. As Bobby has said, we're not reinventing the wheel, so it's about continuing where we left off from last year."

Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com