🇨🇦 - The former Concacaf international giving Forge FC the off-the-field edge in Concacaf League
🇭🇹 - Plus meet an Arcahaie player with an interesting journey.
Welcome to Getting CONCACAFed, where today we have a pair of stories centering around Tuesday’s Concacaf League match between Forge FC of Canada and Arcahaie from Haiti (though hopefully they will interest you even if the game does not). The match will take place in the Dominican Republic and kicks off at 8 p.m. ET. Like most other matches in the tournament, it will be on TV in the U.S. on FS2 and TUDN’s streaming channels. In Canada, the game is on TSN2. Elsewhere, you’re going to have to find it yourself.
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Forge FC proudly represents Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Since the Canadian Premier League was just a rumor (or, as they would call it in Canada, a rumour), the ownership group the club shares with the Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League wanted to make sure the future of Canadian soccer would include a club in “The Hammer”.
Hamilton, and its Tim Hortons Field, was expected to house of the league’s strongest teams out of the gate and has upheld that expectation, giving fans in the city the opportunity to celebrate a pair of championships in the league’s first two years of existence.
You can’t say, though, that Forge has truly called Hamilton home this season.
The CanPL completed its sophomore season in a bubble called the “Island Games’ which took place in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Since then, the club has become nomads of Concacaf, wandering the region while taking part in the Concacaf League. The players have been away from their families for more than two months in total in 2020, and it could be more.
Those sacrifices may all be worth it, with Forge just one win away - either Tuesday against Haitian club Arcahaie or in case of defeat in a play-in game against another quarterfinal loser - from a berth in the 2021 Concacaf Champions League.
“It’s a massive feat. It doesn’t matter what club you are around the world, you want to be playing in your top continental competitions. And we’ve been fortunate enough to be playing in Concacaf League, but everyone wants to get to that next stage which is Champions League,” coach Bobby Smyrniotis told me earlier this month. “For me, personally when I look at it, I’ve been involved in the development of Canadian players for the last 15 years, development level, now the next two years at Forge. It’s just another check on the box in my belief in Canadian soccer players and the Canadian system.”
Forge had a bit of success last year in the tournament, which aside from the CanPL champion is otherwise comprised entirely of Central American and Caribbean teams. They beat Antigua of Guatemala in a two-legged series before falling to Honduran power Olimpia 4-2 on aggregate in the next round.
Not only has another year of improving on the field helped boost Forge, so too has another year of figuring out the logistics of the region. With Canada requiring a 14-day quarantine upon return to the country from abroad during the COVID-19 pandemic, rendering things like training sessions illegal, Forge went from their match against Limeño of El Salvador straight to Panama to prepare for its Round of 16 contest with Tauro. It got an assist from Club Atletico Independiente, which loaned Forge its facilities to prepare, and won, 2-1. Now, it’s preparing for its third Concacaf League game in a third different country.
Those sorts of decisions, where to stay, where to train and how to get there, are being made by something of a secret weapon in the form of a former Concacaf international.
Jelani Smith was part of a squad that helped Guyana qualify for its first-ever Gold Cup in 2019 and had been set to take part in Forge’s inaugural season. Instead, Smyrniotis convinced him to consider a job in the front office, and the 29-year-old started working as the team admin last year.
“I could play another four or five years and if I’m injury free - which I hadn’t been for most of my career - I can enjoy the glory of being part of a franchise and in CPL history or I can have a career for myself starting as a team manager and then maybe as a general manager. Who knows where you can go from there?” Smith said from the Dominican Republic, where the team has been preparing for Tuesday’s neutral-site match since Nov. 21.
Smith’s experience with the complications of travel in the Concacaf region as a player now are serving him well as an administrator and also make him an asset in other ways.
Smith has pointed out to some players that they’ll have to adjust to a different style of play - and of officiating - than they’d typically be used to in Canada. “I think that’s probably where a lot of Canadian teams in the past have failed to manage is they have a certain standard and don’t make the adjustments necessary until it’s too late,” Smith said. “I think being a player has helped me in the job because I understand what the players are going through. In a lot of senses, I’m almost a therapist. Whenever they’re going through something, I’m the first person they ask and a conduit between the staff and players.”
Smith was one of Smyrniotis’ players at the Sigma FC academy and knows the coach’s quirks well.
“He knows how to deal with me, not giving me too much information,” said Smyrniotis, who most refer to as ‘Coach Bobby.’ “Before the Limeño match, he never talked to me about anything after that because he knows I like to stay concentrated. So, the only thing I asked him after the game when we won, I asked him, ‘What would happen if this didn’t go right?’ He goes, ‘Coach you don’t even want to know.’ He was the happiest guy in the world after that game not only because of the win but because everything was a lot easier for him to plan toward Panama.”
In addition to getting everyone on the right flights, which currently are limited because of the pandemic, getting the hotel rooms settled, finding where to train and figuring out how to get the squad fed, Smith said stressing the importance of a bubble-like environment to the hotel staff also has been critical so the team can keep everyone healthy.
Forge’s squad is a strong one, with a mix of experienced Canadian veterans like Kyle Bekker, the CanPL’s Player of the Year, and David Edgar, new faces such as Triston Henry, named the CPL’s best goalkeeper, and forward David Choinière and imports like Belgian defender Daniel Krutzen and Swedish No. 6 Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson.
“It’s been an amazing ride despite the circumstances the world is going through globally,” Smith said. “The key and focus always has been: Step one, advance and do better than we did last year in the competition, and we achieved that.
“Now, we’re one and possibly two games away from competing in the Concacaf Champions League, which is a competition that brings a lot of eyes and attention. If we get drawn against a big team from Mexico or an MLS team or even the better clubs in Central America, we have a chance to make our name and become a staple in the region.”
If so, Smith can breathe a sigh of relief. Direct flights to Mexico City or Los Angeles are a lot easier to find.
🇭🇹 - Can Arcahaie’s Concacaf League run serve as a launching pad for Haitian players?
Concacaf superfan and friend of the newsletter Paul Calixte had his interested piqued in the last round of the Concacaf League when he had something in common with a goalscorer for Arcahaie in the club’s 3-1 win over Waterhouse in the Round of 16.
The scorer was listed as Richkard Calixte. Paul is of Haitian descent and thought, ‘Hey, maybe I’m related to this guy,’ so he reached out to the team and soon heard from the man himself whose name actually is … Calixte Richkard and of no relation to Paul. It’s unclear why exactly he’s listed with his name the other way around.
Richkard has an interesting story, having played in Brazil as one of a number of Haitians who moved to South America as part of a humanitarian program after the 2010 earthquake.
“I started playing football at 10 at a football school called Roland Jérôme FC,” Richkard said in a chat we had via WhatsApp that Paul translated from Portuguese. “I lived in Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. I played on Haiti's U-17 and U-20 national teams. Ten months ago, I was playing in Brazil - Ribeirão Preto.”
He’s been back in Haiti with Arcahaie, itself a young club founded only in 2017, for a while now, often lining up at left back in league and international matches, and wants to draw the attention of a bigger team looking for a defender who gets forward well.
“This year, I want to be my last in Haitian football; I am going to work extra for that,” he said. “I like Brazil; but to play in Brazil is not easy, understand?”
Both teams have plenty on the line Tuesday, but it’s also worth remembering that they’ll get another chance to move on. The winner is on to the semifinals of the tournament and has booked a place in the 2021 Concacaf Champions League, but the loser plays the loser of Saprissa - Marathón for another CCL spot.
That path looks more difficult (and requires more travel for the lower-ranked team in the Concacaf rankings), so Tuesday’s winner should feel a level of relief during their celebrations of earning a historic CCL berth.