Hamilton’s Forge FC snapped a four-game winless run on Sunday, Sept. 3, as they picked up a 3-0 win over Vancouver FC at Langley’s Willoughby Community Park, allowing them to climb into a tie for second place in the Canadian Premier League.
Forge’s Woobens Pacius had a hat trick, then a well-time penalty to pace his team to the win.
Pacius opened the scoring for Forge with a header in the 19th minute, before slotting home a flicked cross in the 28th minute to complete his brace.
Then, he capped off his hat trick with a perfect penalty in the 47th minute, allowing Forge to cruise to victory from there, as they claimed a much-needed three points in their push towards the playoffs.
“Yeah, it’s always always nice (to score a hat trick), it’s always a great feeling,” Pacius said. “I was able to do it last year, so to be able to do it another time this year, it’s an amazing feeling.”
It was a frustrating loss for Vancouver, which actually outshot Forge five to three in the first half.
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“I think all three goals were very elementary, it was kindergarten, schoolyard goals,” Vancouver head coach, Afshin Ghotbi, said. “And as a manager, that’s frustrating to see, because we worked so hard to teach the right principles in defence and attack, and to instill the right habits in our team, but that goes back to our youth, and it goes back to the way that they manage various moments in a game as a player. ”
“In professional football, it’s all about doing the simple things well, and when you don’t do the simple things well on a consistent basis, then you struggle to succeed in professional football, and that’s our challenge as a team and our challenge for our players right now.”
“I think we did well,” Vancouver’s Kadin Chung explained. “There are obviously moments that we need to be better at, especially on the goals, as I think they’re preventable, but I don’t think we gave them too much in that first half, we were on the ball a lot, and we played really well with it when we were patient.”
Vancouver FC will remain at home for their next game, as they get set to welcome Atlético Ottawa to Willoughby Community Park on Saturday, Sept. 9, at 7 p.m.
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