In Pictures: Forge FC wins second Canadian Premier League championship

Forge FC won the Canadian Premier League Island Games championship with a 2-0 victory over HFX Wanderers Saturday.

The championship is the second in as many years for Forge FC who beat Cavalry FC in the inaugural championship in 2019.

Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson scored the first goal with a close range header in the 60th capitalizing on poor HFX defending after a corner kick.

And HFX Wanderers goalkeeper Christian Oxner was at fault for the second goal, when he misjudged a speculative long-range effort by Maxim Tissot in the 90th minute.

“It’s special,” said Forge FC coach Bobby Smyrniotis to onesoccer.ca after the match. “It’s special for our club. It’s special for the city of Hamilton and our fans.

“I think from day one we wanted to build this mentality and culture. We want to make sure we are there to compete.”

Game winning goalscorer Achinioti-Jönsson was quick to share praise with his teammates following the match.

“It’s great. I don’t care if I scored the goal or not,” said Achinioti-Jönsson to onesoccer.ca. “Just being a winner is the best feeling of all. We do it as a team.

“The mentality we’ve set. We just want to win everything. It’s not always beautiful. But we get the job done.”

The original 2020 Canadian Premier League was postponed in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Eventually the league announced a tournament-style competition, The Island Games, would take place on P.E.I. to determine the 2020 CPL champion.

Forge FC will now play Major League Soccer’s Toronto FC in the Canadian Championship final. The date of the Canadian Championship final is yet to be decided.