It was a close game, one that saw a hard-working Vancouver FC press Forge FC in the second half at Willoughby Community Park on Friday, but it wasn't enough to overcome the first half lead by the visitors, created when Mo Babouli headed home from a Hoce Massunda cross in the first minute of first-half stoppage time.
With the win, Forge have extended their record-setting unbeaten run to start the 2025 Canadian Premier League season to 20 matches.
Bottom-ranked Vancouver were left 15 points adrift of a playoff spot, and frustrated at giving up a crucial goal.
"You always want to do the best you can, so it's tough when certain things happen and repeat themselves," Vancouver defender, Matteo Campagna, said after the match. "As a defender, you want to keep a clean sheet; you don't want to concede goals."
"So these goals hurt, but there are many different factors that play into it, and we've established that as a team, it's not just the back four, it's not the goalkeeper - there are things that we all need to get better at."
Vancouver FC interim head coach Martin Nash said with a busy schedule, the team hasn't had a ton of training sessions, so they've done "a lot of video 鈥� individual video and team video 鈥� trying to show guys what I want."
Going up against the top team in the league, he still wanted his players play more aggressively.
"We had to be a bit more pragmatic today and not completely open up, but I wanted the guys to have fun, to enjoy playing football. I didn't want to come in and just be a defensive coach and play just for results; I want to improve the team, improve the group and try to get better every week."
Vancouver will head east for their next match, as a date with Atl茅tico Ottawa awaits them at TD Place on Saturday, Aug. 30 at 4 p.m. B.C. time.
The Eagles next home game is Friday night, Sept. 5 against Valour FC, the 鈥淏ack to School鈥� game at 7:30 p.m.
