With a dominant 4-1 road victory over Inter Toronto that kept them two points in the CPL lead, Forge FC has a short week and one more homework assignment before 21 days off to recharge and ride the wave of World Cup mania which celebrates the Beautiful Game, the global phenomenon they’ve all loved since they were little boys. The Hammers will welcome Halifax Wanderers for a Wednesday night encounter on the eve of the Men’s World Cup’s opening kickoff and they’ll toast the feverish footy festival in several major ways on Wednesday night (7 p.m. kickoff). It’s International Night, which recognizes the Canadiana of Forge players and also their heritage, whether it’s first generation or ancestral, through food and music. Fans are encouraged to wear colours of their representative nations. And, in response to men’s team head coach Jesse Marsch’s recent appeal for a coast-to-coast-to-coast “Red Out” to flood a sea of red clothing into the stands during the World Cup, CPL clubs are hosting coordinated “Red and White Out” matches, so Wednesday’s game will feature Canada flag giveaways, special pre-match warm-up kits, co-branded digital and social content and opportunities for supporters to win Canada Soccer prizes throughout the game. Forge comes into the game on a roll, with just one loss in nine matches, along with six wins and two draws, and they have yet to surrender a goal at home, a streak they’ll look to continue against Halifax, whom they’ve beaten 3-1 on the east coast in league play and 4-0 seven days later at home in the first round of the Canadian Championship. The Wanderers were beaten 2-0 in Calgary over the weekend, allowing the Cavs to stay two back of Hamilton as Cavalry and Forge have distanced themselves from the next tier of teams: Forge has 22 points, Cavalry 20 and third-place Inter has 12, to pace a five-team logjam that has just four points separating third and seventh place. The Wanderers are wedged in there at nine points. “It’s a short recovery period but I’m looking forward to that game,” said versatile Hamilton midfielder Ben Paton, who scored his second goal of the season on a 70th-minute header off Tristan Borges’ textbook corner delivery to conclude Sunday’s scoring in Toronto. “It’s always good to pick up points early on in the season and hopefully separate yourself from the rest of the pack: just keep going and every week try to get three points. We know what Halifax are about: we know what they can bring and they’ve still got some quality and you can’t take your foot off the gas against them.” It’s a set of patriotic bookends for Forge as they’ll double-salute Canada and the World Cup with the “Red and White Out” and International Night against the Wanderers and then have 21 days off the competitive pitch before returning to host Vancouver FC on Canada Day. Can’t get much more Canuck than that. In Toronto, the Hammers had more than two dozen potential opportunities in Inter’s end—and launched 26 shots, most in the league this season—scoring off set-pieces and a bolt of lightning. The home side had some hopeful forays in the very early going but Forge was relentless, cracking into the opening game of the 905 Derby off a free kick from 15 yards outside the box, struck perfectly by left back Marko Jevremović. It soared over the Toronto wall and curved away through keeper Diego Urtiaga and nestled, unstoppable, into the upper corner to his right. It was the Serbian’s first goal of his Forge career, which