They’re “friendly” but critical to Forge’s short ramp-up
Midfielder Kyle Bekker, who became captain of Forge FC before they even played their first game, is accustomed to taking the Hammers’ temperature, reporting on it and trying to modulate it: whether it’s in the Hamilton cold or the warmth of Cancún where Forge is headed for two weeks of training on Saturday.
Forge had only a few weeks off between the CPL semifinal and reporting for training two weeks ago as they prepare to face heavily favoured Los Tigres UANL in a two-legged Champions Cup opening round.
Game one is at Hamilton Stadium Tuesday, February 3 and the second leg is in a Monterrey suburb at Estadio Universitario a week later.
“It’s great to come back for the start of a new year,” Bekker says. “Obviously, it’s exciting to look forward to the Champions Cup. It’s a short off-season for us but the reality is guys want to be in, want to be training. You want to keep that consistency and this is what comes with it.”
Bekker says the two friendlies that Forge has arranged against two different levels of teams in Cancún are important parts of Hamilton’s preparation for Los Tigres but also for the rest of the season. Next Saturday they kick off against local side Inter Playa of the Mexican third division and later, against perennially strong MLS team Orlando City SC.
“It’s new competition; faces you don’t know, teams you don’t know but have that similar playing style that we’re going to see,” Bekker said. “The levels will change within the two teams but the reality is that you need to go down there and prepare and you need to try and grow with each performance.
“We have a shotgun start…Los Tigres and the other Mexican teams are in the middle of the season. These are the realities going into it. So for us, it’s as much focus in a condensed period of time without burning out before that first game. You play these friendlies, you need it. There are new faces coming in to the team, so it’s an opportunity for them to showcase and to bond.”
More About the Champions Cup opposition
It was definitely a short off-season for Forge FC but their opponents in the opening round of the Champions Cup—Los Tigres UANL (Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León)—did not conclude their 2025 calendar year until mid-December, a month after Forge’s final playoff game. And on Saturday night they will play their third game of the 2025–26 season’s second half (called the Clausura).
Tigres won their first game of the new year 2-1 on the road at San Luis, with 22-year-old Ontario-born winger Marcelo Flores scoring both goals, a quickly elevated shot from about a dozen yards out in the 49th minute and the game-winner in the 77th when he took a subtly creative pass from André-Pierre Gignac, spun away from traffic and aimed a bouncer to the far right corner. Flores, a left-footer, scored both goals from his dangerous areas on the left side.
“You can say any name you want on that team and there’s quality there,” Kyle Bekker says.
Bobby Smyrniotis refers repeatedly to the depth and quality on Los Tigres and on all the other upper-level Mexican teams, three of whom—Cruz Azul, CF Monterrey and Chivas—Forge have already played in previous Champions Cups.
“They’re integrating some younger players into the lineup so you see Flores starting some games on the left side instead of (Diego) Lainez who came in to replace him. Lainez is a great player and on the right side there’s (Uriel) Antuna, who played for Cruz Azul when we played against them. They’ve got skill everywhere.”
Forge staff and players will be broadening their Tigres-specific film study when they arrive in Mexico to train and that will intensify as the two weeks roll on. And they’ll have more tape to study, one of the few advantages of playing a team which will be close to mid-season form by the time the Hammers encounter them. Los Tigres lost 1-0 at home to Pumas on Wednesday in Pumas’s first victory at Estadio Universitario since 2014. But Tigres dominated the game with 19 shots to five from the visitors and earned 16 corner kicks to just two for Pumas. But Pumas keeper Keylor Navas was sensational and his rearguards didn’t allow repeated penetration, which Forge’s experienced back four will have to do in their two Cup games.
On Saturday night, Los Tigres play host to Toluca, who beat them in a 9-8 round of penalty kicks to win the opening-half (Apertura) season championship on Dec. 14. At 2-0, Toluca is off to another fast start. Orlando City eliminated Toluca from the Leagues Cup on penalty kicks in August and Forge plays Orlando City in that Cancún friendly, so that match could serve as some kind of measuring stick.
Soon MLS will have a Cup advantage too
The MLS and CPL teams have been in the same boat in the Concacaf Champions Cup – a boat that winters in harbour while Mexican teams and some other regional leagues are out sailing the season’s seas. But that is about to change. As of 2027 the MLS will switch from a schedule similar to the CPL’s and will begin its schedule in July, play right through the fall and winter and conclude with playoffs in May.
So, for instance, an important friendly like next week’s in Cancún against Orlando City will likely be impossible to fit onto the calendar. MLS teams will join Liga MX teams in mid-season trim while the CPL representatives in the Champions Cup will continue to try to get up to speed with no formal competition and a short off-season.
“You know what you’re going to get in terms of quality and in terms of fitness against these teams in Champions Cup,” Bekker says. “It is without a doubt the toughest task. We could sit here and say, ‘We want it to be in the middle of the season, so we have fitness and the sharpness that comes with it.’ But this is the way it is and we deal with it. These are the games you want to play in. I know I sound like a broken record because I say it every year; when you go into this competition you face this calibre of team. But as a player what more do you want? If you are a young guy and you have this kind of opportunity, the sporting world is crazy enough that if you play two good games then maybe your own life changes.”
While playing Champions Cup always alerts the local soccer community to the upcoming season, even though the CPL doesn’t kick off until April, it’s particularly focused this year because of the impending World Cup in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. All soccer teams, especially the professional ones, can make a lot of hay under that kind of bright sunlight and Forge and first-time Cup participants Vancouver FC and Atlético Ottawa will be carrying an important banner for the Canadian Premier League and its fans next month.
“We don’t put the cart in front of the horse; it’s not Forge’s responsibility to lift up everything in soccer in this country,” Bekker says. “You can’t bite off more than you can chew, however we want to be big in these games and with that comes an expectation. We have an expectation internally, we have an expectation for our fans, we have an expectation from our league. We’re also one of the smallest guys on the totem pole in this competition but we know we belong.”