If it’s Champions Cup it must be Forge against a Mexican powerhouse
Of course it would be Los Tigres.
Somehow, when it comes to Concacaf Champions Cup, Forge FC always manages to open up against a legendary Mexican side.
In early February the Hammers will play in their fourth Cup in a home-and-away total-goals elimination series against Club Tigres de la UANL—the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León—with the first game at Hamilton Stadium and the away leg at the 41,000-seat University Stadium in Monterrey.
Hamilton’s three previous Cup appearances were also against top Liga MX clubs, Cruz Azul (2022), Chivas (2024) and CF Monterrey (January, 2025).
“It was either going to be Los Tigres or Club América, they were the two Mexican teams left when they drew our name,” Forge head coach and sporting director Bobby Smyrniotis quipped after Tuesday night’s televised Cup draw, referring to his club’s penchant for getting picked to open their year against the historically-best teams in Mexico.
“The football purist in me loves it. But the flip side is again you’re going to go against a team which is seven weeks into their season. And not only seven weeks into that season, they’re still playing right now. They’re literally going to take 10 days off, go back into pre-season and they’ll be a full throttle team by the time we play them.
“But it’s nothing we haven’t dealt with before.”
The Mexican premier league divides its year into two championship seasons; the Apertura (opening) which concludes in December; and the Clausura (closing) which begins in early January. Each of those conclude with eight-team playoffs.
Los Tigres finished second in the 2025 Apertura, just one point behind Toluca, and hosted Toluca Wednesday night in the opening game of the two-leg championship. The second leg is at Toluca on Sunday.
Also nicknamed Los Auriazules—the “Golden Blues” for their kit colours—Los Tigres lost only one game during the 17-match regular season, winning 10 times and drawing six. They had four draws and four wins on the road and were 6-2-1 at their raucous stadium in Monterrey, where they have a fierce rivalry with CF Monterrey.
Their 35 goals were second only to the heavy firepower of Toluca, but they allowed the fewest goals in the league with 16, just under one per game and are led by Juan Francisco Brunetta who has 11 goals in 21 games so far, three off the league lead. Angel Correa was ninth overall with 19 goals and Diego Lainez had five. They’ve got solid attacking throughout the lineup and are good on set pieces with Brunetta and Correa providing the corner kicks.
“I just know the general components of them as a team,” Smyrniotis said. “But we’ll really get down to studying them now. Along with Club América they’re probably the big powerhouses over the past few years in Mexico, beyond everyone else.
“They’re in a state of a bit of a turnover, but they’re still the Tigres.”
Los Tigres cruised through the quarterfinals over Tijuana by an 8-0 aggregate, then played Cruz Azul to a pair of 1-1 draws but advanced to the final because they had a better record during the regular season. Cruz Azul is already in Qatar for the FIFA Intercontinental Cup, which is a derivative of the Club World Cup. They earned that right by beating Vancouver Whitecaps in July’s finale of the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup.
Los Tigres were founded in 1960 as CD Universitario de Nuevo León, but changed to its current name in 1967. They’ve won eight Liga MX titles, and reached the final of the 2020 FIFA Club World Cup, losing to Bayern Munich. They were the first Mexican and first Concacaf team ever to reach the final of a global competition.
“It’s back to Monterrey for us, back to a place we know,” Smyrniotis said. “A different opponent but familiar territory. It’s another top Mexican side.”
During Wednesday’s telecast of the draw, much was made of the Molten F5C5000, the new generation of ball manufactured by Molten, which has differently formulated panels than the balls used in Canadian Premier League competition. Forge will get its shipment of this generation of balls early in the new year.
“Last year we used a Molten ball in this competition and it’s a bit different every year,” Smyrniotis said. “They’re excellent quality balls. I think it’s just the weight; when you’re hitting it the players feel it not only has good weight but it also travels very well. There’s a good feeling in it.”
There are four weekly “windows” for the Champions Cup Opening Round, beginning in early February and continuing through the month. The official schedule likely won’t be announced until the end of the week but in recent years the Mexican teams have tended to play in the opening window while MLS teams—whose regular season ends in November and doesn’t start again until late February, until they go to a July-April format in 2027—have often been in a later window to give them a little more prep time.
If that past schedule is repeated, Forge would likely return to train in Hamilton during the first week in January, then head to a warmer climate for two more weeks of preparation, before returning to Hamilton to prepare to host Los Tigres.
“Right now it’s just discovery and introductory stages to learn about them,” Smyrniotis said. “From now until we play them they may change their lineup a little bit. But it’s exciting to know who we play and we can start planning.
“The thing is we’ll be able to watch them play six times in their league play before we play the first game against them.”
And, naturally, Smyrniotis hopes that the February weather at Hamilton will be as inhospitable as it can be to an opponent accustomed to warm weather. The colder and snowier, the better.
“As always,” he said.