The best traditions aren’t force-fed, they grow up by themselves, springing from their own roots.
So, when it comes to the 905 Derby—the geographically-rooted rivalry between Hamilton’s Forge FC and Toronto’s York United—what we’re seeing right now might not be how we view things in a few years when we’re looking back at the Canadian Premier League’s early seasons.
Because Forge and Calgary’s Cavalry FC have been so clearly the dominant teams in the CPL’s first six seasons and have played an astonishing 33 times, including nine times in the post-season, their bitter top-of-the-league confrontations have overshadowed the more inherently natural rivalry between Toronto and Hamilton.
But that local rivalry is there and renews this Sunday (4 p.m.) at Hamilton Stadium. It will be the 28th time the two sides have met in what is essentially a freeway series, with Forge having won 16 times and drawn four. York has seven wins but hasn’t beaten Hamilton in the last eight head-to-heads, five of them wins.
But York tied Forge 2-2 at York Lions Stadium in late April. And after Sunday, the teams still play twice more this season, in August and October. They’re lodged in separate CPL tiers at the moment:
Forge is just two points out of first with a game in hand and riding a league record 11-game unbeaten streak while York has played better of late and is leading the four-team group chasing the fifth and final playoff spot, after three wins and a draw in their past five games.
Although Forge outscored York 8-0 in winning the 2024 Derby — pronounced throughout the soccer world in the British-style “Dar-bee” — with two wins and a draw, the games between the two have often been close on the scoreboard, if not always in the run of play.
Both teams and the league want the 905 Derby to ascend to greater recognition, and eventually it will. It requires time, and more head-to-head confrontations in big elimination games — they’ve only met twice in the playoffs and Canadian Championship play, with Forge winning both.
But the base of the pyramid is being created season by season, and when it climbs high enough to reach standalone status, the perspective of time will show that the Derby history was built during the accumulation of games that began back in 2019.
“Ideally, that’s what you want,” says Forge head coach Bobby Smyrniotis. “The more you have that in this league, the better it’s going to be long-term. I always allude to supporters going back and forth: the day we get a couple of thousand York supporters at Hamilton Stadium, and we’ve got a couple of thousand going over there, I think that creates a bigger culture for the game.
“It puts more importance on the game and puts more positive pressure on the players, and that’s what we want to see. We’re seeing it in micro-doses right now, but I think that’s where everyone wants it to grow to.”
‘Grow’ is the trigger word here, says CPL Executive Vice-President Glen Johnson.
“We love Derbies, we encourage them and we think they’re incredibly important to the history of the game,” Johnson said earlier this week. “Around the world, you’ve got some Derbies that go back over 100 years.
“We’re still a young league, and I think that over time they will evolve and get better. But it has to be a natural evolution, you can’t force things to evolve.”
Impending league expansion could add more geographic rivalries to the mix to join Forge-York and Vancouver-Pacific. Johnson says when those repeated Derbies blossom so do ticket sales, overall income, media exposure, and broadcast interest.
“They create real competitive tension between two neighbouring clubs who are living under roughly the same conditions,” Johnson says. “The other thing they create is a bit of that tribal nature that makes sport so much fun: ‘This is our territory, this is your territory.’”
The first 1000 fans arriving at the stadium on Sunday will receive a poster celebrating the 905 Derby.
York comes into Hamilton looking to build upon last week’s 0-0 home draw against league-leading Ottawa Atlético. They were solid defensively in that game and also have offensive potential: they’ve scored the fourth-most goals in the league and are second in shots on goal; Julian Altobelli ranks No. 2 in the league with seven goals; defender Riley Ferrazzo has three goals as has forward Gabriel Bitar; and Mexicans Oswaldo León and Orlando Botello also can manufacture danger.
“They’re a team that has a clear identity of what they want to do on and off the ball,” Smyrniotis says. They play in a 3-4-3, they like to attack, like to get numbers forward. They attack and defend with a lot of numbers.
“That’s always a unique combination for finding the path through. It’s not a team that changes from week to week or changes for the opponent. I think they’re trying to instill something they want to do, and they work on that 80 per cent of the time. As a good coach, you’re not expecting a lot of variability, so it's a matter of exposing the weaknesses that are there in every squad you play against.”
The undefeated Hammers (6-5-0) will be seeking their fourth consecutive victory and have won their last two games, on the road against Vancouver FC and Valour FC, by a combined 7-0.
They’ve rediscovered their scoring touch, led by last weekend’s hat-trick by striker Brian Wright and the creative penetration from the forward flanks by Nana Ampomah and Hoce Massunda.
They’re getting multiple goal contributions from the backline and have played solid team defence, with only a few exceptions, backed by No. 1 keeper Jassem Koleilat.
“The most important thing for us is that we’ve got a good thing going right now,” Smyrniotis says. “And you have a few motivating factors in that the guys are playing some excellent football, and there’s the unbeaten streak. It’s something they take pride in, and I think it’s something they need to continue taking pride in.
“You always need those extra motivations: sometimes we have to come up with them, and sometimes the story writes itself a bit. And right now, that’s there.”
HAMMERS AND NAILS:
- Forge GK Jassem Koleilat leads the CPL with six clean sheets in 11 games, with Halifax’s Rayane Yesli (5) and Calgary’s Marco Carducci (4) right behind
- Brian Wright has moved up to third in the Golden Boot race with six goals, two back of leader Samuel Salter of Ottawa
- Hoce Massunda is tied for second with three assists, two back of Ottawa’s David Rodríguez
- Daniel Nimickhas made 713 passes, third in the league. He leads all defenders with three true assists. No one else has more than one
- Nimick, Nana Ampomah, Ali Hojabrpour, and Brian Wright were all named to the CPL’s Gatorade Team of the Week
- Malik Olowabi-Belewu was part of the Hamilton Sports Group contingent that visited McMaster Children’s Hospital on Tuesday at the start of the 2025 Hearts in The Huddle program
- Team captain Kyle Bekker is representing the Hammers in the major mental health initiative, Ticat/Forge partnership with the CAMH Foundation, announced last week.