Warm there, frigid here? “Perfect”
It’s exactly what Forge FC was looking for, in the sky and in two different countries.
On Friday, while temperatures in Hamilton were nose-diving and forecasts signaled an impending serious snowfall, in Cancún, Mexico, it was 28 degrees (C) and sunny without rain in sight until Monday.
“It’s nice but not too hot,” said Hamilton head coach Bobby Smyrniotis, who is putting his team through training paces in Cancún ahead of the first round of the Concacaf Champions Cup at Hamilton Stadium.
“It’s perfect training weather.”
And it’s the kind of meteorological contrast the Forge would like to see when they host Mexican giants Los Tigres (UANL) on Feb. 3 in the opening round of Champions Cup then visit Monterrey for the second leg on Feb. 10. They’re getting accustomed to sun and warmth—and already have faced big winter weather in Hamilton this month—but Tigres aren’t encountering the blizzards and Arctic temperatures Smyrniotis hopes they’ll battle in Hamilton.
Mexican weather forecasts show Forge will have clear skies for their Saturday friendly match on the Mayan Riviera against local side Inter Playa and rain for another friendly against MLS’s Orlando City on Tuesday. so they’ll get a variety of conditions for their final prep before returning to Hamilton in mid-week for final preparations for Los Tigres.
Forge is, as usual, multi-tasking
The Concacaf Champions Cup is just one of the major pieces of hardware Forge will chase this season. They’ll also compete in the Canadian Premier League—the winner of which enters the 2027 Cup—and hopefully the CPL playoffs (the winner earning a Cup berth) as well as the TELUS Canadian Championship, which also has a Cup berth at stake. The Hammers play a familiar rival in the opening round of the TELUS Canadian Championship when the CPL’s HFX Wanderers visit Hamilton Stadium. The date of that game is still to be announced.
Hamilton beat the Wanderers 3-1 in the opening round of last year’s national championships before eliminating CF Montréal in the quarter-finals.
During the 2020 Island Games, which were played in a pandemic bubble in PEI, the Hammers beat Halifax 2-0 in the playoff final, which also served as a semifinal for the Canadian Championship. The 2020 final was eventually postponed to 2022, and Forge were defeated in penalty kicks by Toronto FC.
Over the seven-year history of both franchises, the Hammers have played the Wanderers 29 times across all competitions, with Hamilton winning 14 games, drawing 10 others, and losing just five matches.
A bit of regional and world context for Forge’s fourth Concacaf Cup appearance
While Forge FC is again the underdog in its opening round of Champions Cup, which begins at Hamilton Feb. 3, the Hammers are seeded 15th overall among the 27 North American, Central American and Caribbean teams that have qualified for 2026 Cup play.
They enter the prestigious tournament with the best seeding they’ve had in their four trips to the region’s largest club tournament.
Rankings are based on the FIFA cumulative point system, weighted over the past two years and taking into consideration game results and scores, strength of schedule, importance, and tournament-stage of games, and opponents’ performances against other teams. Stronger confederations like Europe and South America have a FIFA world rankings advantage because they engage in so much league and tournament play, which features the world’s most competitive and rich teams.
Among the 22 teams that must play in the 2026 Cup’s first round, Los Tigres were ranked second in Concacaf with 1182 FIFA points at the time of their qualification in December. Including the other five teams that have a bye into the round of 16, Tigres are ranked fourth overall in the tournament.
Because of the pathways they followed during qualifying, Toluca (No. 2), No. 3 Inter Miami of MLS, and No. 8 Seattle Sounders of MLS earned first-round byes along with Costa Rica’s Alajuelense and Jamaica’s Mount Pleasant.
Los Tigres, Cruz Azul (No. 1 in Concacaf for FIFA points), and Liga MX’s América (No. 5 in Concacaf) are obliged to play in the opening round.
Vancouver Whitecaps, who eliminated Forge in the Canadian Championship quarter-finals, are ranked 6th highest among Champions Cup sides. The other two Canadian entrants, Ottawa Atlético and upstart Vancouver FC—both from the CPL—are ranked behind Hamilton.
In overall Concacaf rankings, Forge is slotted at No 54, tied with Mexico’s Santos Laguna. But there are numerous MLS and Liga MX teams ranked ahead of Forge, like Laguna, which were eliminated in the Champions Cup qualifying rounds. Among Cup-qualified teams outside Canada, Mexico, and the USA, only two clubs—LD Aujuelese of Costa Rica at No. 23, and Honduras’s C.D Olimpia at No 31—have managed to rank above Forge.
Forge stands 2594th in the world, but it’s wise to remember that the CPL is only seven years old, and there are well over 3000 ranked teams in the world—plus hundreds of others around the globe which aren’t ranked at all—and a good showing in Cup play would send Forge up the standings.