They’ve played enough consequential games, the bulk of them in hostile environments, that Forge FC doesn’t need to be told that although they saw a very talented Tigres side last week in Hamilton, they’ll see an even better and more aware one this Tuesday in Mexico.
“We had a good result at home, and we played well, but all that matters is the 90 minutes we’re playing there,” Hammers midfielder and captain Kyle Bekker said of the second leg of the home-and-away Concacaf Champions Cup opening round, at Tigres’ legendary home stadium, ‘El Volcán’.
“That’s still a lot of football, and the job is not done yet. We know they’ll be really ready for us. They’re a club that demands success, and the expectation on their part is to go out and fix it.”
Forge had their chances—admittedly, the visitors had a few more of them—in the spirited 0-0 draw at Hamilton Stadium Tuesday night.
But since away-goals are the first tie-breaker before extra time is required, Forge has a slight edge because a draw would send them into the next round, as long as they can score a goal.
“You walk out of last Tuesday’s game, and you’re happy but not ecstatic,” head coach Bobby Smyrniotis said at the pre-game media conference Monday in Monterrey. “These games are played over two games; they’re played over 180 minutes. So you have to be spot-on. We come out of the first leg, and we give ourselves 90 minute,s and that’s the same for both teams here.
“We know a goal tomorrow is very important, as it changes the dynamic of the game. We understand that the same way the other team understands what they need. So you’ve put yourself in a position of knowing what you have to do, of knowing what you can do on the pitch. That’s always important.”
Forge will be trying to become the first CPL team to advance out of the first round of Champions Cup and the first to gain a victory on the road. They are already the only CPL team to complete a game in which the other team did not score a goal.
It was an indication that, despite being winless in three-and-a-half Cup series, Forge has been learning from their setbacks. All-time franchise leading scorer Tristan Borges says that it derives from experience with the bright stage lights of several different competitions, and also the recognition of how difficult it is to even qualify for Cup play.
“We never take that for granted,” he said. “I don’t rank (games, in order of importance). I think it’s more about understanding the competition that is ahead of us. Every single year, we’re getting top-notch competition. We do have a good history of being in big games in big competitions.
“Obviously, it’s a mixed feeling of being grateful but also understanding we’ve gotta start getting results.”
Los Tigres are on a roll, with just one loss in their five “Clausura” games, which started late last month after they lost the Mexican “Apertura” final on the 17th penalty kick of the shootout to Toluca in December.
Late last week, after intense negotiations, they landed Uruguayan striker Rodrigo Aguirre on a transfer from Club América. He has 35 goals in 141 Liga MX games over the past five years. The club’s potentially explosive offence already has legendary striker André-Pierre Gignac and World Cup champion Angel Correa. Although they won 5-1 in Friday’s league match with Santos Laguna, three previous no-goal efforts in Liga MX and the scoreless draw in Hamilton cemented their sense of needing more up front.
“I think they already showed us a lot of respect with the strong lineup they put out last week,” Forge defender Dan Nimick said after a sub-arctic practice in Hamilton on the weekend. “But I think we can expect now a little more respect from the mindset, too. They know we’re a team that’s organized defensively, and we’re going to try to carry that into the second leg. They’re aware of that, so they’re going to bring the energy and bring their A game to try to break us down.
“And we have to stand up to that challenge.”
Gignac should be roaring to go Tuesday with the inspiration of the home crowd, his enforced idleness in Friday’s league match because of a red card—his first in over 800 senior career games—in the previous Liga MX game, not scoring against Hamilton despite a handful of good chances, and being substituted out at halftime.
“You can say there wasn’t a goal or an assist on the scoresheet, but he’s 40-plus years old, and he still pressed the heck out of us,” Bekker counters. “He still moved really well; the desire was there. We can’t be sitting here and wake a sleeping dog.
“They’re just a quality team. If they find an inch, they go for it. They love to create those overloads on the outside and get people in the box. We have to expect all of that. We know it’s going to be the same, but with more octane.
“Dimitry (Bertaud, goalkeeper) was good and gave us a chance in the first game. When we have the opportunity where we are able to break press or get a foot on the ball, we have to do that and kind of impose ourselves. We can’t be scared of that.
“I think the biggest sign of respect we can show them is that we give them everything we have.”
Which is exactly what his head coach emphasized again Monday, when he said that in the second leg of a home-and-home, the team which is prepared to “suffer” the most will come away with progressing to the round-of-16, while the other will head home to its league schedule.
“It gives us a good sense of belief going into the second match,” Smyrniotis said. “We’re not a team that’s in mid-season form here; we’re not a team that’s played 10 matches and is rolling, so every small victory you get helps you in these battles.
“I think that’s the biggest thing we got from last Tuesday night, but we also know that (this Tuesday) will be a different match. We’re down here in a stadium, with a different atmosphere. And that’s the message, this is the atmosphere we want to play in.”
Borges, the seventh-year Forge veteran, second only to Bekker, concurs: “The season was very long last year, and this is the reward for it. You start off the year playing against great teams.”
Forge’s all-time Mexican opponents are dominating the Liga MX standings.
Underscoring just how difficult Forge’s competition
has been in the four different years they’ve competed in Concacaf Champions Cup, here’s how the quartet they met in the opening round currently stands in Liga MX, one of the most competitive and entertaining first-division soccer loops in the world.
Guadalajara, which Forge met in the opening round of 2024, has won all five of its games and has 15 points in the Clausura portion of Mexico’s split-season schedule. Tied for second are Los Tigres (this week’s opponent), and Cruz Azul (2022’s opposition) both at 3-1-1 and 10 points. And the other team Forge has played (last year), CF Monterrey could have been tied with them, but lost 1-0 to América Saturday night to fall to 7th place in the 18-team league at two wins, a draw and two losses.
What is the Concacaf Champions Cup and Why It Matters
Hammers seeking more early control
Smyrniotis said he was happy for his team to get nearly two days in the warm Mexican weather after weekend practices at Hamilton Stadium that were even colder—10 degrees worse, he told Mexican listeners at Monday’s media availability—than the opening game a few days earlier.
“But when the mentality is good, and the spirits are high with the players, you can overcome everything,” he said. “In football, it’s pretty simple. If you have something that you’re positive about, something that gives a good vibe to the players, those days after a game leading to the next game are always good.”
Smyrniotis wouldn’t reveal whether his team would stick to the kind of formation designed to withstand sustained attacks that his club employed last week, acknowledging that it was rare for his side to show such things as a five-man back line over an extended stretch, and dropping front-line players back quickly to plug middle gaps.
He did say Forge would have to continue to be compact when Tigres have the ball, “and we have to be our better selves when we’re on it. Last Tuesday, we saw that more and more during the game, and I want to see more of that earlier in the game. Make sure we’re keeping the ball, and we’re in possession.”
Rezart sharp
Forge defender Rezart Rama echoes his coaches’ and teammates’ expectations that Los Tigres will be an even tougher opponent this Tuesday than they were in last Tuesday’s 0-0 draw, and Forge will have to have a high degree of tactical anticipation.
“Of course,” he said, “They’re a quality team with lots of experience, and technical players. You have to work hard, and I think we need to be a bit sharper in defending and thinking forward before they execute things. Every one of them is a quality player, but we’re not going to change our way either.”
Rezart was one of the swing players in what was often a five-man back line, which isn’t necessarily how Forge will set up Tuesday night.
“They learned something about us and will counter,” he said. “They’re expecting us to defend the same way, and even better, and show the same toughness. We were really aggressive: we expect that of them, and they should expect the same too.”
History and passion create soccer financial freedom
Forge has been blazing a trail through Concacaf over the length of its seven-plus-year history and is well-known in Mexico. But with three of the four Canadian representatives in this tournament coming from the Canadian Premier League—Hamilton, Ottawa and Vancouver—there has been an increased interest in the CPL in soccer-mad Mexico and Central America.
Yesterday, Smyrniotis was asked by a local reporter about how he sees the differences between the CPL and the Mexican elite league.
“The two simplest answers are the history and the years,” he answered. “You probably have 100 years of history in this country, and for us it’s going into its eighth year. And the second easiest answer is the discrepancy in the budgets. Because of that history, there is an ability to spend, there is an ability for them to go out there and spend between games in the Cup.
“Overall, Canadian football is on the rise; the national team in Canada is on the rise. Our infrastructure is going to continue to keep getting better. It’s at the best point it’s ever been. But of course, you look at history and budget, and that creates a difference at this moment that will probably be there for a bit.
“But I know over the past seven years we’ve been doing some excellent things, theoretically punching above our weight, although we never think of it like that. We’re a club that thinks big.”
Watch…and party
Forge fans have a chance to win a brand new 2026 home shirt at the club’s Watch Party Tuesday night at Shoeless Joe’s Hamilton on Upper James Street.
The party itself starts at 9:30 p.m. in the popular sports grill, with the kickoff between Tigres and Forge set for 10 p.m. in Monterrey. As well as the sweater, there will also be giveaways of refreshments and other prizes.
It’s recommended that fans RSVP in advance, which can be done here.