| 2025 TELUS Canadian Championship -- Quarter-Final CF Montréal vs. Forge FC July 9 at 7 p.m. ET Stade Saputo in Montréal, Québec Watch Live: OneSoccer |
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Forge FC are in familiar territory this week as they look to replicate their historic feat from a year ago, and defeat CF Montréal to advance to the TELUS Canadian Championship semi-final.
This year, they head to Stade Saputo with a 1-0 lead on aggregate in this quarter-final tie, thanks to Brian Wright's goal back in Hamilton in the first leg on May 20. That gives Forge even more confidence than last season, when they travelled to Montréal with the series all tied up 1-1.
On that occasion, Daniel Parra and Kwasi Poku were goalscoring heroes for Forge in a second leg that took several hours longer than usual to complete due to a thunderstorm. This time around, they're hoping to repeat that success, and take a step further in this tournament they're so desperate to win.
"It's on everybody's mind," Forge midfielder Tristan Borges told media on Monday. "As much as what we would like to say in the beginning of the season, we want to win the league and all that, the standards are very high here at the club, and we've been able to accomplish a lot of stuff in the league, in CanChamp and in Concacaf, but for us, we want to win trophies."
Forge come into this match in good form, still unbeaten in league play after 13 games. They beat Vancouver FC 2-1 at home on Saturday, and sit just one point back of first place in the CPL.
This is the fifth consecutive year that Forge have encountered CF Montréal in this competition, and the first three times it's where their journey ended. Last year, Forge finally slew the dragon and beat a Major League Soccer opponent for the first time in club history.
However, they have unfinished business in the Canadian Championship. They lost a narrow semi-final tie to Toronto FC last year, despite leading after Leg 1. This season, if they beat Montréal, there will be just one MLS team left in the final four; this could be Forge's best ever shot at winning the Voyageurs' Cup in a full tournament.
Standing in the way is a CF Montréal side who will undoubtedly be putting their entire focus on Wednesday's game. They're currently at the bottom of MLS's Eastern Conference (second-last in the whole league) with a 3-5-13 record and a -22 goal differential. On Saturday, they were battered 4-1 at home by Lionel Messi's Inter Miami.
All that's to say, the Canadian Championship is their best — and arguably only — chance at a trophy this season.
After the first leg, Montréal's interim head coach Marco Donadel admitted that his side hadn't been as clean on the ball as he'd hoped. He knew his team would concede a little more possession to Forge in order to conserve energy with a fairly shorthanded bench that night, but he felt they gave up more chances than they should've.
The Hamilton side ended up out-shooting Montréal 11-9, while also preventing the MLS visitors from creating any particularly dangerous chances.
Both sides have a couple of questions around player availability heading into this game. For Montréal, Canadian national team player Joel Waterman will have rejoined the side by now, but did not take part in last Saturday's game against Miami; whether he's available or not will make a huge difference for the MLS side. Speaking of CanMNT players, they're also confronting life without Nathan Saliba, who recently made a big move to Anderlecht after Canada's Gold Cup campaign.
Meanwhile, Forge have been slowly working a few players back to full fitness, including Mo Babouli (an unused sub on Saturday) and Alessandro Hojabrpour (absent the last two matches). Goalkeeper Jassem Koleilat, meanwhile, was a surprise scratch in Forge's last game. However, coach Bobby Smyrniotis said Monday that "everyone" is available, suggesting the players dealing with knocks will be able to participate in some capacity.
It's the five-time champions against a CPL club aspiring to win their first. Can Forge repeat history and knock out Montréal for a second straight year? Or is this the catalyst for the MLS team turning their season around?
Canadian Championship History
Last meeting: May 20, 2025 -- Forge FC 1-0 CF Montréal (Quarter-final first leg)
CF Montréal:
All-time record: 21W-13D-21L
Best finish: Champions (2008, 2014, 2013, 2019, 2021)
Forge FC:
All-time record: 9W-2D-6L
Best finish: Final (2020) - Lost to Toronto FC on penalties
Key Quotes
“Our mentality is, how do we give ourselves the best opportunity not to compete, but to win and get the result that we need. That’s been something we’ve worked on since year one, and it’s been my mentality as a coach, and I’ve tried to bring that to the group and that’s given us some good results over the years. It’s not always going to go our way in these ones, they’re tough challenges, but we’re going to go out there and we’re going to do it our way.” – Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis
“The way we played in the first half was unacceptable. The second half was better. I think we had more of the ball and made it a bit harder for them. But you could tell they wanted it more. It’s obviously disappointing to be in this position, but we have the second leg at home in a couple of months.” – CF Montréal defender Joel Waterman after Leg 1
