On Tuesday morning at Hamilton Stadium, Forge FC host their second annual School Day Game, facing Atlético Ottawa.
A potentially CPL-record-breaking crowd of over 17,000 fans are projected to be in attendance, many of them from schools across seven different school boards from the Hamilton area.
Last year, Forge FC hosted 11,000 students for the incredibly successful first edition of the School Day Match, a memorable 1-1 draw with CF Montréal on May 7, 2024 in the Canadian Championship.
"It was a fantastic experience last year," said Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis. "And I can tell you, players, all of us are looking forward to it, because not only was the stadium full, and from what we've been told, there'll be more, the stadium was loud, and we expect them to be as loud as possible tomorrow."
They are in for quite an afternoon, as Tuesday's contest features the league's two remaining undefeated teams, Atlético Ottawa (5-1-0) and Forge FC (2-3-0). Atleti have scored a league-leading 20 goals, more than double any other team has managed. No other team has conceded fewer than Forge's three, meanwhile.
It is the first meeting between the two sides since Forge eliminated Atlético Ottawa with a narrow 1-0 win in the CPL Playoff semi-final last season.
The capital club come into the match on short rest, following a 5-2 victory over Valour on Saturday afternoon at home. Given the nature of that game, however, they were able to remove several key starters early, with Kevin Dos Santos, Manny Aparicio, Sam Salter, Juan Castro and David Rodríguez all removed before the 78th minute.
Salter is the biggest story right now around the league, as he made CPL history by scoring four times in this weekend's match against Valour -- the first player to do that in a single match. However, it is worth noting that he hasn't been especially prolific against Forge FC, with just a single goal in 17 matches against the Hamilton club.
The victory was Atlético Ottawa's fifth straight in the league, which is a club record. They have also, incredibly, scored three or more goals in their past five matches during a brilliant start to Diego Mejía's tenure as manager.
Their high-powered attack leads the league in expected goals (15.05), shots on target (44), and touches in the opposition box (168).
Forge, meanwhile, have not played since a dominant 3-1 victory over the Halifax Wanderers at home in the Canadian Championship this past Wednesday. They come into the match off the back of three straight draws in the league, and will certainly be looking to change that on Tuesday with a statement win.
The Hamilton club own the all-time series between the clubs, with 13 wins in 21 meetings. But Atleti have been much better in recent years, including winning three of four regular-season matchups between the two sides last year. They were the only team that beat CPL Shield winners Forge more than once last year during the regular season.
3 THINGS TO WATCH
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Can Sam Salter build off a record-breaking four-goal match: The Atlético Ottawa striker couldn't be flying higher right now after a stunning four-goal performance, the first in CPL history, during a 5-2 victory over Valour on Saturday. His goalscoring ability in this league is nothing new, in fact no player has scored more CPL goals since 2022 than Salter, with 28. But this year, and in this Atlético Ottawa team, he looks like a player who can reach a whole other level of performance. Getting much better service than in past years with Atlético Ottawa, but also making plenty of great runs as well, he is thriving under Diego Mejía. With six goals and three assists in all competitions this season for the capital club, can Salter build on his historic performance and put in another strong shift against Forge?
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Can rested Forge replicate dominant CanChamp win?: So far this season in CPL action, Forge haven't looked quite themselves in the final third. They have scored just six goals in five games, but also sit last in the league in touches in the opposition box. However, on Wednesday last week with the Halifax Wanderers in town, they put in a performance much closer to what has been their standard over the years in a 3-1 victory. The match saw the team play a fluid attacking formation, with Mo Babouli given a free role and executing brilliantly in it, scoring twice. If Forge can find a way to be similarly creative on Tuesday, Atlético Ottawa's young backline are in for a long day of work.
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Can Atlético Ottawa get off to a better start?: If there is one slight blemish in Atlético Ottawa's near-perfect start to the 2025 season, it is their ability to score first. After allowing Valour to score just five minutes into their match on Saturday, they have now allowed the first goal in four of six matches so far this season in the CPL. It has been a bit of a nonfactor to this point because Atleti have collected already 10 points from losing positions, but they will be keen to start matches better before it does start to cost them. The importance of doing so against a team like Forge, however, is especially significant. The Hamilton club have only ever lost a single CPL match in which they had a lead in club history. As coincidence would have it, that came against Atlético Ottawa last year in a stunning 4-3 thriller in the nation's capital. Ottawa won't want to play with similar fire again on this occasion, and getting off to a better start is vital to their success on Tuesday.
PROJECTED STARTING XIs
Forge FC: Koleilat; Rama, Achinioti-Jönsson, Nimick, Paton; Hojabrpour, Bekker, Borges; Choinière, Babouli, Wright
Atlético Ottawa: Ingham; Kozlovskiy, Abatneh, Cloutier; Dos Santos, Castro, Sissoko, Antinoro; Aparicio, Rodríguez, Salter
ALL-TIME SERIES
Forge FC wins: 13 || Atlético Ottawa wins: 5 || Draws: 3
Last meeting:
Nov. 2, 2024 — Forge FC 1-0 Atlético Ottawa
KEY QUOTES
"Tomorrow, there's a lot of opportunity against this opponent to be aggressive, but there's also a lot of opportunity to get a little bit passive and take a wait-and-see approach with the opponent and find the spaces that way as well. So we've got a couple of different things that we'll look at for tomorrow, and I'm sure they're doing the same thing."-- Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis
"Obviously, it's a lot of fun with a big crowd, lot of kids, and I think it's good for the community and everything, and the City of Hamilton to bring more supporters and everything to the game. Last year, it brought a good atmosphere, and it was a good game. So I'm hoping tomorrow we can get a couple of new Forge fans and kind of get them in the rotation for our normal games." -- Forge FC defender Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson
"I think we'll have a good match to watch. Forge is one of the best teams in the history of this league...we have little time to rest after the past match, but we're ready to compete." -- Atlético Ottawa head coach Diego Mejía
