A rare Thursday night clash this week in the Canadian Premier League sees top-of-the-table Forge FC travel to Winnipeg to take on seventh-place Valour.
The hosts are fighting for their playoff lives. While they can't mathematically be eliminated from playoff contention this weekend, Valour are 13 points out of the fifth and final playoff spot with six games remaining. They basically have to win out in order to have any chance of making up that ground.
The only positive? Those six games come against the six teams directly in front of them in the table.
Forge, meanwhile, still maintains a three-point lead on Atlético Ottawa in the race for the CPL Shield. But any slip-up at this point, especially with a meeting in the nation's capital next weekend, and Atleti will look to pounce.
Since the two sides drew 1-1 back on April 19 at Hamilton Stadium, there has been a significant gap between them both in the table and in head-to-head meetings.
Going into Thursday's contest, Forge are 30 points ahead of Valour in the table. The past two meetings between the two sides, first in Winnipeg on June 22 and then in Hamilton on August 2, ended 5-0 for Forge.
Valour, however, are coming off a five-goal performance of their own in a 5-2 victory over Vancouver FC this past Friday. Myles Morgan scored the first hat-trick in the club's history in that match.
Forge, meanwhile, are coming off of a more conservative result -- a 1-0 home victory against the Halifax Wanderers to rebound from their first and only loss of the campaign the week prior in Calgary.
Both sides added weapons to their respective attackers recently as well. New Valour signing Oskar van Hattum played his first minutes with the Winnipeg club this past weekend.
Forge, meanwhile, recently announced the return of striker Viktor Klonaridis. This was an area of need following the return of Max Filion to U SPORTS. Klonaridis, who played three matches for Forge late last season, spent this past week training with the club, but Smyrniotis and his staff have not decided yet whether he will play on Thursday.
Forge have been the league's best road team this season, with 24 points collected away from home. That is one point fewer than their club record of 25, which came back in 2021. With Thursday being the first of three road games remaining for the Hamilton side, the league record of 28, set by Atlético Ottawa back in 2022, is possibly in play as well.
Thursday's match was originally scheduled for Friday, but was ultimately moved to help accommodate Forge as they travel to Vancouver on Tuesday for the second leg of their TELUS Canadian Championship semi-final against the Vancouver Whitecaps. That tie is currently 2-2 on aggregate.
Forge will be without full-back Rezart Rama, who is serving a one-match suspension for yellow card accumulation.
3 THINGS TO WATCH
-
Forge's latest test of focus, character: All season, Forge FC have proven incredibly adept at balancing cup and league competition, without letting the standard drop in either. In the space of seven days back in July, they beat Vancouver FC at home, advanced past CF Montréal in the Canadian Championship, and then travelled to Ottawa to draw 1-1 with Atleti. In an eight-day stretch back in August, they defeated York United at York Lions Stadium, drew the Vancouver Whitecaps at home in the CanChamp, and then beat Atlético Ottawa 2-0 at home. Over the next 10 days, they face arguably their biggest challenge yet, starting on Thursday in Winnipeg. They then travel to Vancouver for Tuesday's decisive Canadian Championship second leg against the Vancouver Whitecaps, before a crucial match against Atlético Ottawa in the nation's capital.
-
Can Myles Morgan build on historic performance?: At 20 years of age, striker Myles Morgan is coming off the best performance of his professional career -- a hat-trick against Vancouver FC. He now has five goals and three assists on the season, solid totals for a young player making his initial foray into men's football. Now, he will look to build on that hat-trick, and demonstration of what he is capable of at his best, over the remaining stage of the season. Dos Santos said that the goal was a reward for the mentality and work that Morgan has put in this season. "He's never too high, he's never too low," said Valour FC head coach Phil Dos Santos. "He understands football is short-lived, that it's not about what you did yesterday, it's about what you do tomorrow and today."
-
Can Forge keep pressure on Ottawa?: As the top team in the CPL, Forge are unquestionably the hunted right now in the league. However, the past 10 matchweeks have offered them a potential mental advantage: they have played their game before Atlético Ottawa. The only exception is when the two sides played each other. Forge won seven of the eight matches they did not play against Atleti in that stretch, consistently forcing Ottawa to return serve -- and perhaps putting added pressure on the capital club, knowing they need to win their game. They will look to do so on Thursday. Atlético Ottawa, meanwhile, have what is on paper a much more difficult proposition this weekend, going to York Lions Stadium in hopes of a second-ever win at the Stadium. Especially considering the two sides meet next week in Ottawa on September 21, winning on Thursday feels vital for Forge in continuing to press their advantage in this title race.
PROJECTED STARTING XIs
Valour FC: Gazdov; Alarcón, Konincks, Facchineri, Antonoglou; Ohin; Twardek, Ressurreição, Froese, Faria; Morgan
Forge FC: Koleilat; Cissé, Nimick, Achinioti-Jönsson, Jevremović; Hojabrpour, Paton, Borges; Choiniére, Wright, Massunda
ALL-TIME SERIES
Valour wins: 8 || Forge wins: 14 || Draws: 3
Last meeting:
August 2, 2025 — Forge FC 0-1 Valour FC
KEY QUOTES
"Keep going, keep pushing. It's very difficult; we're not living in Fantasyland. Here we are in the position we're in, but we're also competitors, and we want to win matches. We want to play every game as if it was the last game. And for us, it's that. It's take care of what we could take care of and see where things land." – Valour FC head coach Phil Dos Santos
"We've done a great job this year of being steady in our progress, being steady in our play, in our results. And it has us here. So we need to, one, continue that, and, it's also trying to be better than what we've been in the past few months, and since the start of the season." – Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis
