Soccer fans in the Lower Mainland will have some special Canadian Premier League action to tuck into out in Langley this weekend, as Vancouver FC gets set to host Forge FC at Willoughby Community Park on Friday night.
A battle between the first and last-place teams in the table, as Forge comes into this having yet to lose in CPL action, while Vancouver sits with just two wins to their name, making this seem like a one-sided matchup at first glance.
Yet, that ignores the form Vancouver finds themselves in, more specifically, as they’ve been a lot better than their record would indicate in recent weeks, at least in terms of their performances.
They proved that last week, as they defeated Atlético Ottawa 3-1 in the first leg of their Canadian Championship semi-finals, putting together arguably their best showing of the season in the process.
Unfortunately for them, they sandwiched that win with a pair of frustrating losses in league play, but even in those matches, in which they fell 3-2 to Pacific FC and 5-4 to Cavalry, they showed plenty of promise, especially in front of goal.
To that point, they’ve now scored 11 goals in their last four games across all competitions - before that, they’d scored just 18 goals in the 19 games they played in all of 2025.
Now, however, the big thing they’ll want to work on is keeping the ball out of their goal, as they’ve got just one clean sheet in 23 games across all competitions, which is a worry heading into a matchup against a Forge team that has scored 37 times in 19 CPL games.
“It’s been a theme (this year) that it takes one little mistake, then a second little mistake and a third little mistake follows, and the ball ends in the back of our net,” Vancouver FC interim head coach, Martin Nash, said this week. “Collectively, every player can hold their hands up and say they could have done more in those moments, but it's something we’ve got to learn from. And there have been hard things that we got to learn quickly from, and right now we're not learning as quickly as we need to.”
Speaking of Forge, though, it’s hard to know what part of their season has been most impressive to date, as their offence has arguably been a secondary story.
Of course, the main achievement has been that they’ve yet to lose a match in CPL action, sitting with a record of 12W-7D-0L (43 points), a run they’d love to keep going as they reach their 20th game of the regular season. Considering that they’re coming into this match on a five-game winning streak in CPL play, they’re in excellent form right now, too, as they haven’t been padding this streak with uninspiring draws, either.
As for this matchup, given Vancouver’s track record defensively, Forge will feel confident in their ability to find the net - they feel that way against everyone in the league, to be fair - but they’ll want to use their defence to their advantage, too, as they’ve also conceded a league-low 13 goals in CPL plays, which helps explain their undefeated record (if you don’t concede goals in a game, you don’t lose them, after all).
Yet, that just shows why it’s so hard to beat this Forge team, as they can both score goals and keep them out of their net. Along with their impressive depth, high-end talent and tactical flexibility, that’s made them a special group, hence the record they’ve got this year.
“You have to be motivated, because as a team, we’re playing good football, and doing good things on both sides of the ball,” Forge’s head coach, Bobby Smyrniotis, said of his team. “We know that, okay, we’ve had a good week, a good month, but you're only as good as your next one, so we need to be very good (in this one).”
In terms of player availability, both managers noted no new absences from their most recent match, and neither side has any disciplinary concerns to contend with, so it’s expected that both go with relatively unchanged XIs, although it’s worth noting that Forge has continued to rotate their team all year long.
3 THINGS TO WATCH
- Can Vancouver build momentum at home? It was almost forgotten in the chaos of their last week, but that Canadian Championship win against Ottawa wasn’t just huge for Vancouver given the stakes of the match, but also because it meant that they’d picked up their first victory at Willoughby Community Park in over a calendar year, too. That’s key, because they remain as the only team yet to win at home in CPL play in 2025 - for context, every side in the league has at least three home wins this year, with Forge leading the way at six victories. Of course, it won’t be easy for Vancouver to pick up another home win when considering their opposition, as Forge also have six wins on the road, but that shouldn’t deter them from trying to challenge this Forge side in this game. Considering that they now sit 15 points back of the fifth and final playoff spot, it feels like Vancouver has nothing to lose when it comes to their approach in league play, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see them come out and try and bring the game to Forge. That approach proved to be successful against Ottawa, so it’s not as if it’s a wild concept to suggest, even if it will be tough for them to execute that game plan similarly for a second straight home match, especially against this opposition.
- Forge finding rhythm in attack: As mentioned earlier, Forge comes into this game in good form offensively, as they’ve scored 15 goals in their last six games across all competitions, and have scored at least two goals in 12 of their last 13 games (all comps). After having just four two-goal outings in their first nine games of the season (all comps), it’s safe to say that they’ve found their rhythm, and what’s impressive is that it’s coming due to their success as a team, instead of anything that specific individuals on their team are doing. To that point, among the 37 goals they’ve scored in CPL play, eight have come from Brian Wright, who leads their team, but they have eight other players who have scored at least two goals, and six further players who all have one goal to their name. Essentially, anyone who is on the field for Forge is capable of finding the back of the net, and that’s part of the reason why they’re so dangerous - although it also helps that they’ve got a litany of offensive options such as Wright, Nana Ampomah, Tristan Borges, David Choinière, Hoce Massunda, Mo Babouli, and many others to choose from.
- Vancouver building depth in attack: Of course, while Vancouver will be happy to just be scoring goals after struggling to find the net earlier in the campaign, they’ll be pleased that their offensive outburst has been fuelled by a few different sources, as well. Over the last week, in their four-goal outing vs. Cavalry, they had four different goal scorers, and the same occurred vs. Ottawa in the Canadian Championship and vs. Pacific in CPL play, in which they had three and two different goal scorers, respectively. The big name to watch has been Hugo Mbongue, who already has three goals in five games across all competitions since being brought in from Toronto FC on loan, but he’s been supported by a few different names, as Thierno Bah has continued an excellent season out wide, Pathé Ndiaye has been finding his feet up front, Nicolás Mezquida is shining as an attacking midfielder and Terran Campbell recently busted a slump and is finding form. All of a sudden, that gives Vancouver a few different names to work with up front, giving them a bit of competition at positions where they needed it. Now, the goal will be to maintain that, while finding a bit of balance at the back, but they’ll be happy to see their offence come to life, as goals do win games, after all.
PROJECTED STARTING XIs
Vancouver FC: Irving; Dada-Luke, Campagna, O'Connor, Enyou; Norman Jr., Fry, Campbell, Mezquida, Bah; Mbongue
Forge FC: Koleilat; Rama, Nimick, Achinioti-Jönsson, Jevremović; Hojabrpour, Bekker; Massunda, Borges, Choinière; Wright
ALL-TIME SERIES
Vancouver wins: 2 || Forge wins: 6 || Draws: 2
Last meeting:
July 5, 2025 -- Forge FC 3-1 Vancouver FC
KEY QUOTES
“Yeah, I think the belief is there that we can score goals; we've been scoring goals consistently in recent weeks, which is great. Now, it’s great to be scoring goals, but you’ve got to keep them out of your net to win games. That's been our problem more than anything else, and it's come from letdowns individually, on things that I think are easily correctable, but we have to do those jobs in those moments, and if we can do that, we will have a better chance of winning games.” – Vancouver FC interim head coach Martin Nash
“One thing we tried to do in the off-season was make sure that we brought in not only quality players, but good characters, too. We want to have a deep locker room, a deep group, and so you need to have players who can understand that they won’t play all the time. They don’t have to agree with it; I never want my players to agree with the fact that they're not starting, because I want them to challenge each other, but they’re all good guys, and they have a good football understanding, so they’ve been bought-in from the beginning on what we're trying to do.” – Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis