PREVIEW: Valour FC vs. Forge FC | CPL Match #46

A busy weekend of Canadian Premier League action wraps up in Winnipeg, as Valour hosts Forge FC at Princess Auto Stadium on Sunday.

The second meeting of the season between these two sides, it’s been a while since they last shared the field, as Valour nabbed a crucial road draw at Hamilton Stadium back on April 19th.

Since then, however, both teams' fortunes have been quite different.

On one side, there’s Valour, who are tied for sixth in the table with eight points, sitting with a record of 2W-2D-6L through 10 matches. Not only that, but they’ve also conceded a league-high 21 goals, while scoring just nine, as they’ve not been as dangerous at both ends of the field as hoped so far in 2025.

Despite that, they’re starting to trend in the right direction, as they’ve got two wins and one draw in their last five games, with all of those positive results coming at home. In fact, they’re undefeated in five games at home in all competitions, something they’d love to continue in this match.

Faced off against a Forge team who they always seem to enjoy playing in Winnipeg, winning seven of their last nine meetings between the two at Princess Auto Stadium, that’ll give them reason to believe that they can potentially pick up a big result.

“Our approach is always about the next game, the next action,” Valour head coach, Phil Dos Santos, said in French after Valour’s recent match, a 3-0 loss to Atlético Ottawa “We can’t look at what’s too far in front of us, we have to execute our process, and to do that comes from our following our approach, which is what we’re focused on.”

At the same time, it’s not easy for anyone to play Forge right now, as they remain the lone undefeated team in the CPL heading into this matchday, having started the year 10 games unbeaten - a CPL record to begin a campaign.

Currently second in the table with a record of 5W-5D-0L and 20 points, they’ve been one of the best sides in the league in 2025 - and they haven’t fully hit their stride quite yet.

They’re on the right track at the moment, having won three of their last four matches, including two straight on the road, so look for them to build on that momentum as they continue to push first-place Atlético Ottawa in the table. They know that they’re close to their final form, but are still looking for more consistency in their game, as they feel that they’ve got some more gears to hit in the weeks to come.

“We're in a good spot, not just in the standings, but I think the football is progressively getting better,” Forge FC head coach, Bobby Smyrniotis, said this week.

“I think we can be more consistent throughout bigger stretches of the match. In some moments, maybe we take our foot off the pedal, and there's no reason to do that, so we want the team to be better on the ball in moments, not just to attack, but also to find their rest moments.”

In terms of player availability, Valour remain without Gianfranco Facchineri due to suspension, and could be without Rocco Romeo once again, while Forge will be without Tristan Borges and Elimane Cissé due to injury, although they look set to welcome back David Choinière to their lineup.

3 THINGS TO WATCH

• Can Valour continue to frustrate Forge? As seen earlier, Valour have had a pretty good record against Forge in their history, with the all-time series seeing them claim seven victories to Forge’s nine, which is quite impressive. They continued that into their first meeting of 2025, too, as Valour picked up a scrappy 1-1 draw in Hamilton, where they’ve typically had a lot more trouble getting results, doing so thanks to a late-game penalty save from goalkeeper Jonathan Viscosi that kept Forge from grabbing all three points. Because of that, as they get set to welcome Forge to their home stadium for the first time in 2025, they’ll want to build on that April draw. In particular, they’ll want to keep doing a great job of using their wide pitch to their advantage at home, something they’ve done in past matchups, using that to try and wear out Forge by getting them to run extra kilometres. Yet, you just know that Forge will be quite motivated as they look to turn their fortunes around at Princess Auto Stadium. For what it’s worth, they’ve also won two of their last four visits to Winnipeg, too, including a crucial game last fall, so they’re starting to turn this fixture in their favour. They win again in this one, and all of a sudden, they can feel that they’ve regained control in this matchup - although a loss could easily have the opposite effect, shifting that momentum back in Valour’s favour.

• Valour hoping that home cooking sparks offence: Not only are Valour picking up some good results at home lately, but they’ve looked more dangerous offensively at Princess Auto Stadium, too, as they’ve scored eight goals in their last five home games across all competitions. By comparison, they’ve scored just three times in all five road games they’ve played this season, showing how they’ve benefited from home cooking lately. In particular, they’ve done a good job of using width to their advantage at home, as well as making sure to get more numbers involved in the attack, something they’ll need to maintain against a defensively solid Forge side. A Valour team that wants to play more on the front foot in 2025, after scoring just 31 times in 28 CPL games in 2024, it’s not surprising to see that approach work better at home, so look for them to continue that in this game - even if they’ll know that they’ll also have to start replicating those performances on the road going forward.

• Forge relying on defensive dominance away from home: Of course, Forge haven’t lost anywhere this season, so it’s hard to say they’ve been better at home or on the road, but one thing that stands out from their road form is how good they’ve been defensively - they’ve conceded just two times in five road games, with both of those goals coming away to York United (ironically, their closest geographical rival). What that means is that they’ve now kept four clean sheets in five road games, which is extremely impressive. Because of that, look for them to keep up that defensive solidity, as that’ll give them a great chance at winning this game. For the success Valour have found at home on the offensive side of their game, they’ve kept just two clean sheets at home in all competitions (and just one in CPL play), so Forge will feel that they’ve got a good chance of leaving with all three points if they can keep Valour’s attack quiet, as there will be chances for Forge’s offence to come alive, which is encouraging for a team who has been kept off the scoresheet just once in CPL action this year.

PROJECTED STARTING XIs

Valour FC: Himaras; Alarcón, Fernandez, Egwu, Antonoglou; Ohin, Figueiredo; Twardek, Ressurreição, Faria; Layne

Forge FC: Koleilat; Rama, Nimick, Owolabi-Belewu, Paton; Hojabrpour, Achinioti-Jönsson, Bekker; Ampomah, Wright, Massunda

ALL-TIME SERIES

Valour wins: 7 || Forge wins: 9 || Draws: 3

Last meeting:

April 27, 2025 — Forge FC 1-1 Valour FC

KEY QUOTES

“That is the next level for us, finding the goals with more consistency. I look at certain teams, they only need half chances to capitalize, so we need to be better there, we need to capitalize, that’s the truth (...) You need to score, that’s the name of the game, for me it’s concerning, but I need to look at what the team is doing well, I need to work with the guys, and believe that the games where we’ve found the back of the net, we’ve been able to hold on and keep the results, and the problem is when we don’t (score).” – Valour FC head coach Phil Dos Santos

“The guys have taken a lot of pride in what they're doing as a team, not only in their defending, but at the moment, we haven't lost the game, and that’s something that I take a lot of pride in. I think that's all extra motivation for the players, that's not something we've discussed a lot in the locker room, coming out of our last game, a lot of players didn't have a clue that it was some type of record, because that's not something I bring up to the team or or we discuss, we look at the next game and we move on, but all these little things we do defensively, we’ve been very good at them, it’s something that the players take pride in, and it gives them extra motivation to keep on going and and make sure we're still doing those things well.” – Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis