On a dark weekday evening in July, the heavens suddenly opened up and a biblical downpour fell upon Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ont.
Yet, even though the 11,341 fans inside “The Donut Box” were drenched to the bone, they remained in good spirits and in excellent voice, especially members of the Barton Street Battalion, a supporters group who were singing and chanting at the top of their lungs.
Suddenly, a loud, singular voice boomed throughout the stadium.
“Who are we?” the PA announcer asked. “Forge FC!” came the reply from the sodden supporters in the stands.
“WHO ARE WE?”
“FORGE FC”
The thunderous call and response sequence played out for a few more moments, setting the stage for what turned out to be a memorable night for Forge FC, the defending Canadian Premier League champion. Forge went on to earn a convincing 2-1 win over Major League Soccer’s Toronto FC in the first leg of the Canadian Championship semifinals.
As a result of its David vs. Goliath victory, Forge is now just 90 minutes away from qualifying for the finals of the tournament that serves as the Canadian equivalent of England’s FA Cup. A tie or win against TFC in Tuesday’s return match at BMO Field in the aggregate series would see Forge eliminate the former MLS champions and advance to next month’s final.
In case all of that wasn’t enough build-up, on the weekend The Athletic reported that a drone was seen above Tim Hortons Field during Forge FC’s training session ahead of that July 10 match.
Forge was full value for its first-leg victory as it took its chances well and made things uncomfortable for Toronto with its systematic pressing game and compact defending. The CPL outfit didn’t see much of the ball (just 31 per cent), but made the most of the possession it had and looked far more dangerous in the final third as it quickly jumped out to a 2-0 lead after only 14 minutes thanks to two highlight reel goals.
Belgian midfielder Beni Badibanga stripped TFC’s Federico Bernardeschi of possession, took a few strides and then hit a chip shot from inside his half after noticing goalkeeper Luka Gavran well off his line. Badibanga’s 60-yard effort flew over the head of the backtracking Gavran and sailed into the back of the net. Three minutes later a sweeping attacking move by Forge ended when forward Tristan Borges, who spent time in TFC’s youth academy earlier in his career, pivoted away from his defensive marker and played a lovely ball into the penalty area for David Choinière. He fed a perfect pass to the near post where teammate Kwasi Poku beat Gavran with an elegant back-heel flick.
Coach Bobby Smyrniotis’ side now finds itself on the precipice of making history, as it stands a very good chance of becoming the first CPL team to advance to a Canadian Championship final. (Forge lost the 2020 Covid-delayed final to Toronto in 2021 without having to actually qualify.) The pressure is on Forge to finish the job on Tuesday night in Toronto. Smyrniotis knows it. The players know it. The organization knows it. The league knows it. But don’t expect Forge to buckle under the weight of expectations.
“Maybe we didn’t come out with the full advantage [from the first leg]. But we go into this game knowing exactly what we need, and so do they. And that differs things, because now it’s a fine line between both teams for us. These are the games that our players look forward to. As a coach, you don’t need to motivate the guys. They know what’s at stake,” Smyrniotis told Sportsnet.
Currently topping the CPL standings (10-5-5), Forge advanced to the semis of the Canadian Championship tournament by beating bitter rivals York United in the preliminary round before dispatching MLS outfit CF Montreal in the quarterfinals.
Fellow CPL competitors Cavalry FC, from Calgary, gave the Vancouver Whitecaps a hard time in the quarterfinals, earning a 1-0 win in the second leg as it bowed out at the hands of the MLS team. Pacific FC, from Langford, B.C., can dump the Whitecaps out of the competition with a win in their semifinal second leg on Tuesday.
After being pushed around by their MLS counterparts for years in the Canadian Championship, CPL teams have come good this year by combining to win three of six matches against MLS clubs (with one draw).
Winning the Canadian Championship represents a new frontier for a Forge. Under the guidance of Smyrniotis, they’ve won four out of five CPL titles since the launch of the league in 2019. Adding a Canadian Championship crown to their already impressive résumé is the next step in the Hamilton-based club’s battle for respect and recognition, not just for itself but for the CPL.
Forge and the other seven teams in the CPL can’t spend big money on players because of a modest $1,125,000 salary cap for 2024. By contrast, Toronto FC has one of the highest player payrolls in MLS at $31.4 million U.S. Italian attacker Lorenzo Insigne, one of three Designated Players on the team, will earn $15.4 million this year.
But the massive difference in resources doesn’t mean much to Smyrniotis. Nor will it intimidate a Forge team who gave as good as they got against Toronto in the first leg of the semifinals.
“You know, bags of money don’t score goals. Players do, right? And that’s what it comes down to; it comes down to 90 minutes of football,” Smyrniotis said.
“I’ve always said this: there’s many players on this Forge squad who could be playing in top leagues across the world, including MLS and so on … There’s a massive gap [between the CPL and MLS] when you look at DPs and so on. But after that, no, I don’t think so. That’s nothing against a player playing in MLS. I just think we’ve been blessed to have some very good players here, some very good players with good pedigree.”
One such player is Poku, a 21-year-old native of Brampton, Ont. Poku previously played for TFC’s youth academy but eventually left because of a lack of opportunities and signed with Forge in 2022.
The striker ended up scoring 13 goals and tallying four assists in 70 appearances for the club before being sold last week to Belgian club RWD Molenbeek for a league-record transfer fee reported to be worth nearly one million dollars.
Forge captain Kyle Bekker, who was originally drafted by TFC in 2013 out of Boston College, sees Tuesday’s tilt at BMO Field as an opportunity for Forge to strike a blow for all CPL players and prove they belong on the bigger stage.
“What more proof do you need after what’s happened to a guy like Kwasi? He’s a guy who was put into these situations, he did brilliantly against CF Montreal [in the quarterfinals], he continued against TFC and now he’s gotten a big move and he’s playing in Europe. Hopefully that adds a little extra motivation to some of the guys in the room, which I know it has,” Bekker told TFC Republic’s Joshua Healy.
He added: “[Tuesday is] about making sure there’s lights being shone on some of the guys in this league and to hopefully keep pushing down doors and creating more opportunities for pros in this country.”
It would be apropos should Forge make history as the first CPL team to advance to the Canadian Championship final. The club has already been a trendsetter on the CPL’s behalf as the league’s first team to win a game in a continental competition (the 2019 Concacaf League) and the first to qualify for the Concacaf Champions League (now known as the Concacaf Champions Cup).
Over the course of its five Concacaf campaigns, Forge has gone up against top teams from Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, and Haiti. More times than not, Smyrniotis’ teams held their own against the best sides in the region and won their respect.
Costa Smyrniotis, Bobby’s older brother and former Forge GM, believes Forge’s consistent performances on the continental stage has raised the profile of the entire league both here and abroad.
“One of the mandates in terms of putting this league together was not only to be locally relevant, we needed to be relevant in Concacaf. As part of the initial days at Forge, that was a key piece: we needed to get to Concacaf, and we needed to show well, not only as a club, but we needed to show well to show off the league and the Canadian talent. … That’s our showcase piece to the outside world,” said Smyrniotis, who has served as an executive vice president of the CPL since last April, in an interview with Sportsnet.
“So, when [Mexican clubs] Chivas of Guadalajara come here, and we’re putting together some competitive matches against them, knowing the gulf between the teams financially and sporting is still a massive one, we’re closing the gap. And we’re closing the gap in a very proper way.”
Getting to the Canadian Championship final — and taking the next step by becoming the first CPL team to win it — would be a huge feather in the cap of Forge and further validate a league that often struggles for mainstream attention, despite all of the on-field success it has enjoyed.
“The one thing I keep preaching is this: the talent in this country is just unbelievable. We’re six years in, so we’re still pretty young as a league, but we now have the foundation,” Costa Smyrniotis said.
“CPL clubs have built the necessary foundations for these players to come in and aspire to win these types of events. All our clubs have matured, and you’re getting to a point whether it’s a club from the U.S., or it’s a club from Mexico or a club from Honduras, there’s no place that one of our teams don’t go and go in and put in a competitive match, right?
“We’ve seen that time and time again, and that’s why Forge and Pacific are obviously in the semifinals of the Canadian Championship.”
John Molinaro is one of the leading soccer journalists in Canada, having covered the game for over 20 years for several media outlets, including Sportsnet, CBC Sports and Sun Media. He is currently the editor-in-chief of TFC Republic, a website dedicated to in-depth coverage of Toronto FC and Canadian soccer. TFC Republic can be found here.