2024 TELUS Canadian Championship — Quarter-Final
CF Montréal vs. Forge FC
May 22, 2024 at 7:30 p.m. ET
Stade Saputo in Montréal, Québec
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Forge FC are again on the precipice of an accolade that has eluded them throughout their years of unparalleled success in the Canadian Premier League. They enter Wednesday night’s Canadian Championship quarter-final second leg with a very real chance to finally defeat a Major League Soccer team for the first time, and in doing so put themselves in the semifinal.

CF Montreal will host Forge at Stade Saputo with the tie currently at 1-1 on aggregate. Two weeks ago, these sides did battle at Tim Hortons Field in front of almost 15,000 young fans in a special school day matinee matchup and they traded goals, with David Choinière scoring for the hosts in the first half before Bryce Duke equalized for Montreal shortly after halftime.

Now, all is to play for in this second leg, and if either team can win over 90 minutes they’ll be off to the semifinal. Of course, Montreal have the slight advantage with an away goal — meaning a 0-0 draw would be enough to put them through — but any draw of 2-2 or higher would actually give Forge the win on away goals. If Wednesday’s contest is a copy of leg one and ends 1-1, of course, it’ll be off to penalties.

TONIGHT at 7:30PM ET: Will @ForgeFCHamilton finally defeat @cfmontreal, or will the MLS side prevail once again? 👀

🔴 Watch the TELUS Canadian Championship LIVE on OneSoccer#CanChamp pic.twitter.com/0AfXaKxgHb

— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) May 22, 2024

Both teams come into the midweek clash smarting a little from defeats over the weekend. Indeed, neither side has won a game since that first leg on May 7. Forge drew 0-0 at Pacific FC the Saturday after that game, and more recently they lost 2-1 at home to Vancouver FC this past weekend. Still, they sit fourth in the CPL table and just one point behind second place with a game in hand.

Montreal have been in even poorer form recently, losing three times since they played Forge. They were beaten at home by both Inter Miami and Columbus Crew, then lost a lopsided 5-1 result to bitter rivals Toronto FC on Saturday. As a result, they sit 13th in MLS’s Eastern Conference, five points out of the playoffs, and are desperate to turn things around with this cup tie followed by a game against Nashville SC this weekend.

Fortunately for Montreal, they’ve been very good at home — especially in the Canadian Championship recently. They’ve played Forge at Stade Saputo twice and won both times without conceding a goal. Montreal have won their last eight home games in this competition, dating back as far as 2018, and have therefore never lost to a Canadian Premier League side.

However, this has been a key objective for Forge for a while now, and with plenty of firepower among their group, they’ll feel like the timing might be better than ever to finally slay the dragon.

3 THINGS TO WATCH

• Forge feeling rested and motivated for marquee match: While Forge were disappointed to lose on Saturday to Vancouver FC, they weren’t particularly swayed from their belief that this week is their opportunity to finally get past an MLS team. They’ve got some injury issues at the moment — Terran Campbell and Jordan Hamilton both missed out to injury, forcing Bobby Smyrniotis to start 19-year-old Amadou Koné up top — but this is still a team that’s largely clicking at the right time. Forge still looked very dangerous against Vancouver, with 20 shot attempts and 88 final third entries, but a failure of execution prevented them from scoring more than once. With David Choinière likely back in the starting XI in Montreal they might have some more creativity, with Forge knowing they have to score to have a chance of advancing from this tie.

• Montreal needing bounce-back, can’t afford to take it easy: In Leg 1, CF Montreal’s starting XI was heavily rotated, with six players in that lineup who didn’t get the start in their derby against Toronto FC on Saturday. However, head coach Laurent Courtois clearly spotted quickly that Forge might be a more difficult challenge than expected; they largely dominated the first half of that game, prompting Courtois to make four substitutions at halftime. Bryce Duke, their goalscorer, was one of the subs, as Montreal got back into the game quickly after making the changes. This time, expect a much stronger lineup from Courtois, although it might still not be full-strength; they’ve played a lot of intense games recently and might have some fatigue in the squad. Montreal played Lionel Messi and Miami the weekend after Leg 1, followed by a midweek clash against Concacaf Champions Cup finalists Columbus Crew, and then a derby with Toronto FC. All three will have been massive games for them, and they were undoubtedly frustrated to lose them.

• Forge seek attacking execution against shaken defence: The objective is very clear for Forge, who know the only way through is to score at least once. They can play reasonably aggressive football, having seen in Leg 1 that they’re capable of causing problems for Montreal (and that Chris Kalongo and the backline are there to help if they get caught too far forward). This is a CF Montreal team that has conceded 15 goals in its last four MLS games — albeit against some top opposition, but a poor record nonetheless. With the fluid play so far between Tristan Borges, Béni Badibanga and David Choinière, this is a Forge attack that feels confident. They’ve scored 12 goals in seven games (all competitions) since the CPL season started; it’s a dangerous team that by now has a very good idea of what it needs to do against Montreal.

ALL-TIME SERIES

CF Montreal wins: 2 || Forge FC wins: 0 || Draws: 2

Last meeting:

May 7, 2024 — Forge FC 1-1 CF Montreal

KEY QUOTES

“The most important thing is just to think of it like the game you have in front of you, not so much with past and history and what can come from it — more importantly what the task is at hand. We know we’re coming into this game and we need a result, we know we need to score. … Including this past Saturday, we’ve played some very good attacking football and we need to stay on that same course.” — Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis