3 THINGS TO WATCH:

• Connections abound between sides: Although this is the first time these sides have met, not all the players will be unfamiliar with each other. For one thing, this matchup will feature a battle of brothers: Forge’s David Choinière, who came to the club from Montréal (then known as the Impact), will play against his younger brother Mathieu. Forge actually have a handful of players with links to Montréal: Kyle Bekker, Maxim Tissot, and Omar Browne all used to play for the club, and Jonathan Grant, Woobens Pacius, and Garven Metusala all spent time with the club’s youth system (the latter two being natives of the Montréal area). Montréal’s squad boasts two former CPL players in goalkeeper James Pantemis and defender Joel Waterman — the latter being all too familiar with Tim Hortons Field, having been sent off there in the 2019 CPL Final while playing for Cavalry FC. Kamal Miller, as well, will be very familiar with some of Forge’s squad; he will have played against a lot of the Sigma FC alumni during his time in League1 Ontario, and he was at Syracuse University at the same time as Chris Nanco — plus a handful of former teammates from Canadian youth national team camps. “There’s a lot of guys who I’m close with on that team who I’ve never played against before, so it’s going to be interesting to line up against them,” Miller told reporters on Monday. “We’re expecting from them a very strong game, they’re on a good run right now beating a lot of teams in Concacaf and in their domestic league so they’re going to be ready. They’re in good form and the game’s going to mean a lot to them.”

• Montréal doing their research: CF Montréal ultimately got past HFX Wanderers by a comfortable two-goal margin in the quarterfinal, but the game itself was not comfortable for them. That was an intense contest at Wanderers Grounds that certainly showed the MLS outfit that CPL sides can cause problems for them. This time, playing against a CPL side that has been consistently stronger than the Wanderers this year, Montréal will be taking extra caution and doing all the required homework on Forge. With the playoff race so tight in MLS, they might have been tempted to keep an eye on Saturday’s pivotal league match against the Red Bulls, but they can’t afford to do so against the CPL champs. “It’s a game we have to focus on 100%, especially a team like Forge who plays in the Canadian Premier League, who I’ve read about,” Montréal’s Djordje Mihailovic told the media. “They’re doing really well in the season and they’re a team that’s going to come out playing at home, a team that’s going to come out with all their supporters and wanting to kill us for 90 minutes because that’s just how it is with these types of competitions but in order to get over that we have to put all our focus in that game.”

• Forge to stay true to themselves: These one-off cup matches where one team is from a nominally lower level than the other can be fascinating tactically; sometimes, the underdog side will choose to shelter itself and park the bus, looking for a surprise goal on the counter-attack (think Sheriff Tiraspol versus Real Madrid recently). That, however, is unlikely to be the case in this match. Forge have faced many a game in the Concacaf League where they’ve been underdogs against more established sides in that competition, but they’ve never played negative defensive football against them. Forge have been consistent with their style of play no matter who the opposition, looking to establish possession and play positive attacking football. Recently, Bobby Smyrniotis praised the Canadian national team for their bravery in doing that very same thing against Mexico at Estadio Azteca; this game is on quite a different scale to that, but nonetheless, expect Forge to come out strong and try to play their regular attacking game against Montréal.

ALL-TIME SERIES

First meeting between these teams.

KEY QUOTES

“Everyone knows that after 90 minutes, there’s just one that moves on. I think that’s the incentive that gives us a very good feeling going into this match, and that we’ve been doing it this year playing in Concacaf; they’re emotional matches, they take a lot out of the players, so we’re prepared in that aspect.” — Forge FC coach Bobby Smyrniotis

“This is a good team. They have a very clear way to play defensively and offensively, they have good players. Doesn’t mean that Halifax didn’t want to play or didn’t have good players, but Forge, what I’ve seen so far, it’s an interesting team… We forget about the fact we’re playing a CPL team, we’re playing a team that wants to go to the final.” — CF Montréal coach Wilfried Nancy