2023 Canadian Championship — Preliminary Round
Forge FC vs. FC Laval
April 18, 2023 at 7 p.m. ET
Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ontario
Watch Live: OneSoccer.ca & TELUS Ch. 980 // Tickets available here

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The 2023 Canadian Championship gets underway this week as a pair of champions square off in Hamilton. Canadian Premier League heavyweights Forge FC will, for the second year in a row, host the champs from Québécois semi-pro division Première ligue de soccer du Québec, as FC Laval make their way to Tim Hortons Field for their first ever appearance in the competition.

In last year’s tournament, Forge began their journey toward the Voyageurs’ Cup by hosting CS Mont-Royal Outremont, in a match where Terran Campbell and Woobens Pacius found the net. Forge triumphed 2-0, but not without the PLSQ side putting up an admirable fight. The Hamilton side would go on to play CF Montréal in the following round, but they were comfortably handled by the MLS side in a 3-0 Forge defeat at Stade Saputo.

This year, Bobby Smyrniotis and co. have their eyes on a much deeper run. A win on Tuesday would mean a date with either Atlético Ottawa or Halifax Wanderers in the quarter-finals, followed by a likely meeting with either CF Montréal or Toronto FC. Forge came inches from lifting the Voyageurs’ Cup last year, when they took TFC to penalties in the rescheduled 2020 Final at Tim Hortons Field, but it’s a trophy that still eludes them.

As Smyrniotis or anybody else at Forge would tell you, the Canadian Championship is one of three ways they can achieve a major priority in 2023: qualifying for the 2024 Concacaf Champions League.

The Hammers got their CPL campaign underway on Saturday in a heated 2-2 draw with Cavalry FC, which saw them come from behind to equalize twice on home turf. They’ll have enjoyed the opportunity to shake off some preseason rust in a highly competitive season opener before playing Tuesday’s do-or-die knockout fixture.

FC Laval, unfortunately, have not had that luxury, with the PLSQ season not kicking off until later in the spring. Led by reigning PLSQ Coach of the Year Boubacar Coulibaly, the Québec champions nonetheless head to Hamilton with a point to prove, hoping to become the first semi-pro side to knock off a CPL team.

In their run to the PLSQ league title in 2022, Laval lost just one of 22 matches, finishing with a stunning plus-39 goal differential to triumph over the other 11 teams. Considering how difficult Mont-Royal Outremont made things for Forge last year, Laval will likely be encouraged to take the game to the CPL champs.

Little is known about how exactly FC Laval might line up to play Forge, but perhaps the element of surprise could work in their favour.

All CPL and Canadian Championship matches will be broadcast live on OneSoccer, available as a linear channel on Telus’ Optik TV (Channel 980) as well as online at OneSoccer.ca, through the OneSoccer app and on the fuboTV Canada platform.

3 THINGS TO WATCH

• Forge balancing midweek Cup tie with busy season start: After such a long off-season, CPL teams have dropped right into an unforgivingly busy schedule to start the year. Forge will no doubt be grateful to play their first three matches at home, but the turnaround from Saturday’s game to Tuesday night is a tight one for Forge so early in the year. This club is used to playing midweek on short rest, of course, but this early in the season it’s tricky for Bobby Smyrniotis to ensure he’s not putting too much strain on players. So, expect at least a little squad rotation — captain Kyle Bekker seems likely to draw in after missing Saturday with suspension, and perhaps Garven Metusala returns to the lineup to play his former club (kind of — Metusala played for CS Fabrose before they merged with other local clubs to be come FC Laval).

• Efficiency required to finish off game: Forge won’t want this cup tie to come down to the wire; the best outcome for them would be a couple of first-half goals that allow them to cruise to the finish and perhaps rest a few key players toward the end. To do that, though, Forge will need to be ruthlessly efficient in attack, which is much easier said than done so early in the year. Last year against Outremont, Forge scored twice on 11 shots, but it took them about half an hour to really find a rhythm, and they didn’t kill the game off with a second goal until deep into stoppage time after the 90 minutes. This time, Smyrniotis will want his attackers — whichever of the many capable ones he chooses to deploy — to be more clinical with finishing and put the game to bed as soon as possible. Forge will have to contend with a difficult Laval backline that conceded just 13 goals in 22 games last year, with former CF Montréal and Ottawa Fury defender (and Canadian Championship veteran) Wandrille Lefèvre in the middle of it all.

• Beware Laval’s counter-attack: As is often the case in cup ties between sides in different tiers, the lower-division side may well opt to play a little deeper than they would in their own league, looking to hit on the counter-attack with pace. In the CPL last season, Forge did drop a few points at home in games where they dominated the ball but got caught upfield in transition — for instance, a 1-0 loss to Valour where William Akio’s pace capitalized on a giveaway. Laval’s squad boasts plenty of goalscoring acumen from the PLSQ level — Adama Makan Sissoko scored 14 goals last year, and Riad Bey scored eight.

ALL-TIME SERIES

First meeting between these sides.

KEY QUOTES

“[Laval] are a team we have a lot of footage on from last year, I think they’ve got a pretty consistent lineup from then. … We’ve gathered as much information as possible, just like we do with every other opponent. They’re no different from an opponent we play in the Canadian Premier League, an MLS opponent, or anything in Concacaf; we treat every team with the same amount of respect. I think that gives you the humility to go into each and every game knowing that you need to get the result, it’s not going to be given to you.” — Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis

“[Laval] is a team that’ll try to keep the ball. I remember when I was playing there, it was [called] CS Fabrose, but it’s the same philosophy. They’re going to try and keep the ball, they have really technical players — good defenders, good midfield as well. So it’s going to be a possession battle.” — Forge FC defender Garven Metusala

“We’re a club that’s made history and that continues to want to make history. We want to do that this year by being the first CPL team to win the Canadian Championship. We focus on each game at a time, and the first game we play in the Canadian Championship is against FC Laval, so we’re going to make sure we prepare for that properly. … For sure, winning the Canadian Championship is in our sights, and we’re gonna do everything we can to do that.” — Forge FC defender Malik Owolabi-Belewu