2024 – Canadian Championship | CF Montréal finds Forge FC on the road

Things change over the years, but the CF Montreal vs. Forge FC clash during the Canadian Championship seems to be as regulated as a Swiss watch.

For the fourth year in a row, the two teams will cross swords during the tournament, but the circumstances of the previous three contests have nothing to do with Tuesday's situation in Hamilton.

Bleu-blanc-noir has barely recovered from last weekend's 4-1 loss at home to Nashville SC, and must now prepare to play the first leg of the quarterfinals before noon at 11 a.m.

It's not perfect, but the Montrealers will have to play the cards they have, hoping to be strong enough to avoid being surprised by a lower-tier club.

“The result between the two matches is fast. “It's a big challenge, but it gives us an opportunity to make up for what happened because of the result,” head coach Laurent Courtois said ahead of training in Hamilton on Monday. It's never ideal, but we adapt. We have players ready to train. We try to find a balance between freshness and continuity. »

Why a weekday morning match?

Two-time Canadian Premier League (CPan) champions Forge FC had already scheduled a match against the Halifax Wanderers to allow several school children to come and support them at Tim Hortons Stadium.

The problem is that when the Hamilton team qualified for the quarterfinals of the Canadian Championship, Soccer Canada forced them to play this game on the same day.

At first glance, this particular situation may cause some problems in terms of preparation, but it seems that Montreal CF players are more concerned about Tuesday's lunch than the match itself.

“I don't know if you can eat pasta this early in the day,” defense attorney Joel Waterman said with a laugh. The timing of the match is out of our control and we will do everything we can to be ready. The mission does not change; we want to win the (Voyagers) Cup and right now Forge is in our way. »

Waterman was used as a starter in the previous three clashes against Forge FC, all of which ended in favor of the Montreal team.

The British Columbia defenseman would like to point out that there are often surprises at the Canadian Championships. The same was true when CS Saint-Laurent, a semi-professional club, knocked off Wanderers in the first round of the tournament.

“We know them very well. The message is that we do not take them lightly. Forge was the PLCan champion in four of the league's five years. Bobby (Smirniotis) is a very good head coach and the guys know how to win. Anything can happen in this race, as we saw at CS Saint-Laurent. You can never take these games for granted,” Waterman said.

For his part, Courtois knows Forge FC well. However, he has spent the last few days analyzing the style of play of his club's next opponents and he understands exactly where his defender is coming from.

“They are a very good team, they play well on the ball and present a lot of challenges to move the opposition. We expect to see players with clear minds and passing through the game to reach the opposition's 16m. Lower division teams want you. That's really the beauty of soccer, anything can happen at any level,” said the Montreal head coach.

Courtois confirmed there were no changes to the club's many injured players, but they were “very well on their way to recovery as much as possible”. So we should expect a further depleted line-up against Forge FC, with eight players missing, including Matias Coccaro (knee), Joseph Martinez (knee), Kwadwo Opoku (hamstring) and Dominic Iankov (hamstring). – tendon).

The second leg of this quarter-final will take place on May 22 at Saputo Stadium, but this time in the evening.