Forge FC edges CF Montreal in first leg of Telus Canadian Championship quarterfinal

Rezart Rama (24) of Hamilton Forge FC jumps for a ball with Tom Pearce (3) of CF Montreal during first half Canadian Championship quarterfinal soccer action in Hamilton on Tuesday, May 20, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nick Iwanyshyn

HAMILTON — Another loss for CF Montreal. But this time the struggling Major League Soccer side has a chance to dig itself out of its hole.

Brian Wright’s 78th-minute goal lifted Forge FC to a 1-0 win over Montreal in the first leg of their Telus Canadian Championship quarterfinal Tuesday. The teams play the second leg July 9 at Stade Saputo with the Canadian Premier League team looking to oust Montreal for the second year in a row.

“It’s not a great performance but it’s just the first half of two games,” said interim Montreal coach Marco Donadel.

Still, coming on the heels of a humbling 6-1 league defeat to visiting Toronto FC, the storm clouds grow over a Montreal side that is mired in the MLS Eastern Conference basement at 1-9-4.

Meanwhile Forge coach Bobby Smyrniotis liked what he saw.

“Today was excellent execution from the first minute to the end,” he said. “Maybe we deserved a little bit more today, too. But it’s a good first result.”

It was a good night for the Canadian Premier League with the Vancouver Whitecaps, the reigning cup champion, needing an 80th-minute goal from Ali Ahmed to tie Valour FC 2-2 in the first leg of their quarterfinal at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg.

Valour (1-4-1) is seventh in the eight-team CPL while Vancouver (8-1-4) tops the MLS Western Conference and has reached the CONCACAF Champions Cup final.

After a lacklustre first half dominated by Forge, Montreal offered more to start the second half with spells of possession.

But Forge broke the deadlock with Ghanaian winger Nana Opoku Ampomah curling a glorious ball over defender Brandan Craig’s head for Wright to run onto in the Montreal penalty box. Goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois came off his line but Wright beat him to the ball, flicking it over the ‘keeper before heading it into the open goal.

It was a rare scoring chance on the night on the artificial turf at Hamilton Stadium.

Forge outshot Montreal 11-9 (3-1 in shots on target) and finished with 51 per cent possession (down from 63 per cent in the first half).

Montreal defender Joel Waterman called his team’s first-half performance “unacceptable in our books.”

“They beat us to everything, they outworked us,” he added. “So there’s no excuse for that. A lot better second half, I thought. … But I think you could see they wanted it more.”

Injuries and a congested schedule meant that the Montreal bench consisted of four forwards, two goalkeepers, one midfielder and one defender.

It marks the fifth straight year that Montreal and Forge have met in cup play.

Montreal won the first three of those meetings — via penalty shootout in the 2021 semifinals (8-7 after the game ended in a scoreless draw), 3-0 in the ’22 quarterfinal and 2-0 in the ’23 semifinal.

Forge edged Montreal 3-2 in last year’s two-legged quarterfinal. After dispatching Montreal last year, Forge fell to Toronto FC on the away goals rule after the two-legged semifinal finished knotted at 2-2.

On Wednesday, it’s CPL champion Cavalry FC at Vancouver FC. Atletico Ottawa hosts York United on June 11.

Semifinal matchups will be redrawn following the conclusion of the quarterfinals.

Coming off a 2-2 draw May 13 against league-leading Atletico Ottawa, Forge (2-0-4) is one of only two unbeaten teams in the CPL. But wins have been hard to come by and the Hamilton side sits fourth in the eight-team league.

Forge has played four straight league draws, rallying from deficits to tie three of them.

Forge had the better of the first half with Montreal offering little more than hopeful long balls up the field. The CPL side outshot Montreal 4-2 but neither team managed a shot on target.

Donadel made seven changes to the starting 11 beaten by Toronto. Waterman, sent off in the 21st minute Saturday, captained Montreal for the cup game with Sam Piette starting on the bench.

Montreal won its preliminary-round cup matchup via penalty shootout after Giacomo Vrioni’s 88th-minute goal tied the game at 2-2. Forge downed Halifax Wanderers 3-1 in its opener.

Montreal was missing injured defender George Campbell and midfielders Bryce Duke, Fabian Herbers, Dominic Iankov and Hennadii Synchuk.

Forge was without injured attackers Tristan Borges and Mathieu Choiniere and influential midfielder Alessandro Hojabrpour.

Smyrniotis made just two changes to his starting lineup with defenders Marko Jevremovic and Malik Owolabi-Belewu returning from injury. Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson moved into the midfield from the backline to fill in for Hojabrpour.

Both teams started five Canadians.

The Canadian Championship winner hoists the Voyagers Cup, earns $50,000 and a berth in the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

Montreal has won the cup competition five times, most recently in 2021, and finished runner-up three times. Forge made the cup final in the pandemic-delayed 2020 edition, losing to Toronto via penalty shootout in a tournament reduced to a championship game.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 20, 2025.