Forge FC look to feed off home crowd as rivalry with Cavalry reaches 37th meeting in seven years
There have been almost too many to count, but Alex Achinioti-Jönsson has played in all but two of ’em.
Forge FC vs Cavalry FC is the “What, You Again?” rivalry of the Canadian Premier League. They’ve played each other 36 times. Seven years, three dozen games. Groundhog Day in team kits.
“It wouldn’t be the playoffs if we didn’t play Cavalry,” quips Forge head coach Bobby Smyrniotis.
His opposite number, Cavalry FC head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr., agrees, and even gives it a label.
“‘Clash of the Titans’ and that’s what it’s about,” Wheeldon told the Calgary Herald this week.
“We always seem to play in the big games against each other. Hence why the rivalry gets hotter and hotter. And this is another big game—it’s stopping one from getting to the final and advancing the other to chase another trophy.”
The bitter foes who know each other about as well as they know themselves—one sneezes, the other yells “Gesundheit”—will meet in the Canadian Premier League Contender semi-final Sunday at Hamilton Stadium (2 p.m. TSN/OneSoccer).
The winner advances to play Ottawa Atlético in the nation’s capital the following weekend for the league title.
Cavalry, which finished third in the regular season, survived a three-team run-off for the right to play this weekend, dominating York United 4-1 in Calgary last weekend to advance to Sunday’s semi-final.
Forge, which won its second straight CPL Shield as regular-season champions, were upset 2-1 by the Atléti last Sunday which gave Ottawa the right to host the final, so Sunday’s match will be the Hammers’ final home game in what has been a brilliant season.
Fittingly, the last home game of the year features Cavalry, which also played in the first home game of the season, a 1-0 Forge win on Mo Babouli’s goal in his first game after returning to the Forge from three years in York United colours.
The Cavs and the Hammers have only been in existence as long as the CPL has; since 2019, but they have already met head-to-head, across all competitions (regular season, playoffs and Canadian Championship) that phenomenal 36 times.
Overall, Hamilton has 15 wins, 11 losses and 10 draws against the Calgary-based Cavs. They’ve won nine, lost eight and drawn eight in the regular season, but in the post-season have won six games over Cavalry, lost twice and had one draw. The league has changed playoff formats a couple of times before landing on the “Modified Page System” now in place, which gives the top two regular-season teams two chances to win a semi-final.
Only once have the Cavs and Hammers not met in the post-season and until last year the Forge owned that part of the calendar. But Cavalry won 2024’s A semi-final at Hamilton 1-0, and then beat Forge again 2-1 in the title game at Calgary for their first league title. Shrugging that orange playoff monkey from their backs on successive weekends was a huge psychological step forward for Wheeldon and the squad he has head coached since its inception, as Smyrniotis has been with Forge.
As well as Achinioti-Jönsson, who missed two games against Cavalry because of a concussion way back in the CPL’s first season, Kyle Bekker has also played 34 games against the Cavs. Calgary keeper Marco Carducci has played in 31 of the games, as has Hamilton’s David Choinière. Tristan Borges of the Hammers has played 27, and the Cavs’ Sergio Camargo has played 26 of the 36 games.
The teams, and their coaches, are respectful of each other but “respect” does not equate to “like.” There’s usually a place near or at the top of the standings, or a post-season elimination at stake, and that keeps embers of bitterness and survival glowing. You play three dozen mostly high-risk-reward games against a team, then add in the long travel between the two cities, you accumulate a history of distaste.
It’s important to recognize just how unusual this kaleidoscope of kickoffs is at the top levels of national club soccer.
By contrast, it’s taken English Manchester Derby rivals City and United since 2012 to play 36 games against each other, the same length of time Italian Derby della Madonnina’s Inter Milan and AC Milan have covered to go head-to-head three dozen times.
Maybe a more fitting comparison is the Spanish pairing of arch-rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona, who also have to travel between cities for El Clásico. Their stretch of 36 games against each other goes back to 2014, five years before the CPL—admittedly a smaller league—was born.
In North America, the rivalry which draws by far the biggest crowds features Monterrey and Tigres UANL in the Clásico Regiomontano. When was 36 games ago for that fiery pair? April, 2013.
And the fiercest rivalry in MLS pits Los Angeles Galaxy against LAFC, which had to be moved to the massive Rose Bowl this year to accommodate ticket hunger. They’ve played only 26 times since LAFC took to the pitch for the first time in 2018. Pretty plentiful, but still only half the per-season frequency of Forge vs. Cavalry.
While Achinioti-Jönsson is the only Hammer to have suited up for all the matches, Cavalry’s stalwart goalkeeper Marco Carducci has been involved in 32 of them.
“Thirty-six? That’s a lot of games,” Achinioti-Jönsson, who’s a finalist for the CPL Players’ Player of the Year Award, said this week after a training session.
“We know it’s a do-or-die game so that’s what we’re preparing for with the intensity we’re trying to bring into it. These games sometimes come down to the effort you put into it and who wants it more.
“They’ve got some really good offensive players, we know that. It’s important we play well as a team to limit the spaces and time they can get on the ball, which makes it easier for defenders. So I think if we’re good in our defensive press and are solid as a team you limit the spaces they can work in.
“They always bring a lot of energy. They’re usually physical games so we have to be ready for that and bring intensity and energy. When we do, our football is so good that, more often than not, we can get through games with a favourable score for us. So that’s what we really need to put an emphasis on.”
Wheeldon chuckled during his interview this week that “there’s definitely no love lost,” when Forge and Cavalry reach this point of the calendar year. “I think it’s because we’ve played big games over and over again against each other.
“Sometimes there’s brilliance and sometimes there’s chaos, but I think between us there’s mutual respect that we bring out the best, and worst, of each other.
“If you’re going to go and lift that trophy, you’ve got to go through a hard road and that’s the road that lies before us.”
The two teams have split wins and shared a pair of draws this season. After the Opening Day 1-0 Forge victory, Cavalry midfielder Sergio Camargo, who’s been with the club since its inception, scored in the 2nd minute of a 1-1 draw in late May at Hamilton, with Nana Ampomah getting that one back 15 minutes later; then the Cavs ended the Hammers’ league-record 20-game winning streak in late August with a 4-1 rout in Calgary with sniper Tobi Warschewski notching a pair of goals and Camargo and Ali Musse adding singles, while Ampomah had the lone Hamilton score. Camargo and Brian Wright scored the goals in a feisty 1-1 draw at Spruce Meadows three weeks ago.
In post-season it had been Forge’s show until last season as they beat Cavalry in the 2019 and 2023 (Tristan Borges’ memorable Olimpico) league title game and semi-finals in 2022 and 2023.
But then came last year’s Cavalry triumphs in the Championship semi-final and Championship game.
“There was always a big hype on the game last year that we were never a playoff team — but we won,” Cavalry’s superb defender Daan Klomp told The Herald. “That’s how quick the narrative can change. For us last year, the way we won that game in Hamilton, by keeping a clean sheet and winning one-nil, was very good for our confidence in taking it to the final two weeks later.
“I was just happy to — in a way — shut the media up by finally winning that game and winning the final. That was a good feeling.”
The Cavs seem to be feeling good now too, and have last year’s win in Hamilton, and their solid victory last week, as springboards. Winger Ali Musse, who’s been a force, says the team believes in each other and its systems.
Forge will have to closely mark Musse, who had seven goals and seven assists this season, Camargo, who’s scored three times against them this year and had eight goals and six assists overall, plus of course the unpredictable freelancing of the talented Warschewski, who won last year’s Golden Boot and had 10 goals and five direct assists this season.
Forge will be motivated by their double losses to Cavalry in last year’s playoffs, the 4-1 defeat earlier this year and their first home loss of the season, to Ottawa last weekend.
“We need to bring more into the game,” Achinioti-Jönsson said of what his team can extract from the Ottawa loss. “I think we were a bit sloppy and were our own enemy a bit. I don’t think our energy and intensity were there. We have to learn from last week and just not make the same mistake twice.
“Luckily, we’ve been great this year which has given us another chance to reach the final, another opportunity to play at home.
“The crowds have been amazing. It’s been great to see it grow every year and we really appreciate every single person who comes out. Obviously, we’ll lean on that to push us to the final.”
HAMMERS AND NAILS: Forge has 30 per cent of the 10 finalists for the CPL’s Players’ Player of the Year Award, the only league voted upon solely by its players. Captain Kyle Bekker, forward Nana Ampomah and centre-back Dan Nimick are in the running for the prestigious award, won last year by Forge striker Brian Wright when he was at York United … Nimick and Rezart Rama are finalists for the CPL’s Defender of the Year and 20-year-old Hoce Massunda is one of five finalists for the league’s U-21 Domestic Player of the Year Award. He led all U-21 domestics in touches in the opposition box and had four goals and five assists…Fans can secure their seats for the match here.
