Forge FC, Toronto FC have date for Hamilton showdown to decide Voyageurs Cup

A date has finally been set for a Forge FC-Toronto FC showdown that has officially been nearly two years in the making.

Canada Soccer has announced that Forge will host TFC on June 4 in the 2020 Canadian Championship Final. The matchup for Canada’s club championship and the Voyageurs Cup has been on hold on account of the global pandemic.

While Hamilton and Toronto have been rival cities for over a century in that other incarnation of football, this will be the first time that the four-year-old Forge franchise has faced TFC, a three-time Major League Soccer finalist who won the MLS Cup in 2017. The championship match will be a 7 p.m. start at Tim Hortons Field, and Forge FC season seat members will receive priority access.

“We are excited to be able to host this much anticipated and prestigious championship match at Tim Hortons Field this June,” Forge FC director of football Costa Smyrniotis stated. “The Canadian Championship final is a celebration of Canadian club soccer and we are happy our wonderful fans will be able to enjoy it, cheering on our team right here in Hamilton.”

Forge earned their ticket for the Canadian Championship Final by virtue of winning the 2020 Canadian Premier League Championship. Due to the pandemic, the CPL’s 2020 competition was held in a bubble format on Prince Edward Island.

They will be attempting to be the first non-MLS team to lay hands on the Voyageurs Cup since the then-Montreal Impact (now CF Montréal) won it in 2008, the first year that the competition was held. Montreal was in the USL First Division at that time.

Coach Bobby Smyrniotis’s charges have faced an MLS club. Last October, they went toe-to-toe against CF Montréal in a Canadian Championship semifinal at Tim Hortons Field. After a 0-0 draw, the teams went directly to penalties, where Montréal prevailed 8-7 in a marathon 11-round shootout. The final round came down to the goalkeepers. Forge’s Triston Henry was turned aside by his Montréal counterpart Sebastian Breza, who then booted the decider past Henry.

Forge FC has won the CPL title in two of the league’s three seasons and has also become the first club from the CPL to appear in the CONCACAF Champions League. Forge lost 4-1 on aggregate in the opening round against Cruz Azul, one of the flagship franchises in Mexico’s Liga MX.

Along with announcing the date and time of the long-anticipated Forge-TFC affray, Canada Soccer also announced that the official draw for the 2022 Canadian Championship will be held on March 9. The draw will be broadcast on OneSoccer.

Thirteen clubs compete in the Canadian Championship, including the three in MLS and all eight from the CPL. Guelph United F.C. of League1 Ontario and CS Mont-Royal Outremont of Première ligue de soccer du Québec have also earned spots in the draw.

(Cover photo via CONCACAF Match Photography)