CanChamp PREVIEW: Who will make 2025 TELUS Canadian Championship FINAL? 🏆

There’s all to play for.

After a 2-2 draw in leg one of their Canadian Championship semi-final match-up last month, the Vancouver Whitecaps and Forge FC enter leg two with a fresh slate, as this series has essentially turned into a one-match knockout.

Because of that, it’s expected to be a thrilling match at BC Place on Tuesday, as both teams chase history. If leg one is to be any indication, this one should come down to the wire, too, so look for both teams to go out swinging.

No doubt, though, the pressure is on the hosts, as the Whitecaps enter this match as overwhelming favourites.

Not only are they the three-time defending champions, but this is also the best team they’ve put together in recent years, as evidenced by their play in MLS and the Concacaf Champions Cup this year.

Unlike past seasons, where they struggled to make the leap required to become a powerhouse in MLS and continentally, they’ve hit a new level in 2025, thanks to a new head coach and a deep squad. Now, all of a sudden, they look poised to get their hands on the sort of silverware they’ve never really come close to in years past, this tournament aside - that they got within one game of winning the Champions Cup proves that.

That’s worth noting, because in past years, this has usually been their best route towards success, as the four times they’ve lifted the Voyageurs Cup (2015, 2022, 2023, 2024) mark their only trophies of their MLS era.

In a sense, though, this tournament has propelled them towards what they are today. Ever since their triumph in 2022, which snapped a seven-year trophy drought, they’ve developed a hunger to lift more trophies and have grown every season.

Just look at this 2025 Whitecaps team, who, on top of their run to the Champions Cup final, also currently sit in sixth place in MLS’s Supporters Shield race, five points off first place with two games in hand. Plus, for further context, they just gave their Shield hopes a big boost this week, as they beat the team in first place, the Philadelphia Union, 7-0 at BC Place, off the back of a hat trick from Thomas Müller, so they come into this game flying.

Yet, Müller’s arrival is a fitting reminder of how far this team has come. In the past, the Whitecaps would have struggled to attract a player of his profile, but their success this year tempted the German legend to come to Vancouver, and he’s elevated an already deep team to hit another level - and winning this tournament for a fourth straight time would be another great way for them to continue that growth.

“It’s great to have a player like Thomas (Müller),” Vancouver Whitecaps head coach Jesper Sørensen said this week. “All players want to be better, but not everyone is outspoken and has the accolades and career to back it up, so when a player like that comes in, it helps.”

“He wants to help because he knows what it takes in big moments,” Sørensen added.

As for Forge, though, they’ll be unbothered by all of the noise that comes with playing this Whitecaps team.

It’s easy to forget how good they’ve been at times, but Forge have got quite the resume of their own, sitting as four-time playoff champions and two-time regular season winners in the Canadian Premier League - they’ve also participated in the CPL Final in each year of existence, and are yet to finish below second place in the table.

Not only that, but they’ve now been in the Canadian Championship semi-finals four times in the past five seasons, too, as they’ve also started to establish themselves as a consistent force in this competition.

At the same time, while they’ve been happy to reach this stage as many times as they have, they’d love nothing more than to now reach the final and lift the trophy. They have reached the final before in 2020, so it wouldn’t be a new achievement to reach that stage, but given that they qualified for that tournament by virtue of a bye given to the best CPL finisher during the 2020 Island Games, it would mean a bit more to reach the final in a full tournament.

Especially when considering their path this year, which first pitted them against the Halifax Wanderers in the preliminary round, CF Montréal in the quarter-finals, and now the Whitecaps in the semi-finals, they certainly haven’t had it easy up until this point, either.

Yet, they’ve welcomed that challenge. As the saying goes, to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best, and this bracket has offered them the chance to do that.

Now, it’ll be up to them to make the most of this opportunity. They’ve got the players to make something happen, armed with their past experiences - they’ll hope that can push them to an impressive result.

Having already had a great season to date in CPL play, where they sit atop the table with an impressive 49 points from 23 games and a record of 14W-7D-2L, they’ll feel their season will be defined by what they do in this tournament, a clear sign of their ambitions as a club.

“This tournament is something that we always subtly talk about,” Forge FC head coach, Bobby Smyrniotis, said this week. “As Forge, we don't talk about a lot of things, be it records and other things, we like to focus on what we have in front of us, but this is obviously a trophy that we don't have, and one we'd like to have.”