Remembering 5 great Forge-Cavalry clashes before CPL Final rematch
Rarely does a Canadian Premier League season go by without Forge FC and Cavalry FC meeting at a critical point. This time, they’re doing it twice in the Playoffs, and they’ll renew hostilities for the second time in three weeks when they meet in the 2023 CPL Final on Saturday, Oct. 28 in Hamilton.
This will be the 26th all-time fixture between the old foes, who first met on May 12, 2019, when a last-second Nico Pasquotti goal drew first blood for Cavalry at Tim Hortons Field.
In 25 prior meetings, Forge have a slight edge, with 11 wins to Cavalry’s seven — plus seven draws between them (including four of the last eight).
Games between these two always seem to have a little extra intensity, though. In five years we’ve seen wondergoals, last-ditch winners, a midfielder playing in goal, and more cards than a poker table.
As we anticipate another must-watch clash in Hamilton this week, let’s reminisce on just a few of the highlights from the CPL’s most entertaining matchup.
5. Football returns at last in thrilling Island Games opener
Aug. 13, 2020, UPEI Alumni Field, Charlottetown — Forge FC 2-2 Cavalry FC (Highlights)
This was a therapeutic moment for many of us in the Canadian soccer world. It was summer of 2020, and many of us had been pent up inside for months during Covid. Slowly, other football leagues around the world had started to return behind closed doors, but the CPL — with just one season under its belt, don’t forget — still hadn’t managed to get back on the pitch.
Finally, on July 29, the league announced it would be starting its 2020 season in a truncated, month-long format in Prince Edward Island. And what better way to kick things off and celebrate the return of Canada’s league than with the two best teams from the inaugural year?
Forge and Cavalry, nine months removed from their Finals 2019 clash, met under the lights in Charlottetown to begin the Island Games and welcome back the CPL, and they did not disappoint.
Dominick Zator opened the scoring for Cavalry just 11 minutes in with a trademark header, but Forge’s Anthony Novak responded 15 minutes later. As the intensity grew in the second half, Kyle Bekker put Forge in front with a goal of his own.
In the end, though, Cavalry had the last laugh, as Mo Farsi’s shot in the box hit Dominic Samuel in the hand to win a 93rd-minute penalty for the Cavs. Nathan Mavila was the one to bury the spot kick as these foes drew 2-2.
4. Cantave breaks hearts after late Forge equalizer
Aug. 12, 2022, ATCO Field, Calgary — Cavalry FC 2-1 Forge FC (Highlights)
These teams have contested all sorts of dramatic regular season clashes over the years, but this one from last season might have been the most exciting to the neutral.
Entering the match, Cavalry were four points back of Forge in the standings and failed to beat them in two prior encounters that year — including a painful loss at home just a couple weeks before. This time, though the Cavs were up from it right from the start, as José Escalante picked out a lovely long ball to Joe Mason, who slid it home in just the seventh minute.
The two sides tried for the next hour to pick each other apart again, and Cavalry peppered the Forge goal, but Triston Henry was up to the challenge in one of his best games of the year. We were nearly treated in the 50th minute to a Mason Trafford bicycle kick that would have lived forever among iconic CPL moments, but he missed by inches and the chess match continued.
Everything changed when both managers turned to their benches just before the 70th minute. Bobby Smyrniotis brought in Jordan Hamilton, his club’s marquee summer signing, and in just his second appearance for Forge he scored an equalizer in the last 10 minutes.
Hamilton wasn’t the only impactful sub, though. Mikaël Cantave, who had entered simultaneously with Hamilton, found himself in the perfect spot to guide home a 90th minute winner set to him by Escalante, endearing himself to the home fans in just his fourth appearance for the Cavs.
3. Chess match turns chaotic in 2022 semifinal
Oct. 15, 2022, ATCO Field, Calgary — Cavalry FC 1-1 Forge FC (Highlights)
Oct. 23, 2022, Tim Hortons Field, Hamilton — Forge FC 2-1 Cavalry FC (3-2 agg.) (Highlights)
Yeah, we’re putting two legs of a knockout tie together here. We’re actually going to do it twice more, so get all your complaints in now before reading any further.
Last year’s semifinal was every bit as entertaining as it was expected to be. The first leg, a gorgeous afternoon in Calgary, saw two high-quality football teams going head-to-head in a tactical chess match — notwithstanding the instances more resembling a wrestling match when Rezart Rama and José Escalante came together. Cavalry scored a set-piece right before halftime, and Forge scored one right after halftime as absolutely nothing could separate these two sides.
In the second leg at Tim Hortons Field a week later, things got a little testier as pressure mounted. Cavalry knew they had to score, since a 0-0 draw would put Forge into the final on away goals. Forge, meanwhile, went to work methodically — until everything unravelled.
Just before halftime, Kyle Bekker was shown a straight red card for what the referee judged to be a high boot near Elijah Adekugbe’s face. So, it looked — for a moment — as though Forge were going to have to find a way to get through this game a man down.
That outlook lasted all of five minutes, though. With the final action before halftime, Forge got down into Cavalry’s end where Alessandro Hojabrpour managed to draw a foul from David Norman Jr., prompting Norman to be shown a second yellow card and evening the playing field at 10 men apiece. Forge, being aware of Norman’s sparkplug reputation, had targeted him to try and draw another ejection, and they’d succeeded almost immediately.
In the second half, actual football returned and soon enough repeated playoff hero David Choinière scored a great finish to put Forge in front. Moments later, Forge won a penalty and Woobens Pacius buried to make it 2-0.
Escalante and Myer Bevan connected for a Cavalry goal pretty quickly, and with the score 3-2 on aggregate they knew another goal for the Cavs would actually win them the tie on away goals, but Forge shut the door and went onto the final — where they won a third CPL championship.
2. Achinioti-Jönsson dons the gloves amid Canadian Championship fireworks
June 4, 2019, Tim Hortons Field — Forge FC 1-1 Cavalry FC (Highlights)
June 11, 2019, ATCO Field — Cavalry FC 2-1 Forge FC (3-2 agg.) (Highlights)
The first leg of this Canadian Championship tie was probably where this rivalry was truly born. It was one of the most truly, outrageously chaotic games we’ve seen in Canadian football, and not one either side has ever forgotten.
This was the second time Forge and Cavalry had ever met, and it was the Cavs’ first visit to Tim Hortons Field, so they certainly had no ghosts to bury there yet.
Forge were outstanding in the early going, going toe-to-toe in the first half against a Cavalry team that had literally won every game in club history so far (all seven of them). Tristan Borges was in fine form, as was Kyle Bekker, but it was actually Emery Welshman who finally scored for the hosts, two minutes after the interval on a dangerous transition attack.
This was also Hamilton’s first introduction to José Escalante, who would not endear himself to the locals with his top-drawer antics and theatrics.
As time ticked beyond the 90, Forge seemed poised for a massive result against the league’s top team so far, and Cavalry were all but resigned to trying to overturn the deficit in the second leg.
Until, that is, one last moment of madness turned it all around. As the Cavs threw a flurry of consecutive crosses into the box, at last one fell at the feet of Dominique Malonga. The Congolese striker took a touch past Forge goalkeeper Quillan Roberts, who brought him down with an outstretched foot.
Foul, penalty, red card. The problem, though, was Forge had used all three of their allotted substitutions. All of which led to… this:
Forge midfielder Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson put on Roberts’ jersey and gloves to try and save the penalty, and to Alex’s credit he guessed the right way, but Malonga did beat him from the spot to make it 1-1 and send the tie back to Calgary level. After the final whistle, the two sides came together in a shoving match that got a little ugly, but it all ended up being fuel to the fire of this budding rivalry.
The second leg was another entertaining affair, where Forge again scored first — Kyle Bekker, just 13 minutes in — to reclaim the aggregate lead. Malonga equalized before halftime, though, and then Sergio Camargo won it with a one-touch finish and a badge-grabbing celebration in front of the home fans. The match remained physical and heated, but Cavalry held onto their lead to move on in the Canadian Championship and play the Vancouver Whitecaps — and we know what kind of history they made there.
1. Finals 2019 — Forge become #ForeverFirst
Oct. 26, 2019, Tim Hortons Field — Forge FC 1-0 Cavalry FC (Highlights)
Nov. 2, 2019, ATCO Field — Cavalry FC 0-1 Forge FC (0-2 agg.) (Highlights)
An all-time classic, and a perfect finale for the CPL’s inaugural year.
These were the two best teams that season by a considerable margin, and it was only right that they meet in the first-ever final — at the time, a two-legged affair.
The first leg brought us all back to the place where the league had first kicked off, Tim Hortons Field. That game had the makings of an outstanding final from the very beginning, and it didn’t take long for the fireworks to start.
In the 37th minute, then-Golden Boot leader Tristan Borges got into the box with the ball, and Cavalry defender Joel Waterman had no choice but to slide. He mistimed it, though, and his trailing hand caught the ball, giving away a penalty and earning a red card.
The day’s first hero, though, turned out to be Cavs keeper Marco Carducci, who made what remains to this day one of the best saves we’ve seen in the CPL on Borges’ attempt from the penalty spot (see the header photo at the top of this page). Cavalry’s elation wouldn’t last long, though.
In first-half stoppage time, Chris Nanco spun around Nico Pasquotti at the touchline (did he keep the ball in play?) and squared it to the top of the box for Borges, who unleashed a left-footed rocket that this time Carducci couldn’t keep out. One-nil, Forge.
Borges’ roller coaster of a day took another dive in the second half, when he became tangled with Cavalry’s Jay Wheeldon and seemed like he might’ve kicked out while trying to get up. So it was that the league’s best player of that year found himself sent off in leg one of the Finals. So, Forge seemed slated to walk into a freezing cold ATCO Field without their star player with just a one-goal advantage on aggregate.
The drama in the week between the two legs was all around Borges and Waterman, as both sides appealed the ejections to Canada Soccer. After days of painful waiting, the decisions came down: Borges’ red card had been rescinded, while Waterman’s suspension was upheld. That first leg would be Waterman’s last in the CPL before he moved that winter to CF Montréal, continuing a journey that would lead him to Canada’s World Cup squad.
Before that could happen, though, there was business to be done in Calgary on Nov. 2.
The task was straightforward for Cavalry: Score a goal to level the tie, or score two to win it. They threw absolutely everything they had at Forge, taking 14 shots in the match to the Hammers’ four. Malonga had two golden chances to score with his head, but neither found the net. Cavalry had almost 60 per cent possession against a Forge side quite happy to wait for a counter-attacking opportunity.
In the very last moment of the game, that opportunity did appear. Cavalry were buzzing around Forge’s box, and Giuliano Frano collided with Zator in the box to prompt shouts for a penalty. While the hosts were appealing for a decision they wouldn’t get, though, Elimane Cisse and David Choinière were breaking up the other direction all alone.
Cisse squared it to Choinière, who scored, and the rest, as they say, is history.
