Third time’s the charm? Cavalry prepare to host playoff juggernaut Forge on Saturday in ‘another chapter’ to determine the CPL’s champion

There’s been a buzz in Calgary this week, as the city prepares to host the 2024 Canadian Premier League final on Saturday for the first time since the nascent league’s inaugural championship game in 2019.

The match-up will be the same as it was on that chilly November afternoon five years ago. Once again, Cavalry FC will host rivals Forge FC, who are seeking an unprecedented fifth playoff championship in six seasons.

Forge are highly familiar with the CPL’s biggest game of the season, having competed in the final every year since the league’s inception. The Hamiltonians have only lost one of those finals – back in 2021 – and they’re coming into Saturday’s battle as the 2024 regular-season champs.

For Cavalry, it will be their third time competing for what’s now called the North Star Cup. All three of those battles have been against Forge, and the first two ended in heartbreak.

“If you want to be the best, you’ve got to beat the best – and they’re the best,” said Cavalry’s head coach Tommy Wheeldon Jr., in a pre-game media availability on Friday.

“We go into this with a challenging mindset: it’s an opportunity for us to be the best, to win the last game of the season. I think that’s a great, great opportunity for these lads.”

If you want to change a dynasty, someone has to stand in the way.’

Saturday’s match at Spruce Meadows is already sold out, with upwards of 6,000 fans expected to cram into ATCO Field to watch what promises to be another intriguing battle between the CPL’s two perennial heavyweights.

It will mark the 32nd time these two teams have played each other, all of those matches intensifying and contributing to the CPL’s best rivalry. Remarkably throughout the last six seasons, every match but one between Forge and Cavalry has ended in either a draw, or by a single goal.

“It’s an ongoing war, right? We’ll always be there, they’ll always be there,” Wheeldon Jr. said. “So, this is just going to be another chapter of that. Now we’ve got another challenge that we’ve not done yet and that’s what we’re dialed in to do.”

Forge have the upper hand in the overall head-to-head record against Cavalry, at 14-9-8. They’re also 6-1-1 against the Cavs in the post-season.

Among those eight playoff battles are the inaugural 2019 finals, in which Forge beat Cavalry 2-0 over two legs, and last year’s final in Hamilton, when Forge once again bested Wheeldon Jr.’s team, by a score of 2-1.

Last year’s final saw a cagey first half followed by a frenetic and dramatic finish that carried into extra time. While Cavalry were able to strike first through Ali Musse, Forge equalized thanks to a stunning top-corner effort from Beni Badibanga, before Tristan Borges grabbed the winner with an equally impressive Olimpico with just a few minutes left on the clock.

It was a game that reporters couldn’t help but reference at Friday’s press event. But Cavalry midfielder Shamit Shome insisted it’s something the players have put in the rear-view mirror.

“I wouldn’t say we’re really focused on the past – we’re more focused on the present,” said Shome, when asked if Saturday presents an opportunity to get revenge for last year’s heartbreaking final. “But we know that details are important, and those details are what make playoff football so special.

“With the extra week of preparation we’ve had, we made sure we focused on those things so we could be as prepared as we can going into this final.”

But while Forge remain a juggernaut whenever the stakes are highest, Cavalry are undoubtedly coming into Saturday as the team in better form. The Calgarians are on a four-game win streak and are unbeaten in their last seven, dating back to early September.

In comparison, Forge lost their last two games of the regular season and failed to score in either of those matches.

Despite Forge’s late slump, Cavalry weren’t able to pip them to the regular-season title (Forge won the league with 50 points, two more than Cavalry’s 48). But the Cavs nonetheless earned the crucial advantage of hosting the CPL final by beating the Hamiltonians 1-0 two weeks ago, in their opening playoff encounter.

“That’s a big confidence boost for us and it’s given us the opportunity to host the final here,” said captain and goalkeeper Marco Carducci. “We’ll focus on the next game and it will be different than what it was two weeks ago, but it’s a big momentum boost. We’ve carried that through the last half of the season and into the playoffs, so it’s been great.”

Wheeldon Jr. described Cavalry’s recent victory over Forge – the club’s first win in Hamilton since 2021, and their first ever playoff win against them – as “slaying the dragon.”

The thing with dragons, though, is that sometimes they have two heads.

“It’s like Hydra – you cut off one, another two appear,” the Cavalry gaffer said, chuckling. “But they’re a bloody good team, right? I think we’ll talk about their team for years to come, but it’s up to us now. If you want to change a dynasty, someone has to stand in the way.”

‘Even on days off, there’s no day off’

For a team that has always managed to peak at the right time, Forge’s late-season slump was unexpected. After their playoff defeat to Cavalry, their end-of-season scoreless run extended into a fourth game and ultimately lasted nearly 380 minutes, before Malik Owolabi-Belewu was able to score the all-important goal in the 53rd minute to beat Atlético Ottawa 1-0 last weekend, booking Forge a spot in Saturday’s final.

But as many fans know, form goes out the window when it comes to championship games, and to bet against Forge putting in a strong performance Saturday would be foolhardy.

While Cavalry may have boasted the league’s best defence and fewest losses this year, Forge produced the CPL’s most wins, best attack, and best goal-differential in 2024. Reinforcing that you can never write them off in the games that matter most, they shook off the setback of losing to Cavalry at home by overcoming Atlético Ottawa last weekend.

Acknowledging it’s a bit of a cliché, Forge’s head coach Bobby Smyrniotis said it’s hard work and humility that keep Forge qualifying for the championship game, year after year.

“We have the basic principles that we use and play with and that doesn’t change year to year,” he told reporters on Thursday night, after receiving the CPL’s Coach of the Year award. “It gives us consistency in what we do, but the most important thing is remaining humble.

“Even on days off, there’s no day off. These players at Forge play with a lot of pressure on them. That’s pressure we put on ourselves, that we build. I think it’s pressure that makes us very good.”

Forge attacker Tristan Borges, who received the CPL’s Most Valuable Player award on Thursday, agreed with his gaffer, adding that Forge’s players have learned not to take their continued presence in championship games for granted.

“Six years, six finals – that’s something that’s obviously special. Being able to play in a final in any career is honestly hard to come by,” Borges said. “It’s for sure something we don’t overlook.

“Since we landed, I’ve just been thinking about the weekend.”