Forge win the Voyageurs Cup, a first for a CPL club
A 1-1 draw after extra time at Stade Saputo and a 4-2 shoot-out win over CF Montréal gave Forge the Canadian Championship on October 21.
· by Colin Radek · canadian championship · voyageurs cup · cf montreal
Forge FC are Canadian champions. On October 21 at Stade Saputo they drew 1-1 with CF Montréal after extra time and won the penalty shoot-out 4-2, lifting the Voyageurs Cup for the first time. No Canadian Premier League club had won the national cup before.
Antoine Batisse put Forge ahead in first-half stoppage time, in the 45+6th minute. Daniel Ríos levelled for Montréal four minutes after the restart, and the score did not change through the rest of the ninety and the extra half hour. From the spot Forge converted four, Montréal two.
The road to the final ran through the whole pyramid: Halifax Wanderers 4-0 in the preliminary round, CS Saint-Laurent 3-2 on aggregate in the quarter-finals and FC Supra du Québec 2-1 on aggregate in the semi-finals, before the first MLS opponent of the run in the final itself. The attendance in Montréal was 14,081.
It is the club's only previous final that makes this one land harder. The delayed 2020 edition, played in June 2022 in Hamilton, also went to penalties, and Toronto FC won it 5-4. This time the shoot-out went Forge's way.
The cup brings a place in the Concacaf Champions Cup, and it comes in the same week the league season ended with Forge second on 58 points, two behind Cavalry. The playoff semi-final against Atlético Ottawa starts on November 1.