Pacific FC is set to meet what has been the poster franchise over the first six seasons of the Canadian Premier League. Forge FC has set the standard that all other teams look up to, having won four and played in all five of the CPL championship games contested to date.
The Hammers’ legend has grown this season with victories over Major League Soccer teams FC Montreal and Toronto FC in the 2024 Canadian Championship tournament.
Once can be considered a fluke, twice is a trend.
The Tridents and Hammers go at it today in league play at 4 p.m. PDT on Tim Hortons Field in Hamilton, Ont., in a match-up of the only two teams to have won the CPL playoff championship.
PFC beat Forge FC in 2021, the only time the Hammers failed to win the title and advance to CONCACAF competition the ensuing year.
Both PFC and Forge FC are coming off midweek first-leg Canadian Championship semifinal games against MLS clubs, who have single players making more in salary than the combined rosters of CPL clubs. The Hammers shocked John Herdman’s TFC 2-1 before 11,431 fans at Tim Hortons Field and the Tridents giving a good account of themselves in a 1-0 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps before a capacity crowd of 5,103 at Starlight Stadium.
PFC will certainly have to be wary of former Belgian Under-19 and U-21 international Béni Badibanga, and former Canada U-20 player Kwasi Poku, who scored the Forge FC goals against Toronto in Wednesday’s upset. They will be facing PFC goalkeeper Emil Gazdov, who leads the CPL with five clean sheets.
Despite their pedigrees, Forge FC and PFC have middling winning records this season in the CPL with the Tridents 5-4-4 in wins-losses-draws in league play and the Hammers 5-4-3.
CORNER KICKS: PFC’s Chris Greco-Taylor is among the four CPL players who have been named to the Canadian team for the 2024 Under-20 CONCACAF championship in Mexico.
The others are Khadim Kane of Forge FC, Tavio Ciccarelli of the HFX Wanderers of Halifax and James Cameron of Vancouver FC. Canada will open in Group B against Honduras next Saturday and play the Dominican Republic on July 23 and El Salvador on July 26.
Canada will be attempting to qualify for the FIFA U-20 World Cup for the first time since hosting in 2007, with a group that was based in Victoria at Royal Athletic Park.
Coming out of that 2007 tournament were players such as World Cup winner Angel Di Maria of Argentina, who is still going strong and twice played against Canada in the current Copa America, fellow Argentine Sergio Aguero, U.S. World Cup player Jozy Altidore, Mexico World Cup player Giovani dos Santos, and Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez, the latter two with Uruguay, which played Canada in the Copa America third-place game on Saturday.
