A frosty welcome awaits CF Monterrey on Wednesday night in Hamilton, Ontario, as Forge FC welcome the Mexican club to Canada to begin round one of the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup. Here's our match preview.
2025 Concacaf Champions Cup — Round One Forge FC vs. CF Monterrey Feb. 5, 2025 at 8 p.m. ET Hamilton Stadium in Hamilton, Ont. Watch Live: OneSoccer Tickets available here
A frosty welcome awaits CF Monterrey on Wednesday night in Hamilton, Ontario, as Forge FC welcome the Mexican club to Canada to begin round one of the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup.
The forecast calls for temperatures feeling like minus-12 Celsius, with windchill, and Bobby Smyrniotis probably wouldn’t mind it dipping a little colder as the Forge head coach and his players gear up for their third appearance in the continent’s premier club competition.
This first leg of the home-and-away first-round tie will be Forge’s first competitive match of 2025, a privilege they earned by winning the Canadian Premier League’s 2024 regular season title. The club has recently spent time in Cancún, Mexico for preseason training, but they’re now back in the cold Canadian winter to return to the pitch in Hamilton for the first time since the CPL playoffs in November.
It’s what you get in February in Canada,” Forge head coach Bobby Smyrniotis quipped on Tuesday. “Cold. And the colder the better; is it the ideal situation for either team? No, but it’s something that we’re used to. It’s something that guys like Kyle [Bekker] grew up playing in, not just now as a professional, but as a youth player.”
Most of Forge’s key stars from last year’s campaign are back for 2025, including their trio of CPL Player of the Year nominees: award winner Tristan Borges, captain Kyle Bekker, and star midfielder Alessandro Hojabrpour — the latter only confirming his return on Tuesday after speculation he might move on from the club.
The Hammers have also made a handful of high-profile additions to that group this winter; they’ve brought in highly sought-after defender Dan Nimick from Halifax Wanderers, as well as the attacking duo from their rivals York United in Mo Babouli — who returns to Forge after playing there three years ago — and Brian Wright.
Forge are still looking for their first victory in the Champions Cup, having lost to Guadalajara last season and to Cruz Azul in this tournament back in 2022. However, with this being their third crack at a Liga MX opponent, they have a strong understanding of what awaits them, both in this home match and the return fixture in Monterrey next week.
Standing in Forge’s way are perhaps the most formidable opponent in this tournament’s recent history. CF Monterrey, also known as Rayados, have won the Champions Cup five times — all of them within the last 15 years. Their 72 per cent winning percentage in the competition since 2008 is better than any other team.
Monterrey were runners-up in the most recent Liga MX Apertura season, and they haven’t finished lower than fourth in the league table since the 2022 Clausura. In last season’s Concacaf Champions Cup, it was Monterrey who eliminated Lionel Messi and Inter Miami in the quarter-final, winning 5-2 on aggregate.
All that’s to say, this Rayados side — led now by manager Martín Demichelis, of former Bayern Munich and Manchester City fame — will be an extremely tough out for a Forge team that hasn’t played a real match in three months.
The Mexican side enter Wednesday’s fixture in decent form, now five games into the Liga MX Clausura season that began in January. They’re 1-3-1 so far, which has been cause for frustration as they sit 10th in the table, but they finally got into the win column on Saturday with a 1-0 home win over Necaxa.
This is a Monterrey side with serious attacking firepower, led by former Real Madrid, Real Sociedad and Betis midfielder Sergio Canales, who has put up 12 goals and six assists in the 2024-25 campaign to date. Meanwhile, Germán Berterame has 11 goals and should lead the line up top. Rayados are captained by 37-year-old defender Héctor Moreno, who has 132 caps for Mexico and has represented El Tri at four World Cups.
The availability for Monterrey is uncertain as it’s not yet clear how many members of their first team will travel to Hamilton; the club trained at home on Tuesday morning before flying to Canada later that evening, opting not to train on the pitch at Hamilton Stadium. However, Demichelis did tell the media on Tuesday that he’s wary of Forge’s ability to play possession football, calling them a “dynamic, physical” team as well; he suggested that most of his first-team squad will be available. An Instagram post from the club on Tuesday confirmed Canales and Berterame are in the travelling group, as are former Atlético Madrid and Sevilla midfielder Olíver Torres, and ex-Porto and Sevilla winger Jesús ‘Tecatito’ Corona.
Meanwhile, Forge — having not played a match yet this year — have an almost entirely clean bill of health. They will be without Elimane Cisse, who is still recovering from an injury suffered in September 2024, and Bobby Smyrniotis also confirmed that Béni Badibanga and Malik Owolabi-Belewu are also unavailable for personal reasons.
It’s another special Concacaf night under the lights in Hamilton, as Forge attempt to make some history in their third attempt at the Champions Cup.
Can the Canadian side shock their high-profile foes? Or can Rayados do it on a cold, snowy night in Hamilton?
The 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup is available to stream in Canada on OneSoccer, FuboTV, or on TELUS Optik TV Channel 980.
3 THINGS TO WATCH
Forge seek to harness home-field advantage: Knowing that the cauldron of Monterrey’s Estadio BBVA awaits them in the second leg, Forge will do all they can to make use of whatever advantages they have at home this week. The chilly conditions should favour them, especially considering they trained outdoors on Tuesday, while Monterrey opted to train at home in Mexico before travelling to Canada the night before the game. Forge will have a better understanding of the turf pitch, which could play slightly differently to what they’re used to if it’s partially frozen. If there’s any discomfort for Rayados, then, Forge have to capitalize on it, ideally by scoring a goal or two at home so they can head to Mexico with an edge. The last two times they’ve hosted Mexican opposition in the Champions Cup — Cruz Azul in 2022 and Chivas in 2024 — they’ve conceded in the first half. It’s crucial they learn from those experiences and avoid costly individual errors in the early stages on Wednesday.
Who will travel for Monterrey? As always in the early stages of the Concacaf Champions Cup, it’s difficult to judge how exactly Monterrey will approach this first away leg. Last year, Chivas fielded a relatively second-string squad in Hamilton, but Monterrey might have a different view. In their first leg against Guatemalan side Comunicaciones in the 2024 Champions Cup, Monterrey started five players who had started against Club América three days before, and nine of their 11 made the trip. Of course, Hamilton is a farther trip than Guatemala City, but all signs are pointing to Monterrey bringing a full squad, possibly including the likes of Sergio Canales, Germán Berterame and Jorge Rodríguez. The only major doubts are likely to be Lucas Ocampos, who hasn’t yet played in the Clausura, and Victor Guzmán, who came off injured at halftime on Saturday. Head coach Demichelis confirmed Tuesday that his full team is expected to travel, though he did confirm Guzmán’s absence.
How will Forge integrate newcomers? A Concacaf Champions Cup game against a Liga MX team is far from the easiest way to introduce yourself to a new team, but several Forge players might make their club debuts on Wednesday. It feels like a near-certainty that Dan Nimick and Brian Wright will start, and Serbian left-back Marko Jevremovic might be Smyrniotis’ only option at that position as it stands. Meanwhile, Mo Babouli and Rezart Rama do have some familiarity with the tactical system and several teammates, so they’ll likely be thrust immediately into action as well. However, if all five start that would mean a much-changed Forge side from the one that ended last season. Smyrniotis will have to balance the familiarity and chemistry of his returning players with the quality brought by newcomers, most of whom are the clear best option in their position.
Forge FC all-time record: 0-0-4 Best finish: Round one (2022, 2024)
CF Monterrey all-time record: 51-18-12 Best finish: Champions (2011, 2012, 2013, 2019, 2023)
KEY QUOTES
“If you know you’re not at your best physically, you have to be able to understand what tactically you need to do on the pitch. That’s the one thing this team has done, since day one. Even though the players have changed, the mentality has always been good; tactically, we’re very prepared for games. Whether you’re Monterrey or anyone else, you’re vulnerable in certain areas of the game, so we have to make sure we take advantage of that, and we have to neutralize what they bring.” — Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis
“[Cold] is something we’ve all dealt with in this country, and what’s better than playing a game under the lights in some snow?” — Forge FC midfielder Kyle Bekker
“[Forge] are a very dynamic, physical team, with youth players trained through one of the best academies in Canada, where they try to give value to passing and possession” — CF Monterrey head coach Martín Demichelis
The 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup begins Tuesday. Feb. 4. Canadian Premier League clubs Forge FC and Cavalry FC will be taking on Mexican sides CF Monterrey and Pumas UNAM, respectively, with their matchups beginning Feb. 5 and 6.
Canadian viewers can watch the tournament live on OneSoccer. For more information on the Concacaf Champions Cup, click here, and for further coverage of the tournament at CanPL.ca, click here.
