In between Canada’s Day and Canada’s Next Day…. it’s actually Canada Day.
Amidst a wave of coast-to-coast-to-coast national pride, Forge FC will return to action at Hamilton Stadium Wednesday afternoon against Vancouver FC (1 p.m., One Soccer) after their long and unprecedented CPL summer break in games to accommodate Men’s World Cup fever.
With Canada’s stimulating Sunday win over South Africa—celebrated with delirious mayhem at a watch party at the stadium—and either the Netherlands or Morocco waiting in the round of 16 on Saturday, these are indeed heady times for all Canadian soccer, and the Hammers and the Canadian Premier League sit atop the national men’s pyramid, which is clearly benefiting from the exposure and Team Canada’s foray into previously uncharted international waters.
That pyramid—with the CPL and its newly-branded semi-pro affiliate, Premier Soccer Leagues Canada—will feed the future of Canadian men’s soccer, and three Team Canada stars (Cyle Larin, Richie Laryea and Tajon Buchanan) were developed at Forge’s current farm system, Sigma FC, when the Smyrniotis brothers, Costa and Bobby, ran it before helping launch Forge and the CPL.
“The World Cup definitely makes you want to get back out there,” says Marko Jevremović, the Hammers’ firm Serbian defender. “It’s always exciting to play in front of our fans, and to see what’s going to happen the rest of the season after the break.”
By the time the Forge meets Vancouver, they will have had 20 days between formal games. The Eagles, as the Langley-based side is nicknamed, will have had 16 off-days.
With 18 games each remaining—including two head-to-heads in Alberta in mid-August and mid-September—Forge and Cavalry FC have distanced themselves from the other six CPL teams.
Hamilton has 8 wins, a draw, and just one loss for 25 points, just two ahead of Calgary, which has 7 wins, two draws, and a solitary loss… to Forge.
Atlético Ottawa, the only team to defeat Forge, is nine points back of Cavalry, as only three points separate third place from No. 7 Vancouver, which has 11 points. Vancouver entered the schedule break with home wins over Ottawa and last-place Pacific.
“If you don’t look at the standings and just look at who they are, and statistically, they’ve been an excellent team,” Hamilton head coach Bobby Smyrniotis said of Vancouver FC. “They’ve been a lot better than the standings show. A very good team in the counterattack, very well-organized defensively, so a very good opponent."
“They’ve got the attacking players. It hasn’t been spinning for them, but that’s going to come.”
Vancouver has scored only nine goals in 10 games, but has only allowed 11 goals, as only two sides, the Hammers and the Cavs, have scored more goals than they’ve allowed so far this season. Forge has netted 15 and surrendered four—exactly none of them at home—while Cavalry has scored 19 and conceded five goals. Cavalry returns to play on Saturday in Ottawa, after 23 days of competitive downtime.
It’s right back into the fire for Forge, who play Supra Du Québec on the road Sunday, then meet Saint-Laurent in a home-and-away in the second round of the Canadian Championship, for a gruelling four games within 13 days, beginning with Canada Day against Vancouver FC.
“It’s a must-win game; we have to win that game,” says skilled Forge FC winger Nana Ampomah, who has worked his way closer to full-game shape since the long-awaited approval of his work visa, and Smyrniotis says he’s ready for more field time than the 37 minutes off the bench he’s seen in the two games he’s been back.
“Every game is that way because it’s so close; it has to be a win to keep that gap for us.”
“It’s been important for us not to allow goals, and we want to score some more goals…we always want to keep going like that.”
In their five CPL games at Hamilton Stadium, Forge hasn’t allowed a goal and has extracted 13 of a possible 15 points. Keeper Dimitry Bertaud leads the league with seven clean sheets in 10 games—Calgary’s Nathan Ingram, with five, is the only other keeper with more than two shutouts—and including a scoreless Champions Cup draw with UANL Los Tigres and a first-round Canadian Championship shutout of HFX Wanderers, the Hammers have not allowed a goal on home turf in seven 2026 games.
“It’s huge,” says defender Dan Nimick. “Our defence has been solid, and that’s what wins championships. All 11 guys on the pitch, from Dimitry up to the attackers, everyone’s bought into the mandate and being a team that is difficult to break down is big in this league.”
Adds Jevremović, “That’s really important, and it’s what the whole team is doing. I’m so proud…first of the defence but also the rest of the team. We’ve been playing all like one.”
At the World Cup watch parties, Forge FC players have signed autographs, posed for countless selfies, and engaged with fans who’ve followed them from the start and some casual sports fans who somehow didn’t know anything about the local powerhouse until they were watching Canada play on the stadium’s big screen.
That has not been lost on players like Nimick, who emigrated from England to play at Western Michigan University, then pro in the USL and in the CPL with HFX and now Forge FC. “Especially since I’ve been over in North America at college in the U.S. or professional in Canada, I haven’t seen a buzz around soccer like the one I’ve seen the last few weeks,” he said during Sunday’s watch party. “We hope the energy that’s around the country for the World Cup will carry over to the CPL, and we can bring some of the energy into our games.”
He is one of several Forge FC players who were raised elsewhere or are only a generation removed from their family tree in other countries, and so have two inherent rooting interests in this Cup. On Sunday, it was clear they are all in Canada’s corner on game day.
“I DO have two teams,” Nimick says. “Obviously watching Canada, I’m wishing them the best and hopefully England and Canada don’t meet each other, and then I won’t have to make a decision.”
As the group stages shook down, England and Canada won’t play each other unless it’s in the medal round, and either country would accept that in a minute.
We’ll leave the final word to Forge FC rookie Anthony Aromatario, who’s had an impressive start to his pro career after all-star seasons last year with both League1 Woodbridge Strikers and York University Lions.
“I think this World Cup has already grown the game a lot,” he said. “Canada has got to the round of 16, and after every game you see the crowds are getting bigger and bigger watching it."
“It’s helped Canadian soccer a lot, and it will help our league a lot too, because without the CPL there wouldn’t be a World Cup in Canada.”