OttawaThe CPL’s evolving rivalry swells again Sunday at Tim Horton’s Field with a berth in the league final on the line.Winner hosts league final, loser gets 2nd chanceJayden Dill · CBC News · Posted: Oct 25, 2025 4:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 31 minutes agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutes The CPL’s regular-season champions Forge FC, left, and and runners-up Atlético Ottawa square off in the semifinals on Sunday. (Philippe Lariviere/Canadian Premier League)A contentious rivalry is swelling up in Canada’s top men’s professional soccer league.Its latest rendition has Atlético Ottawa and Forge FC squaring off in the Canadian Premier League (CPL) semifinals Sunday at 2 p.m.”We fight against Forge inch by inch,” said Atlético head coach Diego Mejía this week. “It’s a really important semifinal. We want to bring the final here [Ottawa] to share with our fans.”Atlético Ottawa and Forge FC battled on four occasions over the course of a tight season, three of which ended in stalemates, and were separated by two points at the end of the campaign.It was Forge who took the lone victory and it was Forge who finished atop the table, lifting the Canadian Premier League Shield as the top regular season team for the third time.The Hamilton club is the seven-year-old league’s most successful, winning the league final in 2019, 2020, 2022 (over Ottawa) and 2023.The 58 points they’ve accumulated this season is a league record.Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis celebrated with Forge fans at Tim Horton’s Field last Sunday as the club lifted the Canadian Premier League Shield. (Michael Chisholm/Canadian Premier League)”You tell me the last team to do it [over] seven years consistently,” Forge FC head coach Bobby Smyrniotis said moments after lifting the shield last Sunday. “It’s fantastic, it’s not a shot in the dark. It’s not something we’ve done [just] over the season, it’s something we’ve done consistently.”Atlético Ottawa head coach Diego Mejía says his team is the best in the league. (Trevor MacMillan/Canadian Premier League)Standing in the way of Forge’s fifth playoff trophy is, statistically, the best attacking side the league has ever seen.Atlético broke the goal-scoring record, bulging the net 54 times. Its talisman Sam Salter set a record by scoring 19 goals, while midfielder David Rodríguez added 11 assists to match the league’s record. They also have the most shots on goal, scoring attempts and completed passes. “In the match we lost against them, we played very good football; We played better than them,” Mejía said. “We need to be [logical] in our pattern, in our way, because we are the best team to play soccer in this league.”Nathan Ingham has been one of the best between goalkeepers this season with 28 saves and 11 clean sheets. (Jojo Yanjiao Qian/ Forge FC)Between the sticks, goalkeeper Nathan Ingham has 28 saves and 11 clean sheets.”The whole year we’ve had a good spirit,” Ingham said. “These games are very fine margins … it’s just going to be about executing at the end of the day and making sure the big players show up.”Ingham is second best for clean sheets to his Forge counterpart Jassem Koleilat.Koleilat has 13 shutouts, leading Forge to the best defensive showing in the league with only 22 goals against. The winner of Sunday’s showdown at Tim Horton’s Field in Hamilton will host the CPL Final on Nov. 9.The losing team will have a second chance to make the final next weekend when they host either Calgary’s Cavalry FC or York United.ABOUT THE AUTHORJayden Dill is a reporter with CBC Ottawa. Feel free to send him your story ideas and news tips at jayden.dill@cbc.caWith files from Jonathan Jobin
Atlético Ottawa, Forge FC to square off in CPL semifinal
