Ricardo Pasquel wants York FC United to become Forge FC’s chief rival, and not just because of the 80 kilometres of pavement that link them.

York’s team president and general manager—Pasquel and his brothers Miguel and Eduardo bought the Nine Stripes back in December—knows that Wednesday night is an opening for his underdog side to create a necessary link in the daisy chain that leads to realistic and sustained rivalries.

The two neighbours square off at Tim Hortons Field at 7 p.m. in the preliminary round of the 2024 Canadian Championships, with the winner of the single-knockout advancing to a home-and-away quarter-final confrontation with MLS side CF Montreal.

Repeated matches that matter, in high-stakes scenarios, are the raw materials of big rivalries. York has had relatively decent regular-season results against Hamilton, with seven wins and three draws in their 22 head-to-head matches, and they were the opposition in the CPL’s first game when 17,611 came to Tim Hortons Field. That resulted in a 1-1 draw with York’s Ryan Telfer scoring the historic first CPL goal just three minutes in. Kadell Thomas made “78th minute” a Forge mantra with the game-tying strike.

Immediately, it looked ripe for a top-tier rivalry among the two teams in Canada’s richest market, but Forge’s biggest rival, far and away, quickly became Cavalry FC because of how often they’ve played but more because of the circumstances: two CPL championship finals; a one-off for the right to host last year’s title match; a bitter brace of games as Calgary prevailed in the 2019 Canadian championship qualifier; and other must-win conflicts over the league’s first five years.

The overarching reality is that after finishing third in the second half of the inaugural season, York has usually been entrenched in the lower third of the league and not a factor as Forge has gone to all five league finals.

“Hopefully we can become their No. 1 rivalry not just because of how close the two teams are to each other and not just because of the regular season,” Pasquel says. “But hopefully in the postseason, we can win some championships and it can become a rivalry.”

And while the Canadian Championships aren’t technically postseason, they are outside of the regular schedule, so they count—really count—when you’re building inter-club contentiousness.

Forge dominated York 3-0 eight days ago in Vaughan but rebounded for a 3-0 win over Vancouver FC Friday night, tightened their back end, and are getting more comfortable with each other.

As Forge assistant coach David Edgar emphasized this week, “form goes out the window” in an elimination game which is exactly what this is.

So Forge has to be more alert than they were in the first half of Saturday’s 2-1 victory over Valour FC. They needed some big saves from Chris Kalongo, one of the emerging stories of the young CPL season, and a penetrating 90th-minute sortie from 18-year-old Amadou Koné to set up Noah Jensen’s winner.

In some ways, the 2-1 victory was a perfect result for Hamilton as they head into Wednesday’s Canadian Championship. They got their three points and are now the only team with three wins to open the season. Kalongo’s work tightened the growing trust between the keeper and his outfield players. And the Hammers didn’t take their foot off the gas despite conceding the tying goal four minutes after Tristan Borges had scored the opener, nor after Beni Badibanga’s penalty kick had caromed off the right post.

But it also gave them a nervous, and necessary, wake-up call. They had not come out and emphatically put a struggling team away, which gave the opposition hope. At times in the first half, they appeared to be doing exactly what Bobby Smyrniotis has always preached against – looking past this game. That’s an invaluable teaching lesson for the head coach and his on-field leadership group. And the lesson didn’t cost them any CPL points.

In all professional team sports, but particularly in soccer with its low scores, the longer the underdog team hangs around, the better the chance it has to force an upset. A bad bounce, one bad clear, a near-miss instead of a sensational stop by the goalkeeper, and pfffft it’s the other guys who are advancing to the next round.

So you can expect Forge to emphasize jumping on York early. That’s what they did a week ago Sunday after allowing the home team a little optimism over the first 10 minutes. It was a dominant performance and left no doubt that they had more depth and skill.

York is vitally aware of Forge’s dynamic possibilities up front, especially on the two flanks. Hamilton alternated sides advancing up pitch at York and owned those outside laneways. York will make adjustments and can counter with some quality of its own, but Hamilton’s mission is to take advantage of scoring chances as soon as they can and make York chase the game. It’s hard to chase when Forge usually has such an advantage in possession time.

Expect York to push the ball into the box as often and however, they can and hope for a good play on the second ball or a weak clear from Forge.

Captain Mo Babouli, the former Forge star, lives for the big games and this is a big game. He’ll be looking to take control. And the three Mexicans on international cards—defenders Oswaldo León and Orlando Botello and midfielder Josué Martinez—won’t be as unfamiliar with the CPL’s turf and style of play this time.

Those Mexican players—one of whom roomed with new Forge player Daniel Parra at Necaxa, a Mexican club once owned by the New York owners’ grandfather—are part of the longer-term vision of the Pasquel Brothers, who all moved with their families to the GTHA over the winter.

“We were announced as the ownership only in December, so we didn’t have much time and these three players who came in, we were familiar with the ownership of the club they grew up with,” Pasquel said. “We talked to our coaching staff about which positions we need to start filling in and these are young guys with a bunch of potential who are more than happy to be here. They fell in love with the country.

“So it’s a mix of things: getting stronger at several positions and at the same time players enjoying time here in Canada. It’s a win for the players, a win for the league, and a win for football in Canada.”

The Pasquels are from Mexico City and grew up supporting Chivas, a name familiar to all Forge faithful. They, like Atlético Madrid in the purchase of Ottawa, recognized from the outside what the casual fans in Canada often miss from the inside: massive potential.

“Canada is a top-10 economy in the world, the league has had only three-four years of whole-calendar played, it’s the No. 1 sport played in the country for kids from 3 to 17, and the World Cup is coming in a couple of years,” Pasquel says. “So, honestly, there wasn’t much thinking to do on our end. We visualized the potential coming maybe five to six years down the road, so here we are.

“Talking to some people in Mexico, in Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey, a bunch of them know Forge because of the success they’ve had. Also talking to ownership groups in Canada, we found every year more people in Canada are getting to know the teams, so I think we’re in a good place right now.”

It’s a CPL coup to have long-term, committed soccer owners in the biggest market—for players, fans, and sponsors—in the country, and the Pasquels hope that within a very few years, 80-90 percent of their roster will be from the area. They’re designing scouting and development programs toward that end.

They praise their strong working relationship with York University officials but have also been quite open about wanting to have their own stadium, privately financed. The loudest indicators point to Woodbine Racetrack lands where a national soccer training center has long been rumoured to be headed.

“We’re exploring every possible site, and Woodbine is one of them, among many others,” Pasquel says. “It’s too bad I can’t say that much about those things right now. But we are investigating every opportunity.”

Meanwhile, there’s a big opportunity for York on the pitch Wednesday.

Forge’s job is to impose their game on York for the full 90 minutes and make sure they can’t successfully convert that opportunity.

HAMMERS AND NAILS: Four of the five CPL players with two goals over the first three games will be in the lineups Wednesday: Tristan Borges, Béni Badibanga, and David Choinière for Forge and Brian Wright for York … Hamilton defender Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson has made 220 passes, 24 more than anyone else in the league … Malik Owolabi-Belewu is tops in tackles (10) and interceptions (11). York’s Orlando Botello has seven interceptions.