They knew whoever they drew it was going to be tough, uphill, sledding. There are no easy pickings in the top club tournament of the region, comprising 27 survivors among all the pro leagues in North and Central America and the Caribbean.
But soccer was the restaurant business C.F. Monterrey would have a Michelin star.
For the third time in as many appearances in Concacaf Champions Cup, Hamilton’s dominant soccer team will take on a legendary Mexican team in CF Monterrey.
The two sides have never played a head-to-head match but they have a strong relationship and have talked about providing players for each other.
And how about this for a little proof? Forge left-back Daniel Parra is currently on loan from Monterrey and still under contract to Hamilton.
“It’s another storyline to the game,” Smyrniotis laughs.
While they know their opponents, Forge won’t find out until later this week in which of two “windows”—either in early or late February— they’ll first host, then visit, Monterrey, where the average February high temperature is 23 degrees C. But the elevation in Monterrey is not nearly as high as it is in Guadalajara, where Forge played Chivas in a Cup leg in February of this year, nor in Mexico City, site of its first Cup visit in 2022 to play Cruz Azul. That should help in the second leg, where the thinner air has proved somewhat physically draining in the second halves in the Hammers’ two previous Champions Cup trips to Mexico.
Hamilton has acquitted itself well in both previous Cup appearances, although they were defeated on merit, losing to Chivas 5-2 on aggregate and to Cruz Azul 4-1. They were particularly effective at home, scoring in each of the Tim Hortons Field matches.
“The colder we can get in in February at Tim Hortons Field the better,” Smyrniotis said after Tuesday night’s televised draw. “It hasn’t worked out the last two editions and hopefully this time the cold comes out because we want every edge we can get.
“I think we’ve done a lot over these years of international play and we’re going to ask our supporters to come out in droves for this. Every little piece of advantage we can get is going to help us and having a loud Tim Hortons Field usually gives a lot of energy to our players. The colder it is and the more people we have in the stands can give us a little edge in the home leg and we have to make sure we can use that.
“Going there, it will be our third time in Mexico, and in three different cities. Monterrey has a beautiful stadium and hopefully they’ll have a good crowd and that usually energizes the group. We have to put our number one foot forward; and we’ll have five weeks or so to prepare.”
Earlier this month Smyrniotis said that while it is difficult to face a Mexican team in February because they’ll have already played five or six games in Clausura (second half) league play, “we also love the juice in Mexico and the challenge they provide: the atmosphere, it’s very uplifting for the players and we’ve lived that twice with Azul.” and Chivas.
Forge have always been aware that every one of their potential opening-round opponents in Champions Cup has a much higher and salary scale but that’s what makes this style of head-to-head elimination soccer so enticing. All across the soccer world there have been periodic David-over-Goliath upsets in continental club playdowns.
Monterrey has a combined roster salary of about $30 million, while Forge FC and fellow Canadian Premier League club Cavalry, the reigning playoff champion, play in a league with a $1.25 million total salary cap. Monterrey’s prolific Spanish scorer Sergio Canales makes five times that much on his own.
Cavalry’s first-round opponent will be Pumas UNAM, with the winner advancing to the quarter-finals against Costa Rica’s Alajuelense where former Forge centre back Manjrekar James now plays.
The winner of the Forge-Monterrey series goes on to play the survivor of Canadian champion Vancouver Whitecaps of the MLS and Costa Rica’s Saprissa, which won the Champions Cup in 2019.
Nicknamed the Rayados (“striped ones” for their blue and white striped uniforms) Monterrey has won the Champions Cup five times, most recently in 2021 and 2019. They have won Liga MX’s premier division five times including the 2023 Clausura (second-half) title and later this week open up the final of the 2024 Apertura (first half) against Club América.
“You look at the last 10 years in Mexican football and these guys are obviously top three,” Smyrniotis said. “It’s another one like we’ve faced the last two times and we’re going to work our magic to find the best way to go at them.”
Monterrey was the only Liga MX team to average more than 40,000 fans per game this season and their stadium, Estadio BBVA, opened in 2015 and seating 53,000, has many features reminiscent of London’s Wembley Stadium.
They are managed by a big-name European, retired Bayern Munich and Manchester City defender Martin Demichelis and reached the semifinals of last year’s Cup knocking out Lionel Messi and Inter Miami in the previous round.
They’ve got a mix of age and youth: American national team forward Brandon Vázquez, who has 10 goals in 2024 and forward Germán Berterame, who has 32 goals in 89 Monterrey games the past three years, are both only 26. Spanish attacking midfielder Canales may be 33 with his best European years behind him, but he’s found the back of the net 20 times in just 46 Monterrey games since arriving last year. His eight goals in 17 games this year rank third in the offence-driven Mexican league and Argentine striker Lucas Ocampos is tied for seventh in assists.
And most avid soccer fans will be well aware of 36-year-old centre back Héctor Moreno who was on Mexico’s 2022 World Cup team and has worn the national senior team cap 132 times in his career. The 6-foot-1 left-footer often initiates the prolific Monterrey attack by making a defensive play, then deftly handling the ball before making a pinpoint pass.
“They’re all good,” Smyrniotis says. “They’re a successful club with quality players. You look at their roster and they’ve got a very, very good team right now. But that’s how we like it.”
Interestingly, while Monterrey and Forge have discussed exchanging players, it’s their closest geographical rivals who have a formal deal with Monterrey. York United is owned by Monterrey natives and earlier this year announced a partnership with Rayados which will extend across various parts of their organizations.
“They have the very tight relationship between their owners,” Smyrniotis notes of the Monterrey-York connection. “But even through all that, Daniel Parra landed with us.”