Forge FC forward Beni Badibanga chases a ball with CF Montreal defender George Campbell during a Canadian Championship match in Hamilton, Ont., on May 7.Nick Iwanyshyn/The Canadian Press
Substitute Bryce Duke’s 52nd-minute goal gave CF Montreal a 1-1 draw – and a valuable away goal – in the opening leg of its Canadian Championship quarter-final with Forge FC on Tuesday.
David Choinière, whose younger brother Mathieu started for Montreal, opened the scoring in the 31st minute for the Canadian Premier League champion, which had perhaps the best of the first half but seemed to lose its way after Duke’s equalizer.
Forge’s inaugural “School Day Match” was an 11 a.m. local start, drawing more than 10,000 students on a sunny 16 C day at Tim Hortons Field.
The return leg is May 22 at Stade Saputo with the series winner facing either Toronto FC or Ligue1 Quebec champion CS Saint-Laurent in the semi-final. In the event of an aggregate tie, the team with the most away goals wins.
The defending champion Vancouver Whitecaps played at Cavalry FC in Tuesday’s other quarter-final.
On Wednesday, it’s Pacific FC at Atletico Ottawa and Toronto at CS Saint-Laurent.
The morning kickoff in Hamilton was originally slated to be a league outing against Halifax Wanderers FC, the 500 match in CPL history. But the cup took over the calendar slot.
The CPL will now mark the milestone 500th game Friday when York United FC hosts Valour FC.
Attendance was announced at 14,923, second only to the 17,611 that saw Forge play in the league’s first-ever match, on April 27, 2019. The Hamilton side averaged 5,484 per home game last season.
It marked the fourth year in a row that Forge and Montreal have clashed in Cup play with the MLS side winning all three meetings: 8-7 in a penalty shootout in the 2021 semi-final, 3-0 in the ‘22 quarter-final and 2-0 in the ‘23 semi-final.
Vancouver and 2023 runner-up Montreal had byes in the first round of the 14-team cup tournament while Cavalry and Forge eliminated fellow CPL opposition in Vancouver FC and York United FC, respectively.
The Canadian Championship winner hosts the Voyageurs Cup and qualifies for the CONCACAF Champion’s Cup, the confederation’s elite men’s club competition Montreal coach Laurent Courtois made seven changes to the starting lineup that lost 4-1 at Nashville SC on Saturday.
Montreal (3-4-3 in MLS play) has played eight of its 10 league games to date away from home. It has won the Canadian Championship five times.
Defender Joel Waterman, a former CPL player with Cavalry FC, captained Montreal with Samuel Piette on the bench.
Forge coach Bobby Smyrniotis, whose team is unbeaten in the league at 3-0-0, went with the same lineup that dispatched visiting York United FC 3-1 in preliminary-round cup play May 1.