Forge FC midfielder Kyle Bekker, left, defends against CF Montreal midfielder Rida Zouhir during the first half of the Canadian Championship quarterfinal in Montreal, on May 22.Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press
Like every other soccer fan in this country, Kyle Bekker spent Tuesday night cheering on the Canadian men’s national team as it faced up to the might of defending world champion Argentina in the Copa America semi-final.
As someone with 18 caps to his name, the Oakville, Ont., native is well acquainted with the national-team setup and knows many of the players on a personal level. Some of those relationships stretch back decades, having first crossed paths with players such as Cyle Larin and Richie Laryea during their formative years at the Sigma Sports academy in Mississauga.
“I hope all those guys know that what they’re doing is inspiring for the next guys coming up,” Bekker says. “The [2022] World Cup was special, and I think it was that first little step in that direction, and now we’re just seeing it game after game.”
Now captain of the Canadian Premier League’s Forge FC, the 33-year-old Bekker is set to take part in his own David vs. Goliath contest on Wednesday night, as the Hamilton team plays host to Toronto FC of Major League Soccer in the first leg of the Canadian Championship semi-final at Tim Hortons Field.
Neither Bekker nor his team need any introduction to the eight-time Canadian champions, having lost to them in a penalty shootout in the final of the 2020 tournament (which was actually played in 2022 because of COVID-19 postponements).
Bekker has his own history with the MLS club. He was drafted by TFC out of Boston College and played two seasons for the club in 2013 and 2014, five years before the CPL began play in 2019.
Bekker says enough time has passed that games against his old club hold little extra motivation for him, beyond simply the chance to advance to the Canadian Championship final and take another shot at capturing a trophy that has so far eluded Forge – and every other CPL team.
Forge’s 2020 loss in the championship game still stands as the closest that any team from the CPL has come to the Voyageurs Cup, but the possibility of an upset always exists. The Hamilton club knows this as well as anyone, having eliminated CF Montreal over two legs in the quarter-final – just the third time a CPL team had beaten an MLS team in the Canadian Championship.
“I think we’ve seen year over year in games where CPL has played MLS teams that we have a ton of ability in this league,” Bekker says. “We have a ton a talent, and on any given day, the beauty of football, I think, more so than any other sport, is in 90 minutes of football you can get a result, and we’ve seen it.”
Given the rut that Toronto FC currently finds itself in, with the Columbus Crew handing John Herdman’s team a sixth consecutive defeat with a 4-0 walloping last Saturday, it can be argued that Wednesday’s semi-final comes at the ideal time for Forge. A banged-up TFC squad will also be missing captain Jonathan Osorio and Laryea, still away on national-team duty at the Copa America.
But Forge has its own issues. Despite winning the CPL championship in four out of the league’s five years of existence – and finishing runner-up in 2021 – Bekker’s team is currently fifth in the standing, seven points back of first-place Atletico Ottawa with a game in hand.
As Bekker admits, his club has “to address some things that have kind of come up in the last little bit.”
Win or lose though, he views Wednesday’s match as an opportunity. Games against MLS clubs bring increased visibility for both him and his teammates, and while Bekker is happy where he is at this stage of his career, others may gain opportunities from a good performance.
“There’s no denying it,” he says. “I think the reality is, in this sport, you see it year after year. A game can change your career. It can change your trajectory. And to sit here and not act like this is a game where that could happen I think would just be foolish.”
As someone who impressed as a younger player during trials with both Dutch giant Ajax as well as English Premier League club Crystal Palace, only to be denied advancement by his inability to secure work permits, Bekker knows that opportunities are fleeting in soccer.
But it’s also one of the things he’s most proud of witnessing during the first five years of the CPL. He points to examples such as former Cavalry FC defender Joel Waterman, who used the fledgling league as a springboard to secure a transfer to CF Montreal and eventually a place with the Canadian national team.
Those kinds of circumstances just weren’t as freely available before the CPL came around.
“The amount of players that I’ve crossed paths with who had just unbelievable talent,” Bekker says, “but simply either had the wrong people around them, lack of opportunity, whatever it may be, and their career never got the chance to take off.”
Having grown up looking to follow in the footsteps of Atiba Hutchinson, Julian de Guzman and David Edgar – a trio of Canadian internationals who all played over in Europe – Bekker understands the benefit of the current generation of Canadian trailblazers.
With Alphonso Davies, Tajon Buchanan and Jonathan David, to name but a few, all playing in some of the biggest leagues in Europe, the next generation of Canadian soccer professionals have ready-made role models to emulate.
But developing the ecosystem to produce more of that top talent on a more consistent basis will take time. The CPL is in just its sixth season of existence, while Toronto FC – Canada’s first MLS club – is three years away from celebrating its 20th anniversary.
“A lot of times we find ourselves in these arguments where we’re putting the cart before the horse, and where we want Manchester United, we want Real Madrid,” Bekker says. “We want all these things right now, but we don’t understand how long it took for them to get there.
“It is slow. It can be a grind at times, but we just got to keep our eyes on that, and just know that we’re heading in the right direction.”