TOP 5 MOMENTS of Forge FC vs. Cavalry FC's rivalry ahead of 2025 CPL playoffs matchup
Cavalry and Forge will add the latest chapter to their rivalry this week, as they get set to meet for a fourth straight postseason in this week's Contender Semifinal.
After meeting in both the 2023 and 2024 finals, this is a MASSIVE matchup, as just one of them will advance to a final, leaving the other to head home early.
Will it be Cavalry, who are looking to continue their 2024 North Star Cup defence after beating Forge twice in last year's playoffs? Or will it be Forge, who are looking to reach a seventh straight CPL Final, as they look to add a fifth North Star Cup to their trophy cabinet after winning two straight CPL Shields?
Before looking ahead to this weekend, however, here’s a look back at the top five moments from this rivalry.
5. Cavalry wins first and only Canadian Championship meeting
For all of the times Forge and Cavalry have met, they haven’t had many meetings outside of the CPL, which makes it wild that they’ve played each other 36 times.
In two of those 36 meetings, however, they did meet in a competition outside of the CPL, and it came in two memorable matches in 2019, as they were drawn against each other in the 2019 Canadian Championship.
And there, interestingly enough, this rivalry was born across the two legs they played each other in during that tournament. Their first two meetings ever (they didn’t meet in the CPL for the first time until after this tie was over) ended up being two entertaining matches, as they drew leg one 1-1 in Hamilton before Cavalry claimed a 2-1 victory in leg two to win 3-2 on aggregate.
In particular, however, the leg one meeting ended up being the more memorable match. After Forge opened the scoring through Emery Welshmen, they almost doubled their lead off a corner, with Marcel Zajac hitting the crossbar.
At the other end, that opened the door for some late Cavalry drama, as Dominique Malonga was judged to have been denied a clear goalscoring opportunity by Forge goalkeeper Quillian Roberts after a scramble in the box, which gave Cavalry a penalty and Roberts a red card, meaning Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson had to step in goal to try save the spot kick.
There, Malonga held his nerve, slotting home, giving Cavalry a pivotal away goal.
Soon after, however, came the moment that forever sparked this rivalry - both teams got into an intense shoving match after the game, as the heat of the ending carried over off the field. From that point on, starting with leg two, matches between these two started to carry extra emotion, all sparked by that brouhaha in their first-ever meeting, although it must be said that 2019 feistiness has since turned into a mutual respect - these teams like to do their talking with the ball, now.
4. Cavalry ends Forge's invincibles bid
While it's hard to ignore regular-season matches between these two teams, it was truly impossible to miss their meeting in August of this year, as it pitted Forge, who were yet to lose in 2025 through 20 regular-season games at the time, against a Cavalry side hungry to end that run.
Fittingly, this game came at a familiar ground, too, as it was the first time these teams met at ATCO Field since Cavalry had beaten Forge in the 2024 final, adding further stakes to this matchup.
Certainly, much like that final, it ended up being a miserable day for Forge in Calgary, as their hosts scored early and often en route to a historic rout, as they won 4-1; that's just the third time in 36 matches between these teams that a team has won by more than a goal.
To Forge's credit, despite being just eight games away from becoming the first invincible team in CPL history, they quickly put this loss behind them and navigated their way to another CPL Shield, whereas this ended up being the peak of Cavalry's regular season campaign, as they finished in third.
What this shows, though, is that no matter the form each team is in, they seem to bring their best to this matchup - making it fitting that Cavalry was the team to end Forge's bid for an unbeaten season the way they did.
3. Forge wins first-ever final
If the first spark of this rivalry came in that 2019 Canadian Championship tie, it feels like the fire was ignited in the 2019 CPL final, as both teams met in the first-ever CPL final later that year.
A two-legged tie (the only time the final has ever been a two-legged affair), some wondered if the same sparks from the Canadian Championship tie might crop up again.
And certainly, that ended up being the case, starting with a fiery first leg in Hamilton - one that featured two red cards, one for Cavalry’s Joel Waterman and the other for Forge’s Tristan Borges.
In the end, Borges ended up making the difference before his dismissal, scoring the lone goal in a 1-0 win (only after he was denied on the penalty that came from the Waterman red card, and after Kyle Bekker and Daniel Krutzen hit the crossbar), giving Forge the edge heading into the second leg in Calgary.
There, despite dealing with an onslaught of Cavalry opportunities, Forge managed to hang on and secure their title with a 95th-minute insurance marker from David Choinière, becoming the first-ever CPL playoff champion with a 2-0 aggregate win. 
2. Third time's the charm for Cavalry
It was a day they had long waited for.
After falling to Forge in the 2019 and 2023 finals, Cavalry got a chance to erase some of the pain from those losses, as well as a 2022 semi-final defeat, in the 2024 final.
Having last hosted a final match in 2019, this match was a long time coming for Cavalry players and supporters, and they ended up delivering a day to remember, just two weeks after they picked up a massive 1-0 win over Forge in the Qualifying Semifinal.
On a cloudy Calgary afternoon, the hosts came flying out of the gates and eventually got their reward in the form of a penalty goal from Tobias Warschewski in the 32nd minute and a Sergio Camargo goal in the 38th minute to go up 2-0, much to the joy of their fans.
From there, Cavalry weathered the inevitable Forge storm, surviving a 58th-minute goal from Alex Achinioti-Jönsson to win their first-ever North Star Cup with a 2-1 triumph.
It wasn't their first trophy - they lifted the 2023 CPL Shield in front of their fans, and have retroactively won the 2019 CPL Shield - but it was their first playoff triumph, and that seemed to mean a bit extra to this team - especially when seeing who they beat in the final. 
1. Tristan Borges’ final winning Olimpico
Of course, when it comes to memorable matches between these two teams, it’s hard to ignore their 2023 final meeting, which takes up its rightful spot as the top moment on the list.
Arguably, the most entertaining final matchup in CPL history, it was certainly the best match between these two teams in their history.
Coming on October 28th of 2023 at Tim Hortons Field, Forge were looking to lift their fourth North Star Cup, while Cavalry were looking for their first.
Their first meeting in a final since that 2019 battle, as they had met in two semi-finals since, but not the championship match, this ended up being quite the matchup, too.
After an entertaining first 90 minutes, which included dangerous chances for both teams, Cavalry looked to have the edge heading into extra time, as they had generated the more dangerous opportunities through the 90 minutes.
Because of that, when Ali Musse gave Cavalry the lead in the 101st minute of extra time, it felt like they’d find a way to hold on for their first-ever North Star Cup.
But from there, that seemed to wake something up in Forge. As a result, they found an equalizer in the 105+2nd minute, as Béni Badibanga scored a banger just six minutes after Musse’s marker to make it 1-1 heading into the second half of extra time.
Then, up stepped Tristan Borges for what has become not just the most memorable moment of this rivalry, but arguably in the league’s history. Having stepped up to take a corner in the 111th minute, he ended up curling the ball directly into the net for an ‘Olimpico’, one that ended up clinching the North Star Cup for Forge.
A moment that understandably went viral after, it was quite the ending to the match, as it’s harder to think of many better ways to clinch a final win - something both teams would love to do again sometime over the next few weeks.
To get there, though, they'll now have to get through each other, and then Atlético Ottawa, which will be no easy journey - perhaps, they'll hope a similar moment from a protaganist such as Borges or Musse, who remain on each side, could help them lift another trophy this fall.
