The draw is done for the 2022 CCL. Honestly, it could not have gone much worse for the Canadian teams. Montreal drew the one Mexican team in the bottom half of the bracket for their first match up. Forge also drew a Mexican team. So both of our teams have pretty much the most difficult possible opponents in the first round. Compounding the badness is the bracket allocation which has Montreal and Forge meeting each other in the second round if they were both to advance. So we don't even have the (admittedly unlikely) chance of both teams going deep into the tournament.
Montreal go down 1-0 after the first leg in Mexico. An early goal for Montreal was disallowed by VAR for foul some time earlier in the sequence. I kind of like VAR but this seems pretty weak. Reviewing a play many touches before the goal and overturning the ref's non-call on a 50/50 foul/no foul type of play. I mean, how far back are we going to rewind the tape on each play now to look for possible fouls? Anyway, Montreal are in a hole coming home, but one I think they can climb out of. They've chosen to play indoors at Olympic Stadium rather than outdoors like Forge are doing when they host Cruz Azul tonight.
Forge go down 1-0 at home in the first leg. An honourable outing for Forge. The game was closer than I expected although this was probably helped by the fact that Cruz Azul played what was largely a B squad. True to the identity this team has, er, forged for themselves, they fought hard regardless of the opponent.
Montreal win 3-0 at home for a 3-1 aggregate win. Forge fall 3-1 in Mexico against Cruz Azul to go down 4-1 on aggregate. Hopefully Montreal can exact some Canadian revenge and beat Cruz Azul in round two.