PREVIEW: High stakes for Toronto FC, CF Montréal in first round CanChamp clash

The 2025 TELUS Canadian Championship will see a major domino fall on Wednesday night at BMO Field, where one of the Canadian MLS teams will find themselves eliminated in April for the first time ever.

Toronto FC host CF Montréal in an early 401 Derby clash, and the stakes couldn't be much higher for either team.

In truth, the 2025 season has not started well for Toronto or Montréal. They occupy the bottom two places of MLS's Eastern Conference; TFC are slightly ahead with seven points, which is seven back of a playoff spot. Montréal are even further back, with only three points from their 10 games played.

It's early of course; either side could still make up that ground in their 24 remaining league games. However, there's a growing sense in both camps that the Voyageurs' Cup might be their only realistic hope of lifting silverware this season.

Toronto and Montréal remain the two most successful clubs in this tournament's history, with eight and five titles, repsectively. However, the Vancouver Whitecaps have dominated recently; they've won the past three in a row, and they're currently reaping the fruits of that success with their run to the Concacaf Champions Cup semi-finals -- a competition for which they qualified by winning the CanChamp.

Montréal did lift the trophy in 2021, but Toronto will be supremely frustrated by the fact they haven't won the Canadian Championship in a full tournament (not counting the one-off 2020 final) since 2018. To illustrate: TFC won that year's final against Vancouver thanks to a hat-trick from Jozy Altidore and a goal from Sebastian Giovinco; meanwhile, Alphonso Davies started both legs for the Whitecaps. It was a while ago.

That 2021 title for CFM did come at the expense of Toronto in the final, with Romell Quioto's goal the only one in that contest.

There's much more history between these sides in the Canadian Championship, though. They've played each other 23 times in this competition, and TFC have won 11, Montréal have won seven, and they've drawn five times. In the tournament's knockout era (that is, since 2012), Toronto have eliminated their Québécois rivals four times, while Montréal have advanced on six occasions -- including three triumphs over TFC in the final.

The most recent history, however, gives TFC an edge. Last year they did the double over Montréal in MLS play, with a resounding 5-1 win at home and a 1-0 victory at Stade Saputo. Their most recent meeting in this competition, however, was a 2-1 win for CFM at BMO Field in 2023.

As suggested above, neither of these teams enter this game in sparkling form. Toronto may have picked up their first win of 2025 two weeks ago at Real Salt Lake, but they lost 1-0 at home to New York City FC on Saturday, and have lost five of their first 10 games, scoring just eight goals.

That said, the TFC defence seems to have improved this year under new head coach Robin Fraser. They've now only conceded two goals in their last five MLS games, which is a testament to their stabilizing back four of Raoul Petretta, Kevin Long, Sigurd Rosted and Kosi Thompson. Credit is also due to Sean Johnson in goal, who is having a resurgent season so far at the age of 35.

For Toronto, the question will be who can they count on to provide goals. Through 10 games, only two players -- Deandre Kerr and Federico Bernardeschi -- have more than one goal, with both players sitting at two.

Meanwhile, Montréal likewise have struggled to put the ball in the net this year. They've scored just four goals, and former TFC striker Prince Owusu has half of those. Indeed, Montréal's most recent goal was on April 5, having been kept off the scoresheet in three straight.

The club is now led by interim head coach Marco Donadel, who took over in late March after previous boss Laurent Courtois was dismissed. Donadel, a former midfielder for CFM, is still looking for his first win as manager of the club.

One area where Montréal do have an advantage, however, is in domestic talent. Of course, teams in the Canadian Championship are only required to include three Canadian players in the starting XI, but Montréal have well outpaced that so far this year, with 5,170 minutes played by their Canadians and an avergae of 5.8 in their lineup per match.

Jonathan Sirois has started in goal all but one game, but even if Donadel chooses to rotate, his other options are Sebastian Breza and Emil Gazdov, who are both also Canadian. Meanwhile, expect at least two of Samuel Piette, Nathan Saliba and Victor Loturi in midfield, with Joel Waterman and Luca Petrasso extremely likely to get the nod in defence.

For Toronto, the options are a little slimmer, although captain Jonathan Osorio is unlikely to miss out on a clash with Montréal. This would be his 41st game against his club's biggest rivals, and he has a record so far of 18-5-17 -- including that fabled 2016 MLS Eastern Conference Final, plus four CanChamp finals.

TFC will also surely turn to Kosi Thompson at right-back, with Deandre Kerr or Theo Corbeanu the notable Canadian options up front.

It's never dull when these two clubs meet, and the form guide usually goes out the window. Although it may not be the heavyweight clash it was a few years ago, when the sides were at the height of their powers, there's no shortage of animosity. Speaking to media this week, Waterman explained that the rivalry has changed; it's a different era, but the dislike is still there.

And with the Canadian Championship arguably becoming the priority competition for both teams this year, it'll be an all-out battle on the Lakeshore on Tuesday, live on OneSoccer.