As the Who's Who of Canadian professional soccer converge on the city for the opening leg of the Canadian Premier League championship, ticket sales skyrocketed with an early-week rush.

As of Wednesday night, more than 8,000 tickets had been sold for Saturday's 4 p.m. kickoff at Tim Hortons Field between first place Cavalry FC and runner-up Forge, and it appears that the stadium's CPL-configuration capacity of just over 9,000 will easily be reached. The previous high in ticket sales for a Forge FC game was 7,152 on June 15 against Valour FC.

"There's been a great local response," says Forge FC president Matt Afinec, "And that size of crowd can only help home field advantage."

The Forge attracted more than 17,000 fans for the inaugural CPL match against York9 FC on April 27, but those tickets were distributed into the community free of charge at the direction of team owner Bob Young. This time, they're all paid admissions, and this game was not part of any seasons ticket packages. Tickets, priced from $25 to $56, are still available at ticketmaster.ca.

The second leg of what is anticipated to be a rancorous final series will played be Saturday Nov. 2 at Calgary's Spruce Meadows, where the home team has not lost since Hamilton beat them 1-0 on June 22. Each team has been superb on its own pitch and they have combined for just three losses in 27 home matches. They each lost once on the other's field. Hamilton is the only team to score in each of its CPL home games.

Continuity mattered

While most of the CPL was constructing all-new rosters, the Hamilton and Calgary entries had the most familiarity among its players and that's proven invaluable. Head coach Tommy Wheeldon has 11 players on Cavalry FC that were with him at Calgary Foothills FC when they won last year's championship in the U.S.-based Professional Development League.

And 14 Forge FC players have played at some point for Bobby Smyrniotis when he was running Sigma FC academy, which also has a team in the semi-pro League1 Ontario. Seven current Forge players — Triston Henry, Dominic Samuel, Giuliano Frano, Kadell Thomas, Tristan Borges, Monti Moshen and Klaidi Cela — were at Sigma last season. But some date further back including Forge FC captain Kyle Bekker, who was in the first Sigma class of 2005-06.

Thoroughly modern game

Both Wheeldon and Smyrniotis are considered practitioners of "modern football" — using set formations only to start the game, then being flexible and creative according to certain principles of game play rather than strict structure — but their specific styles are different.

"I think they're a little more direct and quicker in the way they want to get the ball forward in the field, with pressing and second balls," Smyrniotis says of Cavalry FC. "And just trying to create a little chaos. Quite frankly, they do a good job at it."

And that's what makes Cavalry so dangerous late in games.

Smyrniotis says his own team prides itself on the possession game and is, "sometimes a more methodical team in moving the ball around, being a bit more patient in how we go about breaking down our opponents. But one of our strong points is the counter-press and the counterattack, which we're very quick at.

"The one thing that's similar with the two teams is that we both try to play uptempo and put pressure on the opponent in their half of the field."

At stake: league shield and Golden Boot

Here are some nuts and bolts from the CPL championship final:

•Head coach Tommy Wheeldon was surprised that Cavalry FC wasn't presented with any league hardware for either of their earlier CPL accomplishments: finishing first in both the spring and fall championships.

But a trophy — more accurately, a "shield" — will be presented to the winner of this two-game series. Details of that will be released late Friday afternoon during Media Day at Tim Hortons Field. About four dozen members of the media are expected for the game.

• Total goals determine the winner of the two-game final and if the aggregate is tied, the tiebreaker is away goals. If those are also tied after full time of the Nov. 2 game in Calgary, the teams will proceed directly to penalty kicks. There will be no extra time period.

• This corner dislikes the idea because it excludes five other teams, but goals in the final series do count toward the CPL's first Golden Boot (leading scorer) title. Forge FC's 20-year-old Tristan Borges leads with 12 goals across the fall and spring seasons, with Cavalry's Dominique Malonga, 30, right behind at 11. They're the only two with a realistic chance at the honour. If they're tied after the back leg, the winner would be determined by assists. Borges has five set-ups, tied for the league lead and Malonga has only one.

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• Gates will open Saturday so fans can watch the broadcast of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats' game at Montreal on the video board, beginning at 12:30 p.m. When CPL ceremonies start at 3:30 p.m., the CFL broadcast will shift from the big screen to monitors around the stadium.

smilton@thespec.com

905-526-3268 | @miltonatthespec