May 10, 2025
CF Montreal earn their first win of the season in New York
To say this has been a difficult start to the season of CF Montreal, would be an understatement – but things looks to be turning around and headed in the right direction, as evidenced by the squads first win of the MLS season tonight, in New York.
CF Montreal have only ever won once before at the famed Yankee stadium prior to tonight, and that was a decade ago in 2015. While tonight’s win was technically their second win this season; it is their first in league play, as their win over Toronto FC came at the Canadian Championship. Both wins were on the road – as Marco Donadel’s team has yet to find a victory at home yet.
See Also: The Montreal Roses and Halifax Tides play to a draw at Stade Boreale
It was a game filled with great action, as CF Montreal found themselves on their heels early on, having trouble dealing the speed of Alonso Martínez, who burned through the midfield and made life hard on the Montreal defenders, challenging goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois on several occasions. Each time though, Sirois was up for the challenge. Once having to charge the oncoming Martinez, stripping him of the ball inside the box, before he was able to get a proper shot off.
CF Montreal relied on a strong counter punch, bringing balls up field through with strong midfield possession, and feeding their two strikers up front. Since interim coach Marco Donadel has begun using a two striker system, Montreal’s chances have exploded, and that again was the case tonight.
Giacomo Vrioni had two fabulous chances to score in the opening half, but couldn’t find a way beyond New York City goalkeeper Matt Freese. The first chance was a thunderous header that Vrioni tried to deflect in off the ground, nearly fooling Freese, while the second was a cross-box bullet of a shot, that Freese had to make a desperate diving save on, just getting his fingertips on the ball.
In added time, Prince Owusu challenged the New York City defense, beating several players to walk in, side step a ball before blasting it into the netting behind Matt Freese. Montreal happily took a one goal lead into the half-time break.
“We showed that today is a huge step for us,” said interim head coach Marco Donadel. “Not only by getting the three points, but because we showed that we can do a lot of different things on the field. It seems that all of the job that we did in these past six weeks came out. We showed that we can play short when they give us the space. We showed that when they wanted to come and press us higher, we can play more direct with a striker. We showed that we can defend high but that we can also defend low. And we showed that we can fight to the last minute. We showed that we can deal with the lack of energy like at the end of the first half. We show a lot of things, and this is why we won.”
As the coach was happy with the win over New York City FC, so too where the players.
“It’s a big win because we have a big month of May and we knew that all the games coming up will be very difficult,” said captain Samuel Piette. “We knew that this match would be tough against a very good team and a tough place. Everything wasn’t perfect, but I think there was a lot more positive than negative in this team and the way we were playing. The way we were working finally paid off. The guys that started really worked hard, but the guys that came in put in a really good shift. We need everybody on this team and we showed that today.”
CF Montreal also enjoyed the services of Jalen Neal, who returned to the squad after sitting out with an injury for the past few months.
“It was a relief,” said Neal. “Especially coming back from injury, it was a hard few months. But to be able to play for this Club is a huge privilege, to be honest. To be able to get the first one of the season, I think we can keep growing off of this. We knew we had to do better, but we never really got too down on ourselves, even when we weren’t getting positive results. It means so much to everyone at this Club. We really wanted to win for our coach, the fans and everyone at the Club. We really wanted to show that we really care about this Club, that we care about this season, and that we’re projected for higher.”
By earning a win here tonight, CF Montreal avoid taking sole ownership of the leagues worst start. Instead, that stat is now shared with the Real Salt Lave and the Colorado Rapids, as all three teams have started a season with eleven consecutive wins.
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>> CF Montreal defeats Toronto FC on penalties
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Donadel’s side have been getting increasingly better, and more importantly, have been finding ways to finish their chances – something that has caused the squad nightmares through the early going. Since switching to a two striker system, however, CF Montreal have seen far greater success.
CF Montreal will play two consecutive games at Stade Saputo. First, they will host the Columbus Crew this Wednesday at 7:30pm and then they will host rival Toronto FC next Saturday at 2:30pm. One of the rare daytime games for CF Montreal, and one that is sure to bring out a lot of younger soccer fans. New York City FC will next face D.C United in Washington on May 14th.
