ORLANDO, FL – CF Montreal lost their opening game of the MLS season after losing 2-0 on the road to Orlando City FC at Exploria Stadium in the sweltering heat.
Montreal beaten by Orlando City SC at Exploria Stadium
A tight first half
Montreal got off to a great start applying pressure early on the home team and had a couple of dangerous chances to score early but nothing on target. The visitors earned four corners in the first 10 minutes of the game and it seemed like they were on the front foot.
25' Une autre belle chance, cette fois pour Bassong, mais c'est hors-jeu.@DjoMihailovic finds @BassongZ in behind but he's slightly offside.#ORLvMTL | 0-0 | #CFMTL pic.twitter.com/GJw1lqIZ5A
— CF Montréal (@cfmontreal) February 27, 2022
Orlando earned a free kick in the 20-minute that looked dangerous but the Montreal defence did a great job blocking the shot and keeping the ball out of danger and it looked like momentum was shifting to the home side. Zorhan Bassong thought he got the first shot on target for Montreal in the 25-minute but it went off Pedro Gallese’s foot and out. However, the play was later ruled offside.
In the 35-minute, Montreal had a great chance to score when Matko Miljevic made a great pass to Djorde Mihailovic who fired a quick shot right on Gallese but he was able to swallow it and make the save. Miljevic got his first shot off a couple of minutes later but couldn’t beat the keeper.
Sebastien Breza who got the start in net for Montreal and was named the number one keeper came up big in the 41-minute, making a save on Alexandre Pato. Three minutes were added to the 45 and three minutes later both teams went into the locker room deadlocked at zero.
A poor, sloppy, undisciplined half for Montreal
Right place, right time 🦆 💥 @Pato | #DaleMiAmor pic.twitter.com/RrXik3l3UM
— x – Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) February 27, 2022
Montreal went right to work at the beginning of the second half and in less than a minute it was Victor Wanyama’s turn to test Gallese with a powerful shot but the keeper again denied the opportunity. Orlando opened the scoring two minutes later when Alexandre Pato found a loose rebound and put it into the back of the net to give them the 1-0 lead.
A textbook finish and a classic celly from @AlmightBenji 🔥 #DaleMiAmor | #VamosOrlando pic.twitter.com/K3a7zrHgJ0
— x – Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) February 27, 2022
Orlando doubled their lead in the 59-minute when Benji Michel fired a quick shot past Breza to make it 2-0 for the home side and Wilfried Nancy made three changes bringing in Joaquin Torres for Miljevic, Mathieu Choneire for Bassong, and Rida Zouhir for Ismael Kone.
Things got worse for Montreal as Romell Quioto was shown a straight red card for punching Robin Jansson and just like that they were down to 10 men. Nancy made his final two changes in the 72-minute bringing on Kei Kamara and Lassi Lappalainen for Gabriele Corbo and Mihailovic.
Things got interesting as in the 81-minute Orlando was reduced to 10 men after Robin Jansson got a second yellow card for a hard foul on Torres and it was now 10 on 10 for the last nine minutes of the game. Six minutes were added to the 90 but it was too little too late and they suffered their first opening day loss since 2018.
Coach reaction on Montreal beaten by Orlando City SC
Les stats après 90. Postgame numbers 👇#CFMTL pic.twitter.com/Bsj6vv0jJp
— CF Montréal (@cfmontreal) February 27, 2022
” It was a good first half and we had good moments and we wanted to do the same in the second half but we didn’t defend well in regards to the first goal and after that, we made a mistake on the second goal but we had control of the game in terms of what we wanted to do and we need to manage our emotions and we have to be better”.
CF Montreal will be back in action next Saturday as they play their home opener at the Olympic Stadium against the Philadelphia Union with the game scheduled to start at 4:00 p.m. ET.
