CF Montreal Seeks Revenge In Cup Final Against Current Holders Vancouver

Wednesday night at BC Place will decide the winner of the Canadian Championship.

It’s been a long road for CF Montreal, and now on the road in Vancouver the team will be looking for both cup glory and a spot in the Concacaf Champions League next season.

They face a Vancouver Whitecaps team that is having overall a pretty good season, most recently thumping the Houston Dynamo 6-2 while CF Montreal lost on the road again to the Philadelphia Union 3-0.

With so many games in such a short time, it was expected that head coach Hernan Losada would be making crucial lineup changes in the buildup, and he did exactly that.

Still, the team has not fared so well on the road, only winning one away game so far this season.

Losada told me despite the that his time were handed a 5-0 beatdown by the Whitecaps in their last meeting, it was a different situation given that they were playing one man down and, when both teams had eleven bodies on the pitch, they actually played very equal.

“100% energy I hope”, Losada said when asked about the level of fitness and energy he is expecting on Wednesday night. “We are not the favourites, but our team has a lot of resiliency and we are also united and we will do everything to stay competitive to play a good game.”

That is on point as the Vancouver Whitecaps have the likes of Simon Bechar, Ali Ahmed, and Julian Gressel (just to name a few) and it was actually those players who scored last time. It won’t be easy for the visitors from La Belle province.

I asked Jonathan Sirois, who will be returning to the net on Wednesday night, if this is the biggest game of his career so far and he said yes.

“I would say so”, Sirois said. “It’s the first time I am going to be playing a final and I think it is very exciting.”

Mathieu Choiniere, who had the night off on Saturday against Philadelphia, was asked if there is a revenge factor that could spark the team.

“For sure”, Choiniere said. “We don’t want to go there and have the same thing happen again and we know it’s a final and we are going to go with a belief to win.”

I asked Choiniere about what needs to be different this time out to secure the victory and the trophy.

“We need to give our 100%”. We need to fight for every ball and be all together and stick together because we know it won’t be easy and we’re playing in Vancouver and staying mentally positive.”

Kickoff is scheduled for 10:00 pm Eastern and all the action can be seen on OneSoccer.