CF Montreal Holds Off Charlotte To Secure Goalless Draw

On Saturday night in North Carolina’s Bank of America Stadium, CF Montreal and Charlotte FC played to a draw that finished with no goals.

“Everyone did a good job”, Losada answered in his opening answer when asked about the collective effort from his team. “Offensively and defensively in the first half, we had our chances.”

Due to Zachary Brault-Guillard and Aaron Herrera being called into international duty, and also missing Lassi Lappalainen, Losada had made a lot of changes to the starting eleven.

Before game time, CF Montreal was also dealt another blow when Mathieu Choiniere was removed from the roster due to a hamstring injury, though Losada expects him to be back next game.

“We can’t stop. We need to score, but unfortunately when you don’t score fatigue comes into play – that forces me to make changes. It’s important to start getting points on the road.”

CF Montreal’s first dangerous scoring opportunity came in the 12th minute when Bryce Duke was able to thread the needle through two Charlotte defenders and found Sunusi Ibrahim, who was denied by Charlotte keeper Kristijan Kahlina.

On the ensuing play, Jojea Kwizera – who got his first start of the season – had a chance at goal but his shot was pushed away by Kahlina.

“It was a big effort by the whole team. Now we can prepare for the next game.”

Duke had another chance in the 23rd minute but Kahlina made another big save to keep his clean sheet alive. Four minutes later Jonathan Sirois made a big save on veteran Justin Meram.

“I am very happy with the team”, Sirois said. “Another beautiful collective effort. We knew we wanted to solidify our performances on the road.”

In the 65th minute there was a bit of a bad giveaway by George Campbell. Enzo Copetti pounced on it and was able to get a shot, but Sirois also had a very good performance denying him as well.

“I think we are a team aspiring to get into the playoffs. We need points and we want to go into every game trying to win, but we are happy considering our record on the road.”

CF Montreal will have the week to prepare as they will next face NYCFC on July 1 at Saputo Stadium.

Header Image Photo Credit: CF Montreal