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CF Montreal Hammered By Columbus Side Led By Wilfried Nancy
By CF Montreal suffered their fourth home defeat of the season at the hands of the Columbus Crew.
It was a night to forget for CF Montreal as they were handed a 4-2 beat down by the visiting Columbus Crew, led by former head coach Wilfried Nancy with defender Rudy Camacho also in the line-up.
Before the game, it was confirmed Joel Waterman was ruled out due to a knock he picked up against NYCFC on Wednesday and wasn’t ready in time to play.
He was replaced in the starting eleven by Ousman Jabang, who made his first MLS start.
“They scored on their chances,” head coach Hernan Losada said in his post-game press conference. “They took advantage of our mistakes and collectively, defensively it was our worst game of the season.”
Things started early for the visitors and in the 14th minute when Julian Gressel – who was acquired recently by the Vancouver Whitecaps – opened the scoring when his shot got deflected by Gabriele Corbo and into the back of the net for the own goal.
“Your playing against strikers with a lot of quality and a team that scores. a lot of goals but also concedes, so it’s unfortunate for us,” continued Losada.
Eight minutes later Columbus doubled their lead when Cucho Hernandez was able to head in a cross from Diego Rossi and CF Montreal was down 2-0 in less than 30 minutes.
“We took a lot of risk being at home but with our fans, we wanted to put on a good show, and even to neutral fans it was a good game.”
Cucho scored his second goal of the game in the 43rd minute when he got a quick pass from Yaw Yeboah and was able to beat Montreal keeper Jonathan Sirois.
The first half finished 3-0 and Losada was asked what was said in the locker room.
“The energy was high the entire game and that is why I am very proud of how the team came out in the second half,” he responded.
Losada began the second half by bringing in Jules-Anthony Vilsaint and we saw an immediate effect and change in the game.
“The mentality of the group to perform how they did was something to be proud of.”
CF Montreal made it 3-1 in the 52nd minute when Vilsaint picked off former CF Montreal central defender Rudy Camacho and passed the ball to Mahala Opoku, who hammered the ball into the back of the net.
12 minutes later Columbus was awarded a penalty when Cucho was kicked in the box by George Campbell, and after a check from VAR the ref awarded a penalty. Cucho made no mistake, beating Sirois to score his third goal of the game and complete the hat trick to make it 4-1.
Four minutes later Vilsaint scored his first-ever MLS goal when he managed to kick a cross from Matko Miljevic in between the legs of Columbus keeper Patrick Schulte.
I asked Vilsaint what he saw on the play and how the goal developed.
“I was just waiting at the second post,” Vilsaint responded. “I knew Matko was going to cross the ball and the ball hit the defender and luckily came to me. It it was the right spot, right time for me.”
Despite the loss, Samuel Piette – who clocked in a club-record 152 appearances as an outfield player – feels that the way his team stayed resilient is a big positive.
“They were able to convert on their chances,” Piette answered. “Contrary to us they won their duels but we pressed well and we had errors and lapses of concentration and honestly it’s unfortunate.”
He went on to add “Down 3-0 at the half it hurts, but we went into the locker room and we told ourselves we have nothing to lose and we came out strong and we played a good second half.”
Piette told the media he doesn’t agree with the assessment from his head coach who said it was one of the worst defensive performances of the season.
“It may be harsh but I don’t agree with the coach and what he said, but I think we lacked focus and we lost duels that cost us in the first half… but the way I want my team to play is aggressive and on the front foot, not always pressing, and we did that tonight.”