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CF Montreal Come Back To Beat Philadelphia In Home Opener
By On Saturday night at the Olympic Stadium, CF Montreal came back to beat the Philadelphia Union 3-2.
CF Montreal finally was able to score a goal and it didn’t take long as in the second minute the home side was awarded a penalty after a handball in the box.
Romell Quioto stepped up to the spot and had no issue putting the ball into the back of the net for the first CF Montreal goal of the season to the delight of the 23,000 fans in attendance.
Goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois continued to get better and made several key saves to keep his team in the game.
40 minutes later, he denied Mikael Uhre who got the first shot on target for the visitors. The first half finished 1-0 for the home side and things looked good heading into the second half.
The Union tied the game in the 46th minute as Uhre was able to finish a great play and score and 14 minutes later scored his second of the game to give the visitors the lead.
In the 90th minute, CF Montreal managed to tie the game when Mathieu Choiniere made a great lob to Chinonso Offor who managed to head the ball into the back of the net.
That’s when all chaos and hell broke loose.
The ref was contacted by VAR and was told to review the goal for a potential offside and after a lengthy review, the ref decided it was no goal due to Offor being offside.
That’s when Victor Wanyama was informed from the touchline to tell the ref to have a second look and the ref went back to the monitor and again after another review gave the goal.
A couple of minutes later CF Montreal went for the win and Mathieu Choiniere once again made an amazing cross to Quioto who managed to head the ball into the back of the net for the game-winning goal.
After the game, I asked Philadelphia Union head coach Jim Curtin to give his sense of the situation with the review of the goal and he told me he never experienced anything like that before and called it a ‘shit show’.
Hernan Losada was asked the same question but decided to take a positive spin on the answer.
“The game tonight is hard to explain, but the best answer is that this is soccer. That’s why the fans come to the stadium. The victory feels good, but especially the way we earned it because we didn’t deserve to lose this game. We found solutions with the substitutions, and we went for it. There can be a lot of planning before a game, but game days can turn out very differently. I’m happy for the group. They gave it their all. The win is the least we could do for the fans who were there tonight.”
Wanyama, who wore the captain’s armband tonight due to Samuel Piette missing the game due to injury, gave his sense of the game and the win.
“A game against Philadelphia is always tough. We are developing a rivalry with them. We were ready to fight tonight. I’m glad we were able to get as many points as possible. We had to push. We were down for a lot of the game, but we fought back. We knew a draw wasn’t enough at home. The fighting spirit is still there in the team, and we showed character.”
CF Montreal will next be in action on April 1st as they head to Vancouver to face the Whitecaps after the international break.