CF Montreal Looks To Get Back On Track Against Red Bulls

On Saturday night CF Montreal travels to New Jersey to face the Red Bulls.

After losing to FC Cincinnati on Wednesday night 3-0 at TQL Stadium CF Montreal is staying positive ahead of their matchup with the New York Redbulls on Saturday night.

“We’re going to stay calm, we’re going to keep working,” said Montreal head coach Hernan Losada on Thursday. “There are some positives to take away, and in two days there’s a new match.”

CF Montreal saw its five-game winning streak snapped and six total in all competitions, including a 2-0 win over these Red Bulls a few weeks ago.

“Stay positive, we’ve been on a good run, there’s no need to put everything into question — that was the message,” midfielder Mathieu Choiniere said of the team’s reaction to Wednesday’s loss. “Stay positive and learn from it.”

The New York Red Bulls, who have usually been one of the best teams in the league, haven’t been doing so far. After losing to CF Montreal in April fired their head coach Gerhard Struber replacing him with Troy Lesesne.

Losada doesn’t expect to face a totally different team on Saturday and mentions the team has played better. The Red Bulls are currently on a three-game unbeaten streak since Lesesne took over.

“The Red Bulls have a style, a certain type of style no matter who the coach is,” he said. “They kept their goals-against at zero in the last three matches … that means it’s a team that’s very strong defensively with a lot of energy.”

“So, I expect a really close match, like all matches against the Red Bulls.”

Montreal still needs to work on its record on the road and the team so far has lost six of its games on the road and only scored in two of them.

“We had some good moments [against Cincinnati],” he said. “But in the future … we’re going to try to finish our reactions, with a shot on goal, with some individual plays — that’s what’s missing.”

“Scoring in only two games on the road this season is not a good stat. That means if we don’t hold the fort defensively and we don’t keep a clean sheet, we’re not a team that’s going to score three or four goals per match. That means we have to keep our focus, concentration, and intensity or we’re in trouble.”

Both teams are currently sitting out of the playoff picture but only 5 points separate fifth and 15th in the Eastern Conference standings meaning a win for Montreal could make a drastic change.

“They’re a crafty team, they like to press and like to play long balls,” said midfielder Victor Wanyama. “I think now also they have confidence because they have won the last two games [at home]. It’s gonna be a tough game as usual, so we’re expecting that.”

During the week a rumour had dropped that CF Montreal had reached out to Real Madrid in regards to Eden Hazard, who is on an expiring contract but the Belgian wants to finish out his contract with the team.

Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 pm and the game can be seen on Apple MLS Season Pass, TSN, and RDS.