CF Montreal To Welcome Familiar Faces In Match Against Columbus Crew

CF Montreal will face the Columbus Crew on Saturday night and will play against some familiar faces.

When Wilfried Nancy took the job with the Columbus Crew at the end of the last season, I am sure he had this date circled on his calendar. The day he would return to face his former team that he brought to the top of the standings.

There is also the fact that just weeks after leaving Montreal for Columbus, Rudy Camacho also makes his return after a fallout with the club.

The team continues to put itself in these types of situations when it decides to move on from older players and burn the bridge, so to speak, and ruin the relationship.

On Thursday morning we got to hear from Hernan Losada, Ariel Lassiter, and Jonathan Sioris ahead of the much-anticipated matchup that surprisingly hasn’t sold out.

“It will be a very hard match,” Losada answered when I asked him about what to expect from the Columbus Crew. “We know when teams come here to play it’s difficult for them as well.”

He went on to say “I hope we can play a good game against a team with a lot of quality, but also against a team that plays differently on the road than at home.”

Losada was asked about the fact that Columbus is a team that scores a lot of goals and how he was planning to counteract it.

“We need to defend well like we have done when we play at home and we will continue to do the same.”

Romell Quioto continues to rehab from his injury and on Thursday morning was seen running drills for 30 minutes on his own before heading into the gym.

“I hope the international break will do him some good and little by little improve, and come back to training with the group.”

Another interesting story is Victor Wanyama, who is the team’s only DP and hasn’t played since Leagues Cup. Losada was asked to give his reasoning behind it

“It’s difficult, but it’s part of his job. Is not just on the field but off it as well, and we chose only to play with one six which is Samuel Piette. When Victor got hurt Nathan Saliba stepped in and played better.”

We also got an update on Robert Thorkellson, who is dealing with an injury himself, while Losada confirmed Mason Toye isn’t injured and rather a decision from the coaching staff not to dress him.

“Thorkellson was hurt, he is dealing with an adductor injury and won’t be ready for this weekend. As for Toye, he is not injured. It was a decision by the staff not to dress him in favor of Jules Anthony Vilsaint, Chinonso Offor, and Sunusi Ibrahim, but it doesn’t mean we can’t count on him.”

Jonathan Sirois, who currently has ten clean sheets, can break the club record on Saturday night – a record currently held by his mentor and now Columbus Crew goalkeeper Evan Bush. Hwas asked his expectations for the match.

“We need to turn the page quickly. W know it will be an emotional game, but at the end of the day we are just focused on picking up the three points,” he said.

I also asked Sirois what he expects from Columbus and if he has scouted them at all.

“They have two very good strikes in Diego Rossi and Cucho. We know their style and they are going to be good on the ball, so we need to be compact and patient.”

Ariel Lassiter, who made his return to the team from injury, says he felt good being back with the them.

“I feel good and after a couple of weeks off I know there will be an adjustment period to get my form back, but I felt ok and I am looking forward to Saturday.”

Lassiter was also asked what to expect from a Columbus Crew team that is currently fifth in the Eastern Conference and could potentially move into third place with a win.

“t’s going to be a dog fight,” Lassiter responded. “They are going to come out and give 100% and we need to match the energy and the intensity and hope our talent and skill set plays out.”