Orlando City vs. CF Montreal: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, Match Thread, and More
Welcome to your playoff match thread for a Sunday night match between seventh-seeded Orlando City and Eastern Conference runners-up CF Montreal at Stade Saputo (8 p.m. ESPN, ESPN Deportes). This is the first time the teams have met in the postseason and will be their third meeting of the year after splitting the regular-season series.
Here’s what you need to know before playing.
story
The Lions are 7-8-3 against Montreal in all-time league history and 8-8-3 in all competitions since the club joined the MLS. Orlando holds a 4-4-1 road record against Montreal, but one of those “road” wins came during the pandemic when the Canadian side hosted games at Red Bull Arena in New Jersey.
Each team won at home in the 2022 two-game regular-season series, with tonight’s hosts beating Orlando 4-1 in their last meeting on May 7 in Montreal. Joel Waterman, Djordje Mihailovic, Joaquin Torres and Zachary Brault-Guillard did the damage on the scoreboard and Orlando City managed just two shot attempts, with Joao Moutinho’s goal from a set piece helping the Lions avoid a shutout. Orlando City didn’t have a central defender in the starting XI for this game and it showed. The teams previously met on the opening day of the 2022 season as Orlando City celebrated a 2-0 home win after second-half goals from Alexandre Pato and Benji Michel.
The teams met in Montreal on Decisive Day 2021, with the Lions clinching a 2-0 away win at the Stade Saputo to secure a place in the playoffs. Sebas Mendez and Daryl Dike provided the goals. It was Mendez’s first MLS goal. The second game of last season at Exploria Stadium took place on October 20, 2021 when the visitors drew 1-1. Chris Müller scored just before half-time for the Löwen, but Rudy Camacho replied with a header from a corner shortly after the restart. The first meeting of 2021 came in Orlando on September 15 when the Lions lost 4-2 and finished the game with just nine men after both Nani and Andres Perea were sent off. Romell Quioto led Montreal with one goal and two assists. Mathieu Choiniere and Quioto gave Montreal a 2-0 lead but, despite being a man behind, Robin Jansson and Ruan equalized. The visitors got two more from Lassi Lappalainen and Sunusi Ibrahim.
The teams met at Red Bull Arena in late 2020 when the then Montreal Impact was playing home games in New Jersey due to the pandemic. Orlando City scored a goal from Dike in the 39th minute to win 1-0 on November 1, 2020. It was the second meeting of the 2020 season, with Orlando also beating Montreal 1-0 in the knockout round of the MLS is Back tournament in July 25 to advance to the quarterfinals. Tesho Akindele scored the only goal of the game through a Montreal defensive error. Orlando had controlled the game but struggled to finish it. In the end, one goal was enough.
Orlando City enjoyed a six-game winning streak against Montreal (0-5-1) in the MLS regular season that dates back to 2016, when the Lions 1st in 2019. Nani (penalty), Akindele and Will Johnson provided this day for the offensive.
The main reason for Impact’s success against Orlando in recent years has been the play of his defense and former talisman Ignacio Piatti. The Lions lost 3-1 at Exploria Stadium on March 16, 2019, and Piatti was a big reason why, scoring his ninth and tenth career goals against Orlando and contributing to an Orji Okwonkwo goal. Dom Dwyer added a cosmetic goal late on to Orlando City to spoil the clean sheet.
Montreal didn’t concede a goal against the Lions in 2018, winning Orlando’s two-game set, and the Impact shut out Orlando City in three of the six encounters in that 5-0-1 run. The only tie of that period was a 3-3 shootout at Orlando in 2017, where Impact led deep in injury time only to see Jonathan Spector’s well-placed header steal a point from the Lions.
The first game in Impact’s successful run against Orlando came on October 2, 2016, when Montreal stole a 1-0 win in Orlando after bunking in and hitting a Dominic Oduro counterattack. The Lions dominated the game, knocking out Impact 22-4 and maintaining 66.8% of possession (74.2% in the second half). Oduro’s goal was Montreal’s only shot on goal and eliminated the Lions from the playoffs that year.
Orlando won the first two encounters in 2016 with an aggregate score of 6-2. Teams split into three meetings in 2015, each going 1-1-1.
game overview
The Lions enter this game after an emotional comeback win on Decision Day 2-1 over the Columbus Crew. That was only Orlando’s second win since winning the US Open Cup trophy on Sept. 7 and suffering a two-game losing streak. The Lions, who started the year in great form away from home, lost three consecutive away games before this one and finished the regular season 5-6-6 away. That crew match might not have solved all of Orlando City’s recent woes, but at least the Lions had a full week to rest and prepare for the first time since the international break in late September.
Montreal enters the postseason in fantastic form after winning four straight games for the first time since 2018. The Canadian club are undefeated in their last six games (5-0-1). The last time Orlando traveled to Montreal, the tonight hosts were unbeaten in a six-game streak, and apparently growing. This time, however, five of the teams it faced during its six-game streak missed the playoffs. The only exception was Inter Miami, who beat Montreal 3-1 on decider day in Fort Lauderdale. Montreal finished the season with a 9-5-3 home record.
At the risk of giving you the odds, American teams have only won twice in Canada in 12 playoff games north of the border.
Montreal are a good defensive club, capable of counterattacking and creating from wide areas through Mihailovic and Quioto. Honduran international Quioto suffered a blow with his national team in the final window and is out tonight, but the team has plenty of firepower without him and his 15 goals and six assists. Mihailovic and Lion Killer Kei Kamara have nine goals and six and seven assists respectively this season. Lappalainen and Torres are among the team’s co-leaders with seven assists each due to Montreal’s ability to spread offense.
“We are already in October and looking forward to a good time [match] at this point after qualifying with that group,” head coach Oscar Pareja said in his pre-match press conference. “I think it’s even more important to think about progression and that’s where we are now. The group is very optimistic and very confident to go to Montréal and fight for our ticket to the next round.”
The Lions are without Alexandre Pato (knee), Robin Jansson (foot) and Joey DeZart (knee), while the Montreal availability report lists Tomas Giraldo (foot), Ahmed Hamdi (leg) and Quioto (leg) as out.
Mandatory Game Content
Planned lineups:
Orlando City (4-2-3-1)
Goalkeeper: Pedro Gallese.
Defender: João Moutinho, Rodrigo Schlegel, Antonio Carlos, Ruan.
Defensive Midfielders: Cesar Araujo, Junior Urso.
Attacking midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Mauricio Pereyra, and Facundo Torres.
Forward: Erkan Kara.
CF Montreal (3-5-2)
Goalkeeper: James Pantemis.
Defender: Kamal Miller, Rudy Camacho, and Joel Waterman.
Midfield player: Lassi Lappalainen, Ismail Kone, Victor Wanyama, Samuel Piette, Alistair Johnston.
Forward: Djordje Mihailovic, Kei Kamara.
Referee:
Ref: Ismail Elfath.
AR1: Corey Parker.
AR2: Cameron Blanchard.
4th: Lukasz Szpala.
VAR: Timothy Ford.
AVAR: Joshua Patlak.
how to watch
playing time: 8th am ET.
Venue: Stade Saputo – Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
TV: ESPN, ESPN deported.
Radio: FM 96.9 The Game (English), Acción 97.9 FM (Spanish).
Stream: The game can be streamed on the ESPN app and ESPN.com.
Twitter: For quick response and live updates, follow us at @TheManeLandas well as the official Orlando City Twitter feed (@OrlandoCitySC).
enjoy the game Go to town!