Led by Wayne Rooney, D.C. United will go head to head with CF Montréal, managed by former Black-and-Red head coach Hernán Losada.
This evening, the stakes are high for the Black-and-Red. After going winless since their home opener against Toronto FC at the end of February, they are ready to claim all three points and bolster confidence. Wayne Rooney said to the media, “I think that you get confidence from winning games, and so I think you can feel that a little bit. So that’s why we get that win and get our confidence back to where we want it.”
While D.C. United is looking to regain confidence and maybe put the past to rest, Montréal head into their second home match of the season after spending their first weeks on the road. Upon returning home, Montréal downed Philadelphia 3-2. For Montréal, a win tonight would be their 100th across all competitions, a significant milestone to reach as the club looks to realign after the exit of Wilfried Nancy to Columbus Crew.
For the Black-and-Red, tonight’s match is certainly more than just a game. Montréal head coach Hernán Losada was dismissed from the D.C. United in Week 8 of the 2022 MLS Season after a four-game losing streak and clashes with the front office. Coincidentally, he will face his former club – in Week 8. Many players who were with D.C. United during Losada’s tenure still remain with the club.
Donovan Pines reflected on the feelings around playing against their former coach. He said, “It’s gonna be probably bittersweet. You know, it is what it is. That’s the name of the game. You know, you move on, and you play, and you coach, you know, different teams. But we’re gonna treat this like it’s a regular game.”
Hear more from Wayne Rooney:
Key Player: Christian Benteke and Taxi Fountas
Christian Benteke continues to be a stalwart attacker for D.C. United. Recently returned from injury, Taxi Fountas will continue to look to develop the partnership with Benteke up top to solidify the Black-and-Red’s attack.
Watch Out For: Victor Wanyama
We would include Romell Quioto and Mason Toye on this list for Montréal. However, they are out with injuries (along with SEVEN other players). Wanyama’s grit makes him one to watch, as he can easily dismantle an opponent’s attack.
Challenges: The Black-and-Red haven’t had much success on the road this season and are in dire need of three confidence-restoring points.
Previously: D.C. United hasn’t won in Montréal since 2019 when the Black-and-Red took three points going 3-0. In 2022, Montréal dominated both meetings, taking all three points at Audi Field and Stade Saputo.
CF Montréal Availability:
Out: George Campbell (ankle), Matko Miljevic (knee), James Pantemis (shoulder), Jojea Kwizera (hamstring), Lassi Lappalainen (left leg), Jules Vilsaint (right leg), Samuel Piette (adductor), Mason Toye (left knee), Romell Quioto (right leg)
D.C. United Availability:
Out: Brendan Hines-Ike (foot), Martín Rodríguez (knee), Nigel Robertha (ankle), Derrick Williams (thigh)
Location: Stade Saputo, Montréal, Quebec
Kickoff time: 7:30 pm ET
Referee: Joe Dickerson
Available streaming: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
Featured images courtesy of D.C. United
Isn’t mason toye out????
That’s what the injury report says: Mason Toye out with left knee.
You are 100% right! Given the nine players out with injury, my eyes glazed right over that one. 🤦🏻♀️
You’re 100%! Along with eight other CF Montréal players 😬
Saw this and thought it was a pretty good breakdown of our team to share here.
https://twitter.com/4nalyseFootball/status/1647122361253068802
Looks like another week of Palsson at RB and Klich at LW. We know Montreal will be going 100000 miles per hour so DC will either need to be composed on the ball or this is going to be a madness game of back and forth counter attacks. Strap in folks! Vamos!
Do you have your popcorn ready, Matt? I do 😉
Looking at the way we’re defending, seems like a kind of 5-1-2-2, in that we’ve got wingbacks, Canouse is looking like a single pivot, Palsson and Klich are pressing higher, and obviously the two DP’s. Structurally not a fan of that setup, the point of two DM’s in a typical 5-3-2 is to cover half spaces. We’ll have more width with wingbacks, I still don’t like the thinking
Jeahze looking hurt, no contact. Interesting if we try to maintain the formation with one of Santos, Najar, or Greene
Santos the sub
Like many, was worried about a motivated Montreal side full of energy and commitment flying at us, my goodness, has that not materialized. This is a pretty sad sack team, from my observation, and one efficient attack should break them. Can we form one?
22nd minute… this is very limp, more-so from Montreal, but damn
Once again, as in the Columbus game, we’re breaking at collapses by the opposing team, but we’re not even clinical when they occur, and that is not a consistent strategy for a team that gets results. I don’t think this team is set up for passing patterns, and I don’t think Rooney could explain what those are within this team, either.
Not what I would have expected from a Losada coached team. Very direct and don’t care much for possession (that much is the same) but much more pragmatic defensively, through 25-30 minutes. MTL has limited Benteke more effectively than any other side this year (credit to them for that I guess). Otherwise, MTL hasn’t been much trouble, but neither has DC. One total shot and none on target sums this game up perfectly. Very drab affair.
Not a lot of understanding between Taxi and Benteke. They seem to know they’re the two up top, and just run around parallel to each other about where you’d see them in a starting lineup sheet.
At least one Montreal player with speed seems to get now that just running at our backline causes problems. Stay tuned.
How does Wanyama get the “big name” treatment but Benteke doesn’t? Just a regular tackle given as a foul.
Disagree, that’s a bad attempted contested shot, so dumb it might as well be called a foul.
It can be a poor decision while also being a clean 50/50 tackle.
If it was a tackle in the slightest, I might agree. The player blocked his path to a shot, and he kicked into him before hitting the ball.
Benteke gets called for a foul for a pretty dire decision to cut inside for a shot over the course of eternity, allowing three players to get in his way, including the one he fouled
Klich misses his shot badly on a good cutback pass from Ruan. Ok, that’s a better counter, we should be consistently creating and executing four or five plays like that a half, converting enough to win. As is, oof.
I cursed. Ruan is going to give you one good cross a game. You can’t afford to waste it when it comes.
Halftime and it’s painfully obvious that both of these teams are at the bottom of the conference. Klich had the best chance of the half and skied it. Even though it’s Montreal, DC looks more comfortable in this 3-5-2. Canouse is able to do his job and O’Brien and Klich can create and facilitate without needing to be on the wings. Speaking of wings, Ruan had some good moments on the right.
Does Paramount+ do replays of games?
The Spirit seem to be playing a much more interesting match, I’d like to see the game if possible
They do usually have games available to watch on-demand shortly after they end. Hopefully they will have the first 40 minutes of today’s game that were not streamed live!
Wait, what? Story to come, I’m sure
Undisclosed technical problems meant Paramount Plus just didn’t stream the first 38 minutes of either NWSL game that started at 7 p.m. last night. Full streams currently not available on their website.
The league should definitely be shopping for a new streaming partnership next season.
Yep, tried to watch the replay, gave up when it was revealed they didn’t even have tape !!! Of the first 38 minutes. How unprofessional
Last ten minutes was much better from DC. Need to pick that up to start the second half. Huge three points here could make up for some of the dropped points at home.
On another note, Julian Gressel ranks 13th on ASA goals added metric (https://app.americansocceranalysis.com/#!/mls/goals-added/players) with 1 G, 4 A and 14 Key Passes in 7 games. Having a better start to the season than any DC United player. Really would have been great if we could have found a way to keep him (especially if we keep playing out of a three back system). Benteke is DC’s best player at 17th in G+ metric (all based on quality hold-up play). Imagine how much better that would be (adding a few more goals to that metric) if we had a player like Gressel providing service to Benteke. A starter quality player on the wings and defensive depth are my keep areas of need for this side.
I was thinking the same thing. Gressel would have thrived on DCU last night. Oh well, I just don’t feel we got replacements for him or Paul Arriola. I do think we improved the roster overall, but it just has such an odd trajectory, or something….
OBRIEN!!! Welcome to DC! 1-0!!
We smash one in very quickly into the net
So route one, it’s almost funny, but a goal was needed
So far, not Klich’s best night in possession. O’Brien is doing a good marshaling job, seems to me, but these two sharing a lineup feels redundant
Well, there’s some confidence and chemistry building. Klich in attack had let Canouse and O’Brien handle the middle, and is playing in the right half space as more of an AM, and that seems to be working better. That said, Montreal are jus that bad, and is not much of a wind test for any team.
We need to be careful here with so many Montreal players pushing up into the attack. I have a feeling we may lose track of a runner at some point. At the same time we need to be able to break quickly, so we need to get some speed on the field.
This is one game I’m sad we can’t sub in Robertha for Benteke late, his pure speed would be beneficial in this scenario. The hold up play isn’t as useful.
Bring Najar in for Palsson at RCB?
And I was right Najar but its for Ruan at RWB.
Ruan coming off for Najar, think we’re going to try to possess a bit
Durkin for Canouse and Klich coming off for KDP.
Durkin coming in for Canouse, TKD coming in for Klich. The latter makes more sense to me than the former.
Taxi keeps just missing. Its really frustrating.
Damn, Taxi so close to a goal off a TKD pass
Weird observation, O’Brien has a very deft chest touch
Two minutes… sure
I’ve never seen a player blow the last thirty seconds of stoppage time more than Lassiter just did
It wasn’t pretty or convincing but it’s an away win! It’s a good start to building momentum. Was looking forward to seeing Jeahze in that LWB role but Santos did well especially in defense. DC is still having trouble playing through teams, but the 3-5-2 played more to the team’s strengths. Kudos to the coaching staff for making needed adjustments.
I’ll probably reiterate this on the recap, this game changes my perception of who Losada is, and probably was, as a coach. Maybe he didn’t instill fight in DC as much as allow them to pump forward with more vigor after Benny’s more stoic play style. This was pathetic, and maybe we would have seen that eventually anyway if he’d had control of DC for longer. Don’t know if he’s lost the Montreal dressing room, but if he hasn’t, I’d hate to see what that looks like on the field
This is not a good MTL team (not right now and maybe not at any point in this season). I really wonder if his time at DC changed his tactics or if he doesn’t think he has the players to apply such consistent high pressure. Looking at the personnel on that DC side in 2021, they really were much better setup to play that high-tempo style of football. Really undercuts the stubbornness/ideological playstyle narrative about Losada too. If only more of that pragmatism was there in 2021 when actually needed and none of the training antics. Tonight this MTL team could have done more with some good pressure on this DC back three. There was almost none of that. Very lethargic performance from MTL and I can’t imagine Losada will last much longer there if this keeps up.
I don’t even know if this was pragmatism from a coaching standpoint, or just players not being properly motivated, but either way, yep, lethargic is about right.
It’s not an excuse for Montreal tonight, but between injuries to Arriola and Flores, Fountas’s mid-season arrival, and Montreal just not really having anybody, Losada’s luck of never really having DPs to play is pretty darn astounding.
All three DMV teams won tonight. DC United 1-0 over Montreal; Washington Spirit 2-1 over NC Courage; and Loudoun United 3-0 over Birmingham!!!
I watched DC’s first half over dinner at Patio Bullrich in downtown Buenos Aires and the second half in our nearby hotel (just in time to see Lewis O’Brien’s goal.)
But current technology was one win, one loss with Paramount+ stream of Spirit match MIA.
I thought it was a dreadful exhibition of soccer, one of the worst games in terms of missed passes from both sides. But 3 points so I’ll shut up now.
Certainly not my favorite match, but those three points? Yep. We’ll take them!
Please call for more must win games! Judiciously, of course.
My main observation from the game is that the referee let play continue, especially for United, after some plays that looked kind of close. I don’t think there was anything egregious that he let go, but a more whistle-happy ref could have made this an even more miserable game. I appreciated him.
I didn’t think about the ref and that’s always good. It’s nice to see a shout out for the refs!