DC United vs. CF Montréal: Preview, time, and how to watch
DC United has one more match before the league pauses for the 2026 World Cup, and it’s tonight at home against CF Montréal. The Black-and-Red hope to close out on a high before the 7-week pause in league action.
“Well, we feel well overall. I’m pretty satisfied with the way how we have been improving so far,” head coach René Weiler said during media availability this week. “Now we are trying to make sure that we can decide close and tight games in our favor.”
DC United are coming off a 1-1 draw last weekend against St. Louis City and currently sit in 8th place in the Eastern Conference standings. Montreal lost last weekend at home to the Chicago Fire, who also beat United last week. The Black-and-Red could move up as high as fifth in the conference table with a win.
With the break coming up, the natural inclination for fans is for a coach to play everyone to the max knowing that a long layoff is coming. However, with the list of recently injured players, Weiler knows he can’t think that way. “Now we have not a lot of injured players. Then we have this long break. So I don’t like to push more,” Weiler said. “The players, they know that will be the last game for a long time. So I think we will be ready and we will go to our boundaries for the last time.”
Before the team breaks for the World Cup (Weiler said he would get a chance to go see family and friends in Switzerland before coming back to watch his team play in the tourament), there’s still the focus on beating Montreal. Defender Silvan Hefti said that they are confident but recognizes the quality of Montreal’s players. “I will not go too much into the details, but they are a good team. We know this, but we are very confident to make a good game at home,” Hefti said. “First of all, we try to develop our performance also from the last game, being even stronger in the defensive mode and trying to be clear in the offense moments. So this is what we try to improve. And I’m very positive about Saturday.”
The air of positivity currently surrounding the team will give way tonight to the pressure to produce goals and get the win before some time off after a very busy start to the season.
DC United vs. CF Montréal
Location: Audi Field
Kickoff time: 7:30pm ET
Available streaming: Apple TV
Great work by Donald as always, it is appreciated!
Lineup:
Johnson; Hefti, Bartlett, Rowles, Kurokawa; Stroud, Peltola, Servania, Peglow; Louis, Baribo
Hopkins on the bench, Herrera and Pirani still in exile
Will be interested to see if Servania is able to play a bit better and lock in to his role, cuz Andre Dozzell will have arrived and could have about a week of training under his belt under contract before our next fixture
lol, guess he’s engaged
Apple has DC at a 45% win probability. Generally dubious number, but that’s gotta be the highest win percentage we’ve had in a long while
I think it’s been north of 50% recently, forget which one, but it was one we did in fact win, and Baribo was injured for it.
Looking back through the fixtures, I believe I’m remembering the Orlando home win
I normally ignore that gamified projection as irrelevant, but it was so eyebrow raising in its optimism for us, and Baribo wasn’t available
Forgot about that, good catch
It just stuck in my memory, nothing particularly virtuous about the recall. It’s a weird inclusion to broadcasts, IMO, unless you view the broadcast as an extension of the betting market
88% now.
Goal! LOUIS! After one hell of a shot from servania on a free kick
Servania gets one of those bombs on frame, goalie only able to bat it down into Louis’ path
Being reviewed endlessly.
If they’re going to take this long, I’d rather the ref just head over for discussion
And it stands
Chico Stand is loud tonight.
I’d be pretty vocal if I was in the stadium, too
Been a while since we grabbed the game state and guarded it this fiercely
Hell of a shross from Stroud makes the goalie make a save, and then he follows it up with a goal following the corner!
I was just chortling at the commentator saying Stroud “does what he does, goes directly to goal.” This for a deflected cross, and that’s a nonsense statement for most of Stroud’s DC tenure
Then he goes and does exactly that, and I’ve officially entered the twilight zone
Don’t know if I’m ever gonna get a chance to use this term again, but I’m dubbing this bizarro version of “commentator’s curse” “ignorance’s blessing”
Ok, DC needs to keep their collective feet in the gas. Do not let up and cede momentum going into the break.
Some thoughts should probably stay unvoiced……
You told them to do good, and they didn’t. Absolve yourself, this doesn’t counts as a jinx.
BIG mistake from Bartlett gives the ball to Montreal, who beats Johnson on the 1-on-1
The main downside to being built on discipline as opposed to the ability to go through the gears is one unexpected error puts you back more than it normally would.
Mercifully had the two goal advantage prior, but gotta lock in now
Bad distribution flub by Bartlett. 2-1
I do believe that CBs should try to play it on the ground with composure in most circumstances, but in our setup, it would be much more preferable to clear it to the Potomac when pressured.
We’re designed to fall back and slug at an opportunity, not go through the gears.
Baribo scores on the penalty! 3-1
I do feel it’s wise to have at least one British chud in the booth to say that shoves in the back build character, and that my son, I mean, that professional player should take it on the chin.
Anyway, he’s an idiot, it’s a penalty, and Baribo converts
3-1
And it’s 3-2. Why must all of our games be close
Because we are DC and we’ve sucked for so long.
Think it’s just as simple as Montreal have allowed us to push them back into their end pretty easily, and Bartlett is having a real tough time playing the vigilant distribution game that keeps that going. He’s used to midblock emergency defending and enforcement.
Maybe he can up his composure if he finds himself in this sort of game a bit more often, but he’s a fish out of water right now
Well…that open header was wide, but now Bartlett gets beat again and its 3-2.
Geez, we get torched.
3-2, and it’s another shootout when it should have been one we could put a blanket on
Bartlett is certainly having a game
Not saying he did great, but there was 0 reason for that ball to be played there past him and deep, think that was Hopkins who just came on.
Very bad.
Was that Hopkins putting Bartlett in that dilemma?
Var checking for a handball on Bartlett
Handball penalty on Bartlett…Bartlett has been responsible on all of Montréal’s goals….though all of the Impact are offside…
We survive, but this game needs to be wrangled, get some discipline back.
We don’t need to get another goal or trap them in their end with a lot of space in behind, play forward into spaces and do some keep away recycling till brains reset
Did we forget what counts as a smart pass? Goodness
And of course Bartlett scores
IT’S IN THE NET! IT’S IN THE NET!…I miss Dave Johnson calling DCU games. Bartlett makes it 4-2.
Y’know — if you put on iHeart you can hear Dave Johnson call the game. I hear him at the stadium
Bartlett restores a two goal lead
He’s gonna fry some statistician’s brain with tonight’s data set
10 mins if stoppage…an eternity.
And Kurokawa…gives up a handball pk…
Kurokawa goes to ground with his arms attached, and this game should have a cardiac advisory
Well crap…4-4
4-4
It’s not over.
We can still win the full collapse.
Kijima sighting!
Come on, Kijima, let’s do something absurd
Well, we didn’t lose
DCU coaching staff: Let’s review the tape….
Sam Neil in full Jurassic Park outfit: Don’t.
We score 4 goals, each one puts us in the lead, and we end up not winning. Ugh!
Both teams really wanted this one, a point gives neither of them bupkis
Really disappointing home stretch. Hopefully they start stronger out of the break.
It would likely mean that incorporating Andre Dozzell next to Peltola starts paying immediate dividends, and one of Clark, Turner, or Kijima getting a Cinderella transformation for our attack.
We’ll see.
I had quite a chuckle as I was heading to the Men’s room after the game, and they announced Lucas Bartlett as the Man of the Match, or Player of the Game or something. I mean, I suppose that’s accurate from a DCU perspective, but not in a great way.
DCU were totally overwhelmed by just the one guy. I’d love to have a player like Owusu. I don’t think even Benteke was that dominant.