CF Montreal regularly knocked on the door against New York City FC, but they had to settle for a 0-0 draw on Saturday night in front of a full house at Stade Saputo.
This duel featured two of the top four teams in the Eastern Conference and the pace set by the home team gave the defending MLS champions headaches.
CF Montreal (11-8-3) took advantage of that point to edge the third-place New York Red Bulls in the East with 36 points. New York City FC (12-4-6) remained second with 42 points.
The Montreal outfit have gone undefeated in their last three outings, but they haven’t beaten New York City FC in their last three encounters.
The New York team has not been defeated in its last seven games (4-0-3) and since entering MLS, it has never suffered a loss at Stade Saputo (4-0-2). CF Montreal won against New York City FC in 2021, but the game was played in Harrison, New Jersey.
New York City FC were deprived of the services of MLS top scorer Valentin Castellanos, who will now play for Girona FC in the Spanish Premier League on loan. Castellanos had scored 13 goals in 17 games this season.
CF Montreal will play its next game on Wednesday against the Crew in Columbus.
After watching a touching video of former player and assistant coach Jason Di Tullio, who died of cancer earlier this week, Wilfried Nancy’s men got down to business and put New York City FC on their toes. heels for the majority of the game.
The first real opportunity to score belonged to CF Montreal, following a cross from Samuel Piette. Djordje Mihailovic could not touch the ball with his head and Kamal Miller was imprecise with his left foot.
The Montrealers continued to storm the territory of the defending MLS champions, but failed to find the back of the net. After accepting a pass from Mihailovic, Lassi Lappalainen fired a shot that hit Mason Toye but missed to the left of Sean Johnson.
Johnson had to signal in the 42nd minute to maintain the tie at 0-0. Mihailovic had his first shot blocked by a New York City FC player, but his second hit the keeper’s leg before going out of bounds.
In the 55th minute, the Blue-blanc-noir had a golden opportunity to open the scoring, but opportunism was lacking. Miller played superb defensive play and launched Romell Quioto running down the left flank. Quioto passed the other side to Toye, who, despite the opening, sent the ball over the net.
CF Montreal continued to buzz in the second half, making several inroads into the enemy penalty area, but scoring opportunities went unfulfilled.