Toronto FC 5 – CF Montreal 1 | The shallows

At least CF Montreal can console themselves: it’s difficult to dig a grave deeper than that.

The Bleu-Blanc-noir suffered a complete humiliation against its great rival Toronto FC on Saturday evening, losing 5-1 in the Queen City. Federico Bernardeschi scored three of the five goals for this Ontario “manita”.

For Montreal, this thaw in the Canadian Classic constitutes a fourth consecutive defeat. It thus becomes the most recent misstep in a streak of just one victory in 10 games.

Of course, the many absences from the Montreal camp have something to do with it. No less than eight players from his squad are on the injured list, including essential Matías Cóccaro, Josef Martínez and Raheem Edwards.

But if Laurent Courtois and Samuel Piette recently reported a “lack of commitment” and grinta among Montrealers, it is not in Toronto that the situation has been corrected. Far from there.

The defense was extremely porous on the first goal of the match, scored by Matty Longstaff at the goal from the 6^e minute. She was a spectator – we all were, let’s admit it – on Bernardeschi’s great success in receiving a gem of a pass from Deybi Flores in the 12th^e.

Then, she covered herself with ridicule on the 3-0 net, made real by Prince Owusu. Faced with four Toronto defenders pressing high into the Montreal area, the CFM tried to play a short game. And he completely missed his release. A moment of panic later, and the match was over.

At the 19^e minute.

In a derby.

A transformed TFC

And Montreal was not even at the end of its troubles at that time.

Returning from the locker room, after the entries of Dominic Iankov and Joaquín Sosa replacing Bryce Duke and Fernando Álvarez, the visitors began to show more energy.

But fate did not want to be averted. Piette was unable to take a shot in the box after a free kick in the 55th^e, bothered by Longstaff’s foot. A missed golden chance which was added to the numerous failures of Jules-Anthony Vilsaint in similar situations on Saturday.

Just when Montreal regained a modicum of confidence, Bernardeschi made it deflate. From distance again, his left-footed pass shot found its way into the net of a Sirois who did not look good.

The Italian designated player completed his hat trick just two minutes later, making sure to count his goals on his fingers in celebration.

This shows the transformation made by John Herdman at TFC since his arrival. The Toronto team and its stars Bernardeschi and Lorenzo Insigne seemed to be in distress last year. Here they are, all smiles and in a very good position in the rankings.

Montreal is heading in the opposite direction, despite a promising start to the season. The team led by Laurent Courtois is failing, with 31 goals conceded in 13 games, the worst total in the East.

Sunusi Ibrahim tried to find a very slight source of comfort by getting his club on the mark in the 67th^e. He took advantage of a great breakthrough from George Campbell to get in front of the goalkeeper alone and make it 5-1.

But it was so little, much too late. CF Montreal is in the depths, and will need reinforcements, as quickly as possible, so as not to drown there.