Ariel Lassiter and Sunusi Ibrahim put on a show and CF Montreal defeated DC United by a score of 4-2 on Wednesday evening at Saputo stadium.
Lassiter scored his first goal since April 20 and showed creativity to add two assists. Ibrahim, who came into the match after an injury to Jules-Anthony Vilsaint, found the back of the net on two occasions.
Following a more intense performance in a 0-0 draw against Nashville SC on Saturday, the Bleu-blanc-noir once again showed commitment to sign a first victory since April 13.
Mathieu Choinière also moved the ropes for CF Montreal (4-7-4), which ended a streak of nine games without a victory, in all competitions (0-5-4).
Christian Benteke scored both goals for DC United (4-6-6) to join Cristian Arango at the top of the MLS in this regard (13). However, his team has not won in its last four outings (0-3-1).
Nathan Saliba (hamstring) and Raheem Edwards (abdomen) returned to play after missing a few games. Edwards had not played in MLS since May 4 while Saliba had been missing since April 6.
CF Montreal will return to action on Saturday evening, when it visits the Philadelphia Union to complete a series of nine games in 29 days.
The attack is illustrated
The Bleu-blanc-noir could not ask for better help to score the first goal of the match, in the sixth minute of play. Defender Matti Peltola made a juicy turnaround for the benefit of Vilsaint, who put the ball back to his left towards Lassiter. The pass was a little in front of the Costa Rican, but he accelerated well before beating goalkeeper Alex Bono between the legs.
Montreal got two great chances to score less than 10 minutes later. Joaquin Sosa made a good run down the left flank, but his shot was blocked in the penalty area by Steven Birnbaum’s slide. Then, during a counterattack with too many numbers, the game closed in front of Choinière and Bryce Duke, and the attack aborted. In the sequence, Vilsaint appeared to injure his hamstring and he had to leave the game.
The visitors created the tie in a rather bizarre way, in the 29the minute. Benteke pushed Samuel Piette against Gabriele Corbo and the Italian remained on the ground. Meanwhile, the ball returned to the foot of Benteke, who lobbed it over Jonathan Sirois.
CF Montreal, however, put their work boots back on and struck twice in the space of four minutes.
The first of these two goals came from Ruan, who curled a cross past Lucas Bartlett and onto Ibrahim’s head. The Nigerian adjusted his jump well to skillfully redirect the ball into the top corner. At the 38e minute, during a free kick, Lassiter pretended to shoot and left the ball behind him to Choinière, who hit the mark with a nice low shot.
However, the Washington team had not said its last word. Cristian Dajome was frustrated in front of the net by Corbo’s block, but moments later Benteke broke away from the defender and he redirected Jacob Stroud’s cross past Sirois.
CF Montreal had the door opened when Peltola received a red card before the end of the first half. Despite the extra space, Laurent Courtois’ men were methodical in their approach during the first 15 minutes of the second half.
After two missed opportunities by Lassiter and Ibrahim, Theodore Ku-Dipietro had the tie at the end of the foot, in the 71ste minute, but Joel Waterman intervened.
A few moments later, Ibrahim drove the last nail by completing Lassiter’s beautiful staging.