CF Montreal thought they had done enough to get three points, but obviously they will still have to work on their finishing touches.
The Bleu-blanc-noir let a lead slip away in stoppage time in the second half and settled for a 2-2 draw against Orlando City SC on Saturday evening at Saputo Stadium.
It was not the offensive thrusts that were lacking for the Montrealers in the second half, but rather the finishing. When Ariel Lassiter hit the target in the 88th minute, we felt that the efforts had paid off. The celebrations, however, were short-lived.
A few minutes later, Ivan Angulo was forgotten at the far post and Martin Ojeda served him a beautiful pass which only required a small deflection of the foot into an empty net.
Suddenly, some memories of the games in Chicago and Washington resurfaced. Matches during which Laurent Courtois’ men conceded one or more late goals which cost points in the standings.
Still at the beginning of his process, the head coach sees this result as another opportunity to learn for the future.
“We thought we had done the hardest part, but maybe that’s another lesson for me,” Courtois said after the game. “When we manage to do the hardest part against a team like that, it’s knowing what we can do something different on a mental level so as not to let this opportunity pass. It hurts for the guys. They deserved the victory, but perhaps it’s a lesson in humility for me to better prepare them for this scenario.”
For a few minutes, the story of the match was called Mason Toye.
In his first start of the season, Toye scored his first goal of the campaign to seize the opportunity presented to him. In the space of four days, the Montreal squad lost the services of its two best attackers, Matias Coccaro and Josef Martinez, who suffered an injury.
Courtois often asks his players to work hard during training to be ready for games. Toye seemed to get the message and he was rewarded with playing time, but especially a goal in the 16th minute.
“It all starts from training. Laurent watches our sessions and the little details a lot. He makes sure that you take every part of the training very seriously. We all adopted this mentality and it raised everyone’s level of play. It gave me this opportunity and I was able to grab it with both hands,” insisted the 25-year-old striker.
CF Montreal (3-3-2) did not play a perfect match, but its few errors and moments of hesitation eventually cost them dearly.
Orlando City SC (2-3-3) tied the game just six minutes after Toye’s goal, courtesy of a FacundoTorres penalty, and then dominated the rest of the first half.
The home team then made adjustments in the second half and did not let their opponents regularly approach Jonathan Sirois’ net. Except in stoppage time.
“Orlando had a little more possession, but they didn’t create much. We were more aggressive in the second half and we imposed our game a little more. At 1-1 at halftime, we had plenty of time to score another. We are disappointed. You score that second goal, you tell yourself that we will be fine if we continue what we have been doing, but ultimately, we concede a goal on which there was no real danger,” analyzed the midfielder SamuelPiette.
The two teams crossed swords at the Inter&Co Stadium during the first match of the season. This clash ended in a 0-0 draw.
CF Montreal will return to action next Saturday, when they visit the Columbus Crew, the reigning MLS Cup champions.
Wild end to the match
As Courtois expected, the two teams played a game of chess in the first quarter of an hour of play. However, it was the Montrealers who struck first.
After accepting a handoff from Lassiter, Piette made a precise pass toward Toye. The latter avoided offside and took down goalkeeper Pedro Gallese before placing the ball in the top corner.
The visitors, however, kept their concentration to create equality.
A turnaround from Sirois brought the ball close to the penalty area, where the Quebecer cut down Luis Muriel. Referee Jon Freemon awarded a penalty, which Torres converted into the top of the net to his left.
The Orlando troop was then more insistent in enemy territory. She applied a little more pressure and gave a few gray hairs to the Montreal defense, which held on.
Besides a strike from George Campbell which passed a few feet from the horizontal bar, in the 29th minute, the Bleu-blanc-noir proved to be short of ideas in attack.
However, he started the second half with a little more confidence. Following a run down the left flank, Lassiter fired a good low shot that required Gallese to make a left-arm save. The return was then cleared by the Florida defense.
In the last minutes of regular time, Dominic Iankov, who was returning to the game, launched Sunusi Ibrahim in a race on the left. His shot was blocked by Gallese, but Lassiter only had to push the return into an empty net.
Fans breathed a sigh of relief moments later when Duncan McGuire’s shot skimmed the far post. The sky fell on their heads in stoppage time, however, when Angulo leveled the score after hiding behind Raheem Edwards.