The return to Saputo Stadium did not ultimately change the situation for CF Montreal on Saturday night.
The Montrealers lost again and they were shut out again, but this time by a score of 1-0 at the hands of DC United.
After suffering five shutouts in their five road defeats this season, CF Montreal (1-6-0) had hopes of finding their way back to winning ways at home – as they did a few years ago. a month at the Olympic Stadium – but the attack suffered other failures.
The Bleu-blanc-noir, which ranks last in the Eastern Conference, suffered a third consecutive loss and has not scored in its last 270 minutes. The team hadn’t lost to DC United in their last two outings.
Arriving in Montreal following a trade with Inter Miami CF this week, midfielder Bryce Duke and forward Ariel Lassiter played their first game with their new teammates. Duke was inserted into the starting lineup while Lassiter came on in the second half of the game.
Lewis O’Brien scored the game’s only goal early in the second half and it was enough for DC United (2-4-2) to end a six-game losing streak (0-4-2) .
CF Montreal will return to action on Tuesday night at Stade Saputo, while the Vaughan Azzurri will be playing for the first round of the Canadian Championship.
Disjointed game
CF Montreal took advantage of the energy of the crowd to maneuver well with the ball early in the game, but the two teams quickly fell into disjointed play and regularly stopped.
Statistics fans will not have been pampered either in the first 45 minutes, when there were more yellow cards awarded (four) than shots on target (one). And that shot on target came from the foot of Duke, which gave goalkeeper Tyler Miller no difficulty.
DC United gave the home side a short warning in first-half stoppage time when Mateusz Klich’s shot just went over the crossbar.
The Montrealers were surprised immediately after leaving the locker room and they saw the visitors open the scoring after only about fifteen seconds of play in the second period.
Christian Betenke accepted a long cross and he left the ball to Taxiarchis Fountas, who himself left it to Klich. The latter’s shot hit the post to the left of Jonathan Sirois, but O’Brien jumped on the return to move the ropes.
After conceding a few scoring chances to DC United, the Bleu-blanc-noir made changes to their line-up that created more scoring chances, but they weren’t materialized.
Sunusi Ibrahim knocked on the door, but it was Chinonso Offor who got the better chance. His shot, coming from the edge of the penalty area, however, landed in the 15th row.