Violent thunderstorms forced a temporary stoppage of the match between CF Montreal and Hamilton Forge at Saputo Stadium on Wednesday evening. Montreal trails 2-0 at halftime, and 3-1 in total goals in this home-and-away series in the quarterfinals of the Canadian Championship.
This storm adds to an already very strange evening for the CFM. Completely out of his X on the field, he was also playing this match against the Canadian Premier League rival without his two main groups of supporters.
This is because the IMFC Collective and the 1642 MTL remained silent during the first half of the meeting, thus showing their dissatisfaction with recent results as well as the lack of commitment and “grinta” demonstrated by the team.
The other sections were also very sparsely filled. Which gave rise to an uncomfortable mix of silence, cries of seagulls, and some fans trying to liven up the crowd as best they could. And, above all, boos towards the Montreal players.
But what will it take to give a little will to these blue-white-black color bearers, a defect that they have been openly trying to correct for a month? The first 45 minutes of this quarter-final second leg were probably the worst the CFM has played in recent memory. Nothing worked. And between the few Montreal pushes decorated with failures, the Forge played the game.
Daniel Parra took a nice shot in the 14the minute that Sebastian Breza was unable to block. 1-0 Forge. The negative clamor emanating from the stands only intensified.
And 10 minutes later, Hamilton took advantage of Montreal’s big defensive gaps again. Kwasi Poki doubled the Hammers’ lead, and it was completely deserved. Le Forge showed up in Montreal with the dog, and with that desire which was sorely lacking among Courtois’ men in recent weeks.
This second goal forces the CFM to score three to hope to advance to the semi-final. The Canadian Championship, remember, has often been named as a main objective by the organization since the start of the season. Just like participation in the MLS series. Two targets about to be missed.
At the time of publication, lightning was still thundering above Saputo stadium. A resumption of the game is therefore, we assume, still far from happening.