We were ready to talk about a stolen draw in Washington. We must finally report a logical 1-0 defeat for CF Montreal at DC United.
Because the CFM suffered, resisted, bent… until it broke at the end of the meeting. At the 85e minute, Pedro Santos gave the locals the lead with a nice shot from distance. A goal which confirmed the ascendancy of a DCU with intense pressing, but lacking fuel at the end of the match.
Despite some interesting ups and downs, Montreal struggled to settle its game on Saturday evening. And yet, Laurent Courtois had the luxury of deploying for the first time the trio composed of Dominic Iankov, Josef Martínez and Matías Cóccaro, all starters in attack. In theory, this is the ideal offensive trident for the CFM. In practice, it quickly became apparent that these three players had not yet found their synchronicity.
PHOTO NATHAN HOWARD, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ruan tries to escape from Connor Antley
What’s more, their offensive assignment allowed DC United to overwhelm the midfield and the Montreal zone in the first half. How complicated it was for the Bleu-blanc-noir. Christian Benteke, as usual, was a constant threat in the air and in the box.
But Jonathan Sirois was brilliant, assisted in particular by the young defender Fernando Álvarez to hold the fort on the ramparts. The visitors escaped this first half with a hard-earned 0-0 tie.
Obviously, with so much energy spent at the start, DC United had heavy legs in the second. Which allowed Montreal to assert itself a little more.
Eventually, we even saw the potential of the Iankov-Martínez-Cóccaro combination. A sequence which ended with a shot from the Venezuelan sniper blocked by goalkeeper Alex Bono in the 61stethe best chance for either side in the second half so far.
This opportunity gave some desire to Montreal, which even made it believe that there was a move to play in this match which we saw almost inaccessible after the first 45 minutes.
Until Petro Santos was stabbed. We said it: a logical goal for a victory that makes sense.
So here is Montreal falling back to earth with two consecutive defeats after five games on the road.
RISING
Jonathan Sirois
If not for a few of his parades, the suspense would have been a lot less thrilling in this encounter. After his half-blunder, combined with the crazy wind, which cost Chicago the game two weeks ago, his four-save performance was reassuring on Saturday night.
FALLING
Josef Martinez
We felt him angry and not very engaged in the attack. It must be said that the pace of the match did not help him stand out: his teammates never managed to offer him the service he wanted. Nevertheless, we saw him walk when he could have run, stay up top when he could have contributed to the defensive effort. Despite everything, he got a great opportunity to score, and we could have forgiven him everything. Frustrating match for Martínez.