Toronto 1 Montreal 1 | Cruel end for CF Montreal in Toronto

CF Montreal led 1-0 late in the game, on track to collect three precious points in the standings in the race for the playoffs. But Toronto FC, as good enemies, crushed all their efforts by leveling with a free kick in the very last seconds of the match.






Katherine Harvey-Pinard

Katherine Harvey-Pinard
Press

The Toronto team, which languishes at the bottom of the standings and no longer has a chance to advance to the playoffs, had only one goal, Saturday night at BMO Field: to put sticks in the wheels of CF Montreal, always in quest for a place in the playoffs. And he succeeded.

Wilfried Nancy’s men will probably have nightmares about it. Jozy Altidore’s free kick in the 95e minute, which slipped into the bottom of the net to the left of James Pantemis, will have made them slip from the 5e to 8e tidy in just a few seconds. They are therefore excluded from the playoffs for the moment, with three games to play in the season.

The disappointment was strong in the press conference after the match. Quebec goalkeeper James Pantemis, who had been flamboyant throughout the match by blocking nine shots on target, appeared at the microphone with a completely crestfallen face.

“It looks more like a loss than a draw,” he hinted. Those were three points we needed, and we had them until the end. ”


PHOTO DAN HAMILTON, USA TODAY SPORTS

Zachary Brault-Guillard and Richie Laryea (right)

“We gave a lot offensively, defensively, in the middle,” Zachary Brault-Guillard said. We were just unlucky. In the end, it’s football. ”

Two-part match

It must be said that Toronto FC have not played at all like a team that has been defeated 17 times this season. And then, we already knew that he would not give a present to CF Montreal, even if he had nothing to lose. Several pillars of the team had even been left out by coach Javier Pérez during the previous match, in order to be well prepared for that of Saturday.

CF Montreal found themselves bottled up in their own half for the first 25 minutes, unable to find a dent in the Toronto defense.

The locals, meanwhile, reached the Montreal net several times in the first half, notably thanks to 21-year-old forward Jacob Shaffelburg, who was frustrated by James Pantemis twice. Possession was even on both sides after a scoreless first half, but the Torontonians had three shots on target, compared to zero for the Montrealers.

The latter however came back in force for the second half. Sunusi Ibrahim, alone in front of Quentin Westberg’s goal at 55e minute, came out the head to score the first goal of the meeting, his fourth of the season.


PHOTO KEVIN SOUSA, USA TODAY SPORTS

Celebration of Sunusi Ibrahim’s goal in the second half

That’s when both teams seemed to take their game up a notch and spirits started to heat up in the cold fall. Toronto FC’s leading scorer this season, Jonathan Osorio, has appeared to be off the hook a few times.

“We started the first half badly, we lost some easy balls,” said coach Wilfried Nancy. After we recovered, it was better in the second half. We had a little more control, we were able, like our goal, to do interesting things and to control the game a little more. We knew that if we kept the ball a little more, they wouldn’t. ‘weren’t going to defend for a long time. ”

At the end of the game, CF Montreal missed several opportunities to drive the last nail into the coffin of their opponents by scoring a second goal. At the 76e minute, Joaquín Torres gave a nice pass to Djordje Mihailovic in the middle of the penalty area. The latter’s strike, however, ended its way next to the goal. Then, at the 90e, Bjørn Johnsen got a golden chance, alone in front of Westberg, but the ball flew over the net.

We had opportunities to score the second goal, but we did not put it.

Wilfried Nancy, CF Montreal head coach

Tenacious Toronto FC threatened again and again. CF Montreal hung on until Altidore, already insisting on the attack since entering the match at the 66e minute, do not come to destroy all his efforts and take away two precious points in the standings.

” I believe that [mon positionnement] was okay, ”Pantemis said of the heartbreaking goal. “Unfortunately, the first guy on the wall turned, the ball went through. Maybe I could have stepped a little further to the left. In the end, if it doesn’t spin, there is no goal. We can speak of a meter or two, but what happened has happened. ”

“I was satisfied with this game because it was a difficult game to play compared to the context. Before the last 10 seconds, we did what we had to, ”Wilfried Nancy assured him, noting that several players in the team were having their first experience in a 401 Derby.

“The standings don’t interest me in relation to where Toronto is,” he said. We wanted to win this match, we were close to winning it, but we couldn’t do it until the end, so [c’est une] big disappointment for everyone. ”

Last sprint

New York City FC took the 5e rank at the end of the night under a 6-0 win over DC United. The latter is now found in 9e place, behind CF Montreal. The New York Red Bulls and Atlanta United are respectively in 6th.e and 7e place with as many points as Montreal (43), but with a game in hand.

Wilfried Nancy’s squad will have to get back on their feet on Wednesday, when they face Hamilton Forge FC at Tim Hortons Field in the semi-finals of the Canadian Championship. Note that this clash will not affect the ranking.

She will then travel to New York to face the Red Bulls next Saturday, before returning home to Saputo Stadium for the last two games of the season.


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