Orlando City
Orlando City vs. CF Montreal: Preview, How to Watch, TV Info, Live Stream, Lineups, and More
The Lions look to snap a two-match winless streak when Montreal visits Exploria Stadium.
Welcome to your match thread for a Saturday night matchup between Orlando City and CF Montreal at Exploria Stadium (7:30 p.m., MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+). This is the second and last of the two scheduled meetings set for the 2023 regular season.
Here’s what you need to know ahead of the match.
History
The Lions are 7-9-3 against Montreal in the all-time league series and 8-10-3 in all competitions since the club joined MLS. Orlando is just 3-4-2 at home against Montreal and 4-4-2 in all competitions held in Central Florida.
The teams last met on May 6 at Stade Saputo, with Montreal winning 2-0 and handing Orlando City its first road loss of the 2023 MLS season. A Robin Jansson own goal got Montreal started in the second half and Romell Quioto added a second goal four minutes later.
These sides met in the 2022 MLS playoffs, with CF Montreal knocking Orlando City out of the postseason by a 2-0 scoreline last October, with goals by Ismael Kone and Djordje Mihailovic — the latter coming extremely deep in stoppage time from the penalty spot.
Each team won at home in the two-game, regular-season series in 2022, with tonight’s hosts thumping Orlando 4-1 in Montreal on May 7. Joel Waterman, Mihailovic, Joaquin Torres, and Zachary Brault-Guillard did the damage on the scoreboard and Orlando City managed just two shot attempts, with Joao Moutinho’s goal on a set piece helping the Lions avoid a shutout. Orlando City did not have either starting center back for that match, and it showed. The teams also met on opening day of the 2022 season, when Orlando City captured a 2-0 home win behind second-half goals from Alexandre Pato and Benji Michel.
In 2021, the teams met in Montreal on Decision Day, with the Lions earning a 2-0 road victory at Stade Saputo to clinch a playoff spot. Sebas Mendez and Daryl Dike provided the goals. That season’s match-up at Exploria Stadium came on Oct. 20, 2021, with the visitors managing a 1-1 draw. Chris Mueller struck for the Lions just before halftime, but Rudy Camacho answered on a corner kick header shortly after the restart. The first meeting of 2021 took place Sept. 15 in Orlando with the Lions falling 4-2 and finishing the game with just nine men after both Nani and Andres Perea were sent off. Quioto led Montreal with a goal and two assists. Mathieu Choiniere and Quioto put Montreal up 2-0 but despite already being down one man, Robin Jansson and Ruan tied things up. The visitors got two more from Lassi Lappalainen and Sunusi Ibrahim.
The teams met at Red Bull Arena in late 2020 as the then-Montreal Impact played home games in New Jersey due to the pandemic. Orlando City got a Dike goal in the 39th minute to win 1-0 on Nov. 1, 2020. It was the second meeting of the 2020 season, with Orlando also beating Montreal 1-0 in the MLS is Back Tournament knockout rounds on July 25 to advance to the quarterfinals. Tesho Akindele scored the game’s only goal on a Montreal defensive mistake. Orlando had controlled the game but was struggling to finish. Ultimately, the one goal was enough.
Orlando City snapped a six-game winless streak against Montreal (0-5-1) in MLS regular-season play dating back to 2016 when the Lions put the Impact to the sword in a 3-0 drubbing at Stade Saputo on June 1, 2019. Nani (penalty), Akindele, and Will Johnson supplied the offense that day.
The main reason the Impact had such success against Orlando the preceding few years was the play of its defense and of former talisman Ignacio Piatti. The Lions fell 3-1 at Exploria Stadium back on March 16, 2019, and Piatti was a big reason why, scoring his ninth and 10th career goals against Orlando, adding to a strike by Orji Okwonkwo. Dom Dwyer added a cosmetic goal late for Orlando City to spoil the clean sheet.
Montreal did not allow a goal against the Lions in 2018, sweeping the two-game set from Orlando, and the Impact shut out Orlando City in three of the six meetings in that 5-0-1 run. The lone draw in that time frame was a 3-3 shootout in Orlando in 2017, in which the Impact led deep in stoppage time, only to see Jonathan Spector’s well-placed header steal the Lions a point.
Orlando won the first two meetings in 2016 by a combined score of 6-2. The teams split three meetings in 2015, with each going 1-1-1.
Match Overview
The Lions enter this match on a two-match winless streak after last weekend’s 1-1 home draw against Inter Miami, thanks to Duncan McGuire’s equalizer. Orlando City is 7-3-5 at home and is looking to extend a lengthy home unbeaten run in all competitions that reached 12 games last weekend (7-0-5).
Montreal enters tonight fresh off a 4-1 loss at Atlanta United last Saturday. That was the team’s second straight road loss and dropped CF Montreal to just 2-11-2 away from Stade Saputo on the season. To make matters worse for Montreal, Joel Waterman was sent off with a second yellow card in that game.
The points race in the Eastern Conference is a tight one. The Lions entered the weekend in second, but just a point ahead of the Philadelphia Union and two points ahead of Columbus, Atlanta, and New England. Montreal sits eighth with 37 points, tied with New York City FC, although tonight’s opponents currently hold the tiebreaker. If the playoffs were starting now, that would be the play-in game. Just behind those two teams stands D.C. United on 36 points, with the Chicago Fire and New York Red Bulls lurking just behind, on 34 points each. Montreal will be a desperate team tonight in search of points to climb to a safer position.
Under Hernán Losada, Montreal will look to score on counters and play solid defense. This hasn’t always worked, but the team is capable of such performances. Mathieu Choiniere continues to develop as a player, leading the team in both goals (4) and assists (4) from his midfield position. Striker Chinonso Offor also has four goals and Kwadwo Opoku, an acquisition from LAFC, has scored three goals since arriving midseason from the West Coast. Tonight’s visitors can create chances from the wings, with good fullback overlapping play, so Orlando City’s outside backs will need to be sharp and the wingers will need to track back on defense.
“Montréal is fighting for that spot in the playoffs and is a rival that gave us trouble when we went to Montréal, but we’ve also had good experiences against them here,” Orlando City Head Coach Oscar Pareja said. “We’re trying to efficiently organize the game during the week now that we’ve had a couple of days training.”
The Lions will be without backups Adam Grinwis (thigh) and Favian Loyola (arm), while starting center back Antonio Carlos (lower leg) is still listed as questionable. In addition to Waterman (suspension), Montreal will be without Aaron Herrera (ankle) and Róbert Thorkelsson (adductor), with Jules-Anthony Vilsaint listed as day-to-day with both an ankle injury and an illness.
Match Content
- Our most recent episode of The Mane Land PawedCast features our key match-ups and score predictions for tonight’s game.
- Our David Rohe provided his three keys to victory to an Orlando City victory over Montreal.
Official Lineups:
Orlando City (4-2-3-1)
Goalkeeper: Pedro Gallese.
Defenders: Rafael Santos, Robin Jansson, Rodrigo Schlegel, Dagur Dan Thorhallsson.
Defensive Midfielders: Cesar Araujo, Wilder Cartagena.
Attacking Midfielders: Ivan Angulo, Mauricio Pereyra, Facundo Torres.
Forward: Duncan McGuire.
Bench: Mason Stajduhar, Michael Halliday, Luca Petrasso, Kyle Smith, Felipe, Junior Urso, Gaston Gonzalez, Martin Ojeda, Ramiro Enrique.
CF Montreal (3-4-3)
Goalkeeper: Jonathan Sirois.
Defenders: Gabriele Corbo, Fernando Alvarez, George Campbell.
Midfielders: Mathieu Choiniere, Nathan Saliba, Samuel Piette, Zachary Brault-Guillard.
Forwards: Bryce Duke, Romell Quioto, Ahmed Hamdi.
Bench: James Pantemis, Victor Wanyama, Ousman Jabang, Kwadwo Opoku, Ariel Lassiter, Jojea Kwizera, Sunusi Ibrahim, Mason Toye, Chinonso Offor.
Referees:
REF: Sergii Boiko.
AR1: Corey Parker.
AR2: Eduardo Jeff.
4TH: Guido Gonzales Jr.
VAR: Michael Radchuk.
AVAR: Craig Lowry.
How to Watch
Match Time: 7:30 p.m.
Venue: Exploria Stadium — Orlando.
TV/Live Stream: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV+.
Radio: Real Radio 104.1 FM (English), Acción 97.9 FM and 810 AM (Spanish).
Twitter: For rapid reaction and live updates, follow along at @TheManeLand, as well as Orlando City’s official Twitter feed (@OrlandoCitySC).
Enjoy the match. Go City!