CF Montreal can stretch their MLS unbeaten run to five matches when they host the New York Red Bulls on Wednesday at Saputo Stadium.
Last Saturday, the Canadians played to a 0-0 draw with Real Salt Lake, with New York claiming that same result at home versus Nashville SC.
Match preview
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Midway through the 2024 domestic campaign, Montreal still find themselves on the outside of the Eastern Conference playoff picture but have slowly chipped away at that deficit.
Coming into this midweek affair, Laurent Courtois's men are two points below that playoff line, with a game in hand on the two teams directly above them in the table, the Chicago Fire and DC United.
Since suffering a 3-1 home defeat versus the Columbus Crew last month, Le CFM have points in three successive domestic fixtures at Saputo Stadium.
On two of those occasions, they managed to keep their opponents off the scoresheet throughout the 90 minutes, a significant improvement after giving up three goals in each of their first two league contests played in Montreal in May.
If they manage to claim a win or draw on Wednesday, they will surpass their longest unbeaten run from the previous domestic campaign (four matches).
Montreal have won seven of their last eight home meetings against the Red Bulls in the regular season or playoffs, keeping a clean sheet in six of those instances.
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Despite having the bulk of the chances and registering seven shots on target, the Red Bulls finishing once again let them down this past weekend.
It was the second successive time in MLS that this team had failed to find the back of the net in this competition, though they still managed to avoid successive league defeats for the first time all season.
Sandro Schwarz has them up to third in the Eastern Conference standings with 30 points, accumulating eight victories already this season, just three fewer than their 2023 regular-season total.
However, the Red Bulls have lost their previous two away matches in this competition, and all four of their domestic defeats over this campaign occurred outside Red Bull Arena.
During the 2024 campaign, they have only lost one domestic encounter when scoring first (6-2 versus Inter Miami), while coming back to win two away matches when conceding the opener.
While they have only won two away matches versus Montreal in this competition, New York have defeated Le CFM in two of their previous three regular-season meetings.
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Team News
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Raheem Edwards missed the previous Montreal encounter with a knock, Jules-Anthony Vilsaint did not feature due to a hamstring strain, Ousman Jabang is still dealing with an adductor issue and Josef Martinez was unavailable because of a knee injury.
Matias Coccaro returned to the field for the first time since sustaining a serious leg injury, while Kwadwo Opoku was back on the field after previously suffering a long-term issue himself.
Mathieu Choiniere, Joel Waterman and Samuel Piette will be with the Canadian national team for the Copa America which begins this week, while Ariel Lassiter has joined the Costa Rican squad for that tournament.
New York were without Ronald Donkor over the weekend because of a back issue, Roald Mitchell and Serge Ngoma are still dealing with knee problems, while Peter Stroud continues to recover from ankle surgery.
Carlos Coronel will not be available after being called up to the Paraguay squad for the Copa America, while leading goalscorer Lewis Morgan is with the Scottish national team at the Euro in Germany and Emil Forsberg did not return on time from his call-up to the Swedish national team this past weekend.
Red Bulls reserve keeper Ryan Meara did not have to make a single stop against Nashville to collect his first clean sheet of the 2024 MLS campaign.
CF Montreal possible starting lineup:
Sirois; Campbell, Corbo, Alvarez; Ruan, Saliba, Wanyama, Lappalainen; Duke, Yankov; Coccaro
New York Red Bulls possible starting lineup:
Meara; D. Nealis, S. Nealis, Eile, Tolkin; Harper, Amaya, Edelman, Forsberg; Vanzeir, Manoel
We say: CF Montreal 0-1 New York Red Bulls
The Red Bulls have been able to move on quickly after a disappointing result, and we believe they will be able to transition effectively against a Montreal side missing some key defensive midfielders.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joel Lefevre
