New England Revolution's Carles Gil, right, breaks away from CF Montreal's Nathan Saliba (19) during second half MLS soccer action in Montreal, Saturday, August 24, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes
MONTREAL – CF Montreal wants to avoid a little déjà vu on Saturday.
As the Major League Soccer playoff race heats up, Montreal (8-12-10) is riding a three-game unbeaten run and is favoured to win when the last-place San Jose Earthquakes visit Saputo Stadium.
But Laurent Courtois’s men were also expected to prevail a month ago when they hosted the New England Revolution, the Eastern Conference bottom-dwellers, in a demoralizing 5-0 loss.
The head coach hopes his squad has learned from that experience.
“Paradoxically, it’s against scenarios like this that we haven’t been good this year, even though we’ve managed to perform against very important teams in the league,” Courtois said Friday from CF Montreal’s training facility. “We’ll really focus on that point, remind ourselves of what’s important and say watch out, there’s a lot of quality in this team and they have nothing to lose.
“It’s very dangerous.”
In a season of ups and downs, Montreal is 10th in the Eastern Conference with 34 points, two behind the playoff line with four games remaining in the regular season.
Toronto FC (36 points) occupy eighth place but have played one more game than Montreal, while Philadelphia Union (36 points) hold the final wild-card berth in ninth.
Atlanta United FC, Nashville SC and D.C. United are nipping at Montreal’s heels with 33 points each.
A 4-1 road loss to Cincinnati FC on Aug. 31 followed the 5-0 defeat to New England, but Montreal has since triumphed in two convincing home wins and a comeback draw on the road from Sept. 14-21 to jump back into the post-season picture.
“Being able to bounce back like the guys did after the setbacks we’ve faced is very strong,” Courtois said. “Sometimes we do surprising and disappointing things, even though it’s all within our reach, and sometimes they really impress me with their resilience, quality and competitive spirit.
“We alternate between the two a bit, but we hope to keep this run of form going.”
Tom Pearce, an English left back who joined Montreal from Wigan Athletic in July, said team discussions after those losses sparked the turnaround.
“We got together as a group and staff and just had an honest conversation, like we need to turn things around, we need to get the confidence back, start enjoying football again,” he said. “Since that I think we’ve done well in the games, and training has been better and confidence is higher.
“We just got from the staff that belief that, keep up playing our way and we keep doing well, then fingers crossed we make the playoffs.”
San Jose (5-22-3) is by far the bottom team in the league with 18 points, 10 below second-worst New England. The Earthquakes enter Saturday’s match without a victory in their last four outings (0-3-1)
A win is especially crucial considering Montreal’s upcoming schedule. After Saturday, the team plays at Atlanta on Wednesday and at Charlotte FC – who rank sixth in the East – next Saturday.
The regular season ends on Oct. 19 at home against New York City FC, who are seventh in the conference.
“Coming to an end of a season and having a playoff push, I guess being in a streak now is crucial,” midfielder Bryce Duke said. “It gives us momentum going into those last four games that we have, and then, in the end, get into playoffs.”
After experimenting with his starting 11 much of the year, Courtois has found a lineup he’s confident playing down the final stretch.
Defenders Fernando Alvarez, Gabriele Corbo and George Campbell are consistently starting as a back three, striker Josef Martinez is the first choice up top and Canadians Samuel Piette and Nathan Saliba are holding down central midfield.
Then there’s the new attacking midfield partnership of Duke and Caden Clark that has helped Montreal score six goals in three games.
Continuing that attacking approach against San Jose is a key to victory on Saturday, Duke said.
“Not going in with the mentality that it’s going to be an easy game, because I think we’ve all seen within this league that any team can beat any team,” he said. “Anything can happen, but just go in, realize we’re at home, attack, attack, attack, try to get goals and come out with the three points and keep moving forward.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 27, 2024.
