Football: Montreal beats Nashville 1-0 to tie an MLS record

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The bike path that leads to Stade Saputo is hostile territory in itself, but certainly not as much as the arena where CF Montreal plays its games. Once again, the home side were implacable towards opponents who dared venture into Sherbrooke Street Park.

By defeating Nashville 1-0 Wednesday night, CF became only the second club in Major League Soccer history to win six consecutive home games by shutout, tying the mark previously set by the Kansas City Wizards in April and May 2000.

Moreover, Montreal defeated Nashville for the first time since the men in yellow joined MLS in 2020. Nashville has won four of the six meetings between the two teams so far. The other two resulted in invalid judgments.

“There is a lot of pride associated with winning for the first time against a team that has a lot of qualities,” said coach Hernán Losada. We controlled the game and created chances. We have always been able to find solutions. »

It was Bryce Duke who scored the only goal of the game, his second since Montreal’s acquisition of Inter Miami in April. As is now typical, the American midfielder has been at the center of many of his team’s attacking moves.

The number 10 reaped the rewards of a tremendous individual effort from Sonusi Ibrahim, who first shook off an undeniable pass from Kid Dynamite before handing the ball to his team-mate, who remained in a tailspin at the entrance to the roof. Duke had no trouble surprising Joe Willis by sending the ball to the right of the Nashville goaltender.

CF, who played their first game after a well-deserved week off, after a grueling run of 11 games in 36 days, had one of the best first half of the season. From the first minute of play, Quebec midfielder Mathieu Choigner had a chance to score, but his left-footed shot missed the goal.

The Montreal team also managed to leave no room for maneuver to Hani Khater, the leading scorer in the American League, with 13 goals on 19 goals. Tonight, the German was limited to two shots, one of them on goal, but nevertheless forced Gabriel Corbu and Victor Wanyama to receive yellow cards early in the game in the 13th and 20th minutes for saves.

“Obviously, we were well aware of what he could do,” Wanyama said after the match. We made sure to cut all the passes in his direction. We were also constantly striving to reduce the amount of space he could enjoy on the pitch. »

Defender Joel Waterman added, “We knew we had to mark him and specifically prevent him from playing.” That said, he had a few chances, but we neutralized him. »

Wanyama did not stand out only in defence. In the 21st minute, he got rid of at least two opponents in the middle of the field before handing the ball to Ariel Lassiter, who failed to get a shot into the opposition net afterwards. The Kenyan midfielder also had his third shot on goal since the start of the season.

“Nashville really gave us a lot of space and time to shoot,” said Wanyama. I sure wanted to sign up. I’ll have to take my chances…”

Coming back from the break, Nashville showed they weren’t one of the best clubs in MLS for nothing by getting three scoring chances in five minutes. Among the shots, Jacob Schaffelburg scored on the end of the foot in the 47th minute, but hit the ball so hard that he would have gone to Langelier Boulevard if there were no stands to break his run.

A few moments later, Choinier turned the wind by performing a pull-up over several meters that prevented Randall Lyell from winning the title. No doubt the play impressed Canadian defender David Savard, who attended tonight’s game with Pierre-Luc Dubois.

The Montreal club had their best chance in the 69th minute, after Chenonso Ofore and Nathan Saliba came straight on, but Wanyama’s header lacked a bit of action.

Nashville tried desperately to tie the game late by storming into Montreal territory, but Jonathan Siruis got in the way every time, including one in the 87th minute by maxing the ball out as it floated. Air with its head at the back of the net.

CF will be back in action on Saturday night when they visit Charlotte FC. The next meeting will be held at Stade Saputo on July 1. New York City FC will be in town at this time.