MONTREAL, Quebec – In its inaugural opening game in USL, FC Montreal fell 2-0 to Toronto FC 2 on Saturday afternoon, at the Olympic Stadium.
Toronto midfielder Marcos Nunes scored the first goal in the 38th minute on a free kick from Mo Babouli. Nunes got the ball behind the Montreal defenders and pushed it in the back of the net.
Despite the Bleu-blanc-noir’s efforts, TFCII doubled its lead in the 71st minute. Raheem Edwards found space down the left flank and pushed forward with the ball. Once he reached the penalty area, goalkeeper Yann-Alexandre Fillion saved the shot, but the ball hit a defender before going in the net.
“The positive thing today is that it didn’t take us 30 minutes to get into the game, as it was the case against Tampa Bay and Ottawa during the preseason,” said head coach Philippe Eullaffroy. “Now, the physical aspect is not everything, we also have to be efficient with the ball. At halftime, we told the players to play faster and go forward. One of our qualities is to play fast down the wings, and we didn’t do that today. We took too long before crossing the ball, which made it difficult to surprise them.”
FC Montreal got the first chance to score in the game when midfielder Yacine Ait-Slimane found forward Victor Omar Ndiaye, who got behind Toronto’s defence, but his shot hit the post.
“I know I won’t have many chances like that during the game. I’m disappointed to have hit the post,” said forward Victor Omar Ndiaye. “I know if I score, the whole game changes.”
Babouli almost scored Toronto’s second goal at the end of the first half when his shot hit the crossbar.
Back from halftime, first team defender Hassoun Camara pushed forward, dribbling between TFC’s players before passing to Alessandro Riggi. FC Montreal’s winger tried to cross the ball at the penalty spot, but a defender intercepted his pass.
FC Montreal tried many dangerous passes in the opponent’s area, but they did not manage to score and come back in the game.
The team will play its next USL game on Saturday, April 11, 2:30pm, against the Rochester Rhinos, on the synthetic turf field at Stade Saputo. The game will be streamed live on the impactmontreal.com website.
LINEUPS:
FCMTL – Yann-Alexandre Fillion; Hassoun Camara, Chakib Hocine (Janouk Charbonneau 72’), Mitchel Bringolf, John Dinkota (Philippe Lincourt-Joseph 77’); Jonathan Vallée (Louis Béland-Goyette 57’), Nazim Belguendouz; Fabio Morelli, Yacine Ait-Slimane (Kevin Luarca 72’), Alessandro Riggi (Kacher 55’); Victor Omar Ndiaye
TFCII – Alex Bono; Charpie Wesley (Mateo Restrepo 89’), Adam Bouchard, Daniel Fabrizi, Mark Serjeant (Raheem Edwards 64’); Luca Uccello, Manuel Aparicio (Martin Davis 68’), Marcos Nunes (Rahim Thorpe 88’), Massimo Mirabelli (Marcus Godinho 64’); Mo Babouli, Mark-Anthony Kaye
GOALS:
TFCII – Marcos Nunes 37’
TFCII – John Dinkota (own goal) 71’
