MONTREAL – FC Montreal lost 2-1 in its first game of the first phase of preseason, against Université du Québec à Montréal, Saturday afternoon, at Complexe sportif Marie-Victorin.
The Citadins were the first to score in the first half. On a corner kick, the UQAM player redirected the ball in the back of the net just after goalkeeper David Paulmin dove to his left to make a spectacular save.
Right at the beginning of the second half, FC Montreal made a push forward. David Choinière cut in the middle before passing to Fabio Morelli in the penalty box. The Swiss native gave the ball back to Choinière on his run, but the goalkeeper blocked his shot.
A few minutes later, goalkeeper Luca Leone touched the ball with his hands outside of the box. UQAM scored on the free kick that followed, with an accurate shot in the bottom right corner.
Near the end of the game, David Choinière got the ball alone in the opponent’s box. He took his time before shooting low and beating the goalkeeper.
“It’s a time of the season where you want players to find their bearings,” said head coach Philippe Eullaffroy. “We are not as harsh on the players since we have 10 more weeks to get ready. Individually, it was good. But collectively it was tough. We are never happy to lose and we would have liked to be more efficient in front of the net, but globally the game was useful for us.”
FC Montreal played 22 players in this game. The first half was mostly composed of U18 Impact players, on top of some players with a USL contract that played very few minutes last season.
The first few games of the preseason will be managed in a similar way since there will be many players missing because of the first team preseason camp.
FC Montreal's next preseason game will be played on Sunday, January 31, against Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, in Trois-Rivières.
LINEUP:
First half: David Paulmin; Nevello Yoseke, Léonardo Kossaka, Juliano Cobuzzi (U18), Brandon Onkony (U18); Pierre Lamothe (U18), Louis-Philippe Paquin (U18), Heikel Jarras, Alexis Stevens (U18), Souleymane Camara (U18), Jimmy-Shammar Sanon (U18).
Second half: Luca Leone; Simon Lemire, Thomas Meilleur-Giguère, Jems Geffrard, Aron Mkungilwa; Mastanabal Kacher, Philippe Lincourt-Joseph, David Choinière, Fabio Morelli, Yacine Ait Slimane; Jacques Haman.
