MONTREAL – FC Montreal will play its final game of the USL season this Wednesday, at 4pm, against the Harrisburg City Islanders, on the synthetic field at Stade Saputo. Access to the game is free and will also be available via web streaming at www.impactmontreal.com/fcmontreal.
The Bleu-blanc-noir won its previous game 2-0 against the New York Red Bulls II last week. Alessandro Riggi scored a brace in the game’s final 10 minutes, while goalkeeper Yann-Alexandre Fillion earned his first professional clean sheet. This win also ended a three-game losing streak.
In its last meeting with the City Islanders, Montreal fell 6-0 in Harrisburg. Craig Foster, Harrisburg’s best scorer with eight goals, scored a hat trick in that game. Since then, the Pennsylvania club scored only one goal in its last three games.
“It’s really important to end with strength to validate the season we had,” said assistant coach Simon Gatti. “There’s also this revenge feeling as they beat us twice. We know that if we play well and don’t commit mistakes, we can beat them. We can play the role of spoilers for Harrisburg, which is extra motivation.”
Harrisburg is in 8th spot in the Eastern Conference, fighting for a playoff spot with two games to play, two points behind the Richmond Kickers in the 6th place.
“It’s a really important game for us, even more since we play at home,” said defender Janouk Charbonneau. “We want a good performance to end the season on the right foot and have momentum for next year. Harrisburg is a team we can beat. We have to be more concentrated from the start.”
Since mid-season, FC Montreal has a 7-4-2 record, one of the best records in the league for the second half of the season. In this last meeting, Alessandro Riggi could reach the 10-goal mark, as defender Zachary Sukunda could surpass the 2,000 minutes played mark.
For this last game of the season, assistant coach Simon Gatti will be managing the sidelines as head coach Philippe Eullaffroy continues his training with the Fédération Française de Football and MLS. After spending one week at the Centre National du Football de Clairefontaine, he will finish with Dutch club AZ Alkmaar.
