MONTREAL – CF Montréal suffered a 2-1 loss to the Philadelphia Union on Saturday at the Olympic Stadium in the Club’s 2022 MLS home opener. Finnish midfielder Lassi Lappalainen opened the scoring for Montreal (32'), before Philadelphia responded with two unanswered goals from Alejandro Bedoya (53') and Daniel Gazdag (56') to secure three points for the visitors.
In the coming days, Montreal will fly to Mexico City for its Concacaf Champions League quarterfinal first leg against Cruz Azul on Wednesday, March 9 at 10pm ET, at Estadio Azteca.
COMPLETE SUMMARY HERE
GAME NOTES:
-Forward Kei Kamara earned his first start with CF Montréal and his 300th in MLS, becoming the 23rd player in league history to reach the milestone.
-Victor Wanyama and Mathieu Choinière played their 50th game with the Club. Choinière becomes the second Homegrown player to achieve the feat.
-Lassi Lappalainen's goal was his first of the season and 11th of his career with CF Montréal.
WILFRIED NANCY
“On the first goal, we got caught on the back foot. From there, it's a simple pass and a simple shot that led to the goal. There was a bad read on the play. On the second goal, there's some fumbling in the box. But the ball must get out of that zone quicker when you're defending on actions like that. And then they scored the goal. We tried to come back in the game after that but couldn’t. We conceded two quick goals today. So, is it mental or a tactical issue with the way we defended on the goal? I believe everything is connected. I am going to analyze the sequences. We conceded two quick goals against Orlando too, but we kept going. We need to do better than that.”
ZACHARY BRAULT-GUILLARD
“We need to work harder to build confidence for the next games. There is a lot of quality in the group. We faced a good team but it's up to us to do things better and be more dangerous offensively. There are weeks when it doesn't work and the chemistry is not there. But I think we're working the right way in practice. We have the quality in the group. I'm confident. We have great players at every position.”
KEI KAMARA
“It was an off day today. Overall, I could’ve helped more. We were one step behind on a lot of issues. It is only the second game of the season. It was my first start. I’m sure we will connect when the time comes. The good thing is we have a big game in Mexico. Today was our home opener and wanted it to be positive. But we can’t dwell on it. We learned from last week. We will learn from this week and hopefully it will push us into Wednesday. But this is a good time for this to happen. We will learn from that. Even if we score a goal, we always have to be focused.”
