PREVIEW: Orlando visits winless Montreal looking for its first April goal
The Lions have a five-match unbeaten streak, but also are coming off back-to-back scoreless draws. Montreal has lost six of eight matches but is playing at home for just the second time in 2025.
Orlando City forward Iván Angulo, left, is defended by CF Montréal midfielder Samuel Piette during a 2024 match in Orlando. PHOTO: Kevin Kolczynski/The Associated Press
Saturday’s match between the Purple and the Bleu-Blanc-Noir looks like a mismatch on paper — Orlando City SC (3-2-3) is in seventh place in the Eastern Conference with 12 points and has scored 15 goals; Montreal (0-6-2) has yet to win this season, has scored just four goals and allowed 13, and has the fewest points in Major League Soccer, two, after eight games.
Mismatch, right? Maybe. Probably. But the team formerly known as the Impact have some points in their favor.
• WHAT: Orlando City SC (3-2-3, 12 points) at CF Montreal (0-6-2, 2 points)
• WHEN: 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday, April 19
• WHERE: Stade Saputo, Montreal
• TV: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
• RADIO: Orlando — AM 810 Fox Sports Radio (English), Mega 97.1 FM (Spanish)
•RADIO: Montreal — TSN Radio 690 (English), WOLS 106.1 FM (Spanish), CKLX-FM 91.9 (French)
First, and perhaps most significantly, Montreal played its first seven matches on the road; in its home opener last week, the Canadian side allowed a single goal to a very good Charlotte FC team.
Second, the Lions’ offense has sputtered in its last two matches, scoreless draws with New York Red Bulls and Philadelphia Union.
Montreal captain Samuel Piette said the team’s performance in the home-opener gave the Blue-White-Blacks reason for optimism.
"It's encouraging for the way we played, the way we controlled the game, which is what we wanted to do," he told the media earlier this week, according to Deadspin.com. "We lost that game because we lacked finishing, but the chances were there, which is frustrating."
The numbers support Pierre’s concerns; while tied for last among MLS’ 30 teams in goals, Montreal is 14th in expected goals with 12.43. The Québec-based side has taken 89 shots, but only 22 (24.7 percent) have been on target (only the Houston Dynamo, with 21 percent, is less accurate).
Prince Owusu leads Montreal with two goals.
One of interim coach Marco Donadel’s greatest challenges will be improving the team’s finishing. Donadel replaced Laurent Courtois, who was fired after five matches.
Lions look to regroup on the road
Orlando City coach Oscar Pareja, who signed a new three-year contract earlier this week that will keep him with the Lions through 2028, acknowledged that Montreal could challenge his side.
“It’s a tricky moment in the season, when teams are adjusting movements and players and, in this case with Montreal, even changing staff,” Pareja said, “but we are still…approaching the game just with our intention to go and win. It is an important match for us, it’s a match that gives us the possibility to add points in our standings and, much more important, that we keep on this road of (raising) the level of the group.”
To do that, the Purple’s once-prolific attack needs a return to form. Designated players Luis Muriel (3 goals, 3 assists), Martin Ojeda (4 goals, 3 assists), and Marco Pašalić (3 goals, 1 assist) lead the Lions’ attack with 17 goal contributions, but none in April.
Orlando’s defense has improved dramatically after allowing 10 goals in its first four matches. The return from injury of center back Robin Jansson, the Lions’ captain, the promotion of youngster Alex Freeman to starting right back, and the improved partnership of Dagur Dan Thórhallsson and Joran Gerbet in the central midfield has helped the Purple hold opponents to two goals in four matches.
Still, the unit will miss center back Rodrigo Schlegel, suspended after collecting two yellow cards against Philadelphia. Orlando could again be without starting central mids César Araújo and Eduard Atuesta, both listed as questionable for the Montreal match.
Projected starters
CF MONTREAL — Sirois; Waterman, Campbell, Neal, Petrasso; Saliba, Piette; Sealy, Clark, Duke; Vrioni
ORLANDO CITY SC — Gallese; Freeman, Smith, Jansson, Brekalo; Pasalic, Gerbet, Thorhallsson, Angulo; Ojeda, Muriel