CF Montreal will try to carry momentum from a dominant midweek Canadian Championship victory into Saturday afternoon’s home matchup against Orlando City.
Montreal cruised past Calgary Blizzard SC 5-0 on Wednesday night to secure a spot in the quarterfinals.
“For all the players who have been playing a few minutes, it’s good that we had a lot of minutes today, so I’m really happy that we were able to win tonight,” said forward Daniel Rios.
“We’re working on getting our rhythm and the fine details of getting better each game.”
Montreal (3-7-0, 9 points) returns to MLS action looking to bounce back from a 3-1 defeat at Atlanta last weekend, though they have won two of their last three overall (2-1-0).
German forward Prince Owusu leads Montreal with 10 goal contributions (six goals, four assists) in 10 MLS starts this season.
Saturday marks the second and final MLS regular-season clash between Montreal and Orlando. The Lions earned a 2-1 home victory on March 14, with midfielder Martin Ojeda scoring the deciding goal in the 31st minute.
Orlando (3-7-1, 10 points) travels north of the border seeking consecutive wins after edging host Inter Miami 4-3 last Saturday. The Lions rallied from a three-goal deficit.
“We have analyzed them like they analyzed us,” said Orlando interim head coach Martin Perelman of Saturday’s match against Montreal. “We are going to prepare the game like we always do, knowing they are at home. We want to go there with a lot of energy, fighting like always for the points, because at the end of the day, it’s what we want.”
Orlando holds a 4-5-3 record in Montreal, but hasn’t won there since Decision Day in 2021.
Ojeda, who recorded a hat trick in the win over Miami, leads the Lions with seven goals in 11 starts this season. He has now tallied hat tricks in consecutive seasons.
The Argentine became just the third player in club history to reach 40 goals across all competitions, joining Cyle Larin and Facundo Torres as the only Lions to achieve the milestone.
