CF Montréal Outlasted by New York City FC, 2-0

July 3, 2024 – Major League Soccer (MLS)
Club de Foot Montreal News Release

NEW YORK – In a mid-week visit to the Big Apple, CF Montréal fell 2-0 to New York City FC on Wednesday evening at Citi Field.

Alonso Martínez gave the New Yorkers an early lead in the 9th minute with a strike from inside the box.

The Pigeons doubled their lead when Martínez completed his brace in the 56th minute.

CF Montréal’s next game is on Saturday as it will host the Vancouver Whitecaps in an all-Canadian matchup at Stade Saputo at 7:30pm (MLS Season Pass, BPM Sports, CJAD 800).

MATCH NOTES

– Nathan Saliba played his 40th game with CF Montréal in MLS. The Quebecer becomes the 6th homegrown player to reach this milestone.

-Lassi Lappalainen played his 96th game with CF Montréal in MLS. He passed Andrés Romero in 10th place in Club history (for field players).

Postgame comments from head coach Laurent Courtois, Jonathan Sirois and Nathan Saliba are available here.

LAURENT COURTOIS

“Overall, I thought the guys alternated confidence and cohesion to get the ball out. I think that on a small pitch like this, against this team, they still managed to get the ball out in interesting ways. We lacked inspiration in the final third, where the forward pass takes you into an assist zone. I found the guys coherent in certain phases of the game, but a bit lacking in the final touch in front of the box. I’ve also sensed moments of control from the guys, apart from when we shoot ourselves in the foot when we give a transition like that and get six players eliminated. These are the things we talked about, worked on and failed to apply in the second half.”

JONATHAN SIROIS

“Today was a bit harder for our guys up top to find each other and combine. I think one of our strengths, and we saw it against Philadelphia, is finding our forwards in pockets, either in between the centrebacks and the midfielders or sometimes in behind where they have time to really express and have the liberty to go on and take defenders. I think that today, sometimes it was just not on the same page in terms of what we wanted to do or sometimes it was just execution that was lacking. I think there’s days like that and it’s on us, the whole team, to find solutions together but unfortunately, we haven’t. Yes, we created chances but I think too few and that’s why today we didn’t score.”

NATHAN SALIBA

“I think we’re in a good spot at half-time, even if they have a one-goal lead. In the second half, we need to be more…