The saying goes that in team sports, offense fuels the show and defense wins championships. If we trust CF Montreal’s start to the season, Hernan Losada’s men are far from happy.
The Bleu-blanc-noir was on cloud nine after signing a spectacular victory against the Philadelphia Union when it returned to Montreal almost three weeks ago, but it quickly came back to earth last weekend, when he suffered one of the worst losses in club history: 5-0 at the hands of the Vancouver Whitecaps.
In that loss, the defense looked pretty bad, even before the team had to manage with one player down for over an hour due to Rudy Camacho’s red card.
“Our defense hasn’t been good enough and we know it. Even at 10 against Vancouver, I found we allowed a few weak goals. We have to be better at this facet of the game, analyzed Joel Waterman, Thursday, before CF Montreal training at Center Nutrilait. We need to have better deployments, defend the crosses better and defend our penalty area better. We need to keep improving those points and make sure we become a tough team to beat. »
After the meeting, Losada did not go overboard to explain the setbacks of his troupe since the start of the season. In his eyes, the defense is the weak point at the moment.
However, in addition to Alistair Johnston, transferred to Scotland during the off-season, CF Montreal once again has a stable line of Waterman, Camacho and Kamal Miller. Not to mention the veterans Samuel Piette and Victor Wanyama, who hold their end defensively in the middle of the field.
Waterman wasn’t shy about accepting some of the blame, and he didn’t take his head coach’s assessment badly.
“I think Hernan is right that the defense is the weak point right now. We know who we are, we know the height of our standards and with the veterans at the back we should do better, Waterman said. We are working on that in training. We have to have that mentality of loving defending and keeping the ball out of our net. »
Year-to-date, CF Montreal (1-4-0) rank last in the Eastern Conference in goals against (12) and differential (-9).
The attack isn’t much better; the Montreal team have not scored a goal in four road games this season and they have only eight shots on target, including six against Inter Miami CF, in the opener.
Waterman believes the lack of tightness in defense and goals against puts even more pressure on an attack which presents a different face in 2023. Especially on opposition pitches.
“We have to make sure we don’t allow a goal. We have to give our forwards and midfielders every opportunity to keep the ball, create scoring opportunities and play in the final third. It starts with us in defense,” he said.
“It’s always important for the offensive construction that the attackers get good balls. Line-cutting balls and good crosses to create more scoring opportunities. Collectively, it’s been more difficult in this regard since the start of the season,” added forward Romell Quioto, who scored 15 goals in 2022 and 2 of Montreal’s 3 goals in 2023.
Quioto didn’t play a minute against the Whitecaps because he had just represented Honduras in the CONCACAF Nations League. In his absence, forwards Mason Toye and Chinonso Offor struggled to create things with the ball.
Against the Union, Quioto hit the target with a penalty, but CF Montreal had to take advantage of a red card awarded to Julian Carranza to score their other two goals of the season, late in the second half.
Upon arriving at the helm, Losada inherited a group that had just lost creative players like Johnston, Djordje Mihailovic and Ismaël Koné, and the soap opera surrounding forward Kei Kamara led to his departure to Chicago. .
Offensive cohesion therefore needs to be rebuilt. Not to mention the many injuries, which forced the organization to place young people in important positions perhaps a little too quickly.
“We knew it was going to be a tough start to the season, with the away games, but we didn’t anticipate the loss of players like Samuel Piette or James Pantemis. There are young people that we wanted to integrate little by little, but who have been playing from the start and who have received plenty of minutes. We feel it’s not ideal for the players and for us, but there’s no other option,” Losada said.
The head coach will have to follow that trend again against the New England Revolution on Saturday at Gillette Stadium.
Losada has confirmed that Piette will be sidelined for six to eight weeks with an injury suffered as early as the fourth minute of play against the Whitecaps. By this time, the team trainer had examined his left thigh. However, it would not be the same injury that the captain suffered against Austin FC in early March, which caused him to miss two games.
Additionally, Camacho will be suspended for one game due to his red card and Lassi Lappalainen (left leg) is once again expected to be missed, according to the MLS injury report.
