In a matchup of two winless teams this month, CF Montreal welcome Orlando City to Saputo Stadium Saturday, on matchday nine of the MLS season for both teams.
Le CFM are still winless for the year, suffering a 1-0 defeat at home to Charlotte FC, while the Lions played to a 0-0 draw with the New York Red Bulls last week.
Match preview
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The first home game of the 2025 MLS season did not go as Montreal had hoped, with this team remaining bottom of the league table on two points.
Interim manager Marco Donadel saw his side create plenty of scoring opportunities against Charlotte but could not find that moment of quality in the attacking third.
Montreal have scored a league-low four goals in this competition so far, failing to find the back of the net on five occasions.
Individual errors have proved costly for them all year long, with Montreal committing 0.88 which have led to a shot against them in MLS this season.
So far over this campaign, they have not been ahead for a single minute in this competition and have yet to score a single goal in the opening half.
Their last five home meetings with Orlando have resulted in Le CFM obtaining points, with Montreal winning four of those matches.
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Over the past couple of matches the Orlando City attack have cooled off, without a goal in back-to-back domestic contests this year.
Oscar Pareja, who recently got his contract extended, has seen his side generate three direct attacks per game or balls through the lines, though they have not made those chances count lately.
That said, the Lions lead the Eastern Conference in goals scored (15), and four different players have netted multiple times for them in MLS this year.
Orlando City have points in their last three regular-season affairs away from home, posting their first clean sheet as the visitors domestically earlier this month (0-0 draw versus the Philadelphia Union).
If they win this weekend, they will surpass their longest unbeaten run in MLS from a year ago (five matches) and equal their longest such run from 2023 (six games).
They have points in each of their last four outings against Le CFM but have not beaten them at Saputo Stadium since 2021 (2-0).
Team News
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Three players made their Montreal debuts against Charlotte as Hennadiy Synchuk, Jalen Neal and Giacomo Vrioni all came on as substitutes last week.
Fernando Alvarez was the only newcomer to the starting 11 for their previous match, replacing Aleksandr Guboglo at the left-back spot.
In their draw with the Red Bulls, Orlando City were without Nicolas Rodriguez and Favian Loyola, who each had a sore thigh, while Cesar Araujo missed out with a lower leg injury.
Rodrigo Schlegel will be suspended for this clash after receiving a second yellow card last week, 11 minutes into the second half.
CF Montreal possible starting lineup:
Sirois; Waterman, Campbell, Neal, Petrasso; Saliba, Piette; Sealy, Clark, Duke; Vrioni
Orlando City possible starting lineup:
Gallese; Freeman, Smith, Jansson, Brekalo; Pasalic, Gerbet, Thorhallsson, Angulo; Ojeda, Muriel
We say: CF Montreal 1-0 Orlando City
We saw several key players return to the field last week on the Montreal side and that should provide them with a much-needed psychological boost against an Orlando team that have not been all that sharp in the attacking third recently.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joel Lefevre
