CF Montreal look to end winless start to season against Orlando City SC

By Canadian Press on April 18, 2025.

MONTREAL — Despite a horrid start, CF Montreal defender Joel Waterman believes it’s up to the team to stay strong in its mentality entering its Saturday night home game against Orlando City SC.

With eight games played, CF Montreal are off to their worst start since arriving in Major League Soccer, collecting just two points, with zero wins, and now holding sole possession of last place in MLS.

“It’s easy to get frustrated in times like this, but it’s up to (all of us) to keep the mentality strong and it has been this week. We’re optimistic and the morale is still good,” said Waterman.

“Obviously we couldn’t put the finishing touches on what we were trying to do (against Charlotte last Saturday) but I thought we were good in a lot of areas, and we played really well.”

Montreal (0-6-2) is in the midst of a complete upheaval to their system, with interim coach Marco Donadel bringing the club back to a four-man defence for the first time since the 2019 season. The former Montreal midfielder has also put an emphasis on a much more open and aggressive brand of football.

Montreal has struggled with finishing, however. Montreal currently has the worst conversion rate in the league, scoring just four goals from an expected 12.43, according to MLS statistics.

Price Owusu — despite helping in other areas of the game — has contributed to most of that as the long striker up top. Despite still being the club’s leading goal scorer with two tallies, he’s had a number of misses.

“There’s nothing to handle in a situation like this. This position is like that; both goalkeepers and strikers, the live for the goal (…) but he’s doing an amazing job for us on and off the ball,” said Donadel about Owusu’s recent struggles in front of goal.

“The confidence in the box is just about momentum, we know it’s like that for every striker. I don’t have to tell him anything, he and everybody knows his quality.”

Over the past few seasons, Montreal and Orlando (3-2-3) have developed something of an unlikely rivalry, having played many important games against one another. There was even a dust-up during a pre-season friendly this year.

In 2021, a 2-0 home loss to Orlando on the last matchday of the season saw Montreal miss out on the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. Just one year later, Montreal returned the favour by eliminating Orlando in the first round of the playoffs.

“I don’t think there’s a strong dislike there, I just think certain teams have that energy and that vibe. The results go back and forth, and the games are pretty entertaining,” said Waterman. “If there’s a little bit of that in the game then we’re all for it.”

Regardless of the animosity between the two clubs, Montreal will have to navigate that without the services of new signings Giacomo Vrioni and Jalen Neal who are back on the injured list with lower- and upper-body injuries, respectively.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 18, 2025.

Elias Grigoriadis, The Canadian Press