COLUMBUS, Ohio — CF Montreal scored two goals in the final moments of the second half to snatch an unexpected 2-1 win over the Columbus Crew on Wednesday night at Lower.com Field.
A goal from Kei Kamara, the 134th of his career, during the 88th minute of play initially allowed CF Montreal to tie the score. Then, in stoppage time, defender Joel Waterman netted the winner when he completed a sequence orchestrated by Lassi Lappalainen.
Lucas Zelarayan had given the hosts the lead inside the first quarter of an hour. It was his sixth goal of the campaign.
The meeting was interrupted in the 74th minute due to a threat of thunderstorms in the Columbus area, when the Montreal team was experiencing its best moments.
On the return, after an interruption of about 90 minutes, the Montreal players continued to attack the rival fortress and their efforts paid off, twice rather than once.
With this precious win, a sixth on the road this season, CF Montreal (12-8-3) solidifies its hold on third place in the Eastern Conference with 39 points, three more than the New York Red Bulls (10-7-6).
CF Montreal will return to action on Saturday as they host Inter Miami CF.
Many changes
For this second match of a series of three in eight evenings in the heart of the summer, Wilfried Nancy had called on a very different formation from that which stood up to defending champions New York City FC last Saturday at the stadium. Saputo.
Only four players who started Saturday’s game were named starters on Wednesday.
Thus, names like those of Kamal Miller, Lappalainen, Johnston, Samuel Piette, Mason Toye and Romell Quioto were all found among the reservists and made way in the starting formation for Gabriele Corbo, Zachary Brault-Guillard, Mathieu Choinière, Ismaël Koné , Joaquin Torres and Kamara.
Lappalainen was inserted into the game early in the second half in place of Brault-Guillard, who appeared to injure his left leg during first-half stoppage time.
Piette, Johnston and Quioto entered the game in the 64th minute and immediately after, we saw a more dashing Montreal squad in attack.
Less than 10 minutes later, Nancy’s men had attempted four shots, including their first shot of the match, in the 65th minute, by Quioto, which goalkeeper Eloy Room grabbed with both hands as he dropped to his left.
The other three came from Kamara but all missed the target, the last of which in the 72nd minute, just before the threat of thunderstorms stopped the clash.
The starting list also did not include goalkeeper James Pantemis, who gave way to Sebastian Breza despite allowing just one goal in three games.
In his first outing since July 9 against Sporting Kansas City, Breza froze on Zelarayan’s shot, which appeared to hit one of Victor Wanyama’s feet before sneaking into the back of his net in the 14th minute. minute.
But around two minutes later, Breza kept his club in the game by blocking an awkward point-blank shot from Cucho Hernandez with his right forearm.
Another shot from Hernandez, in the 52nd minute, went straight to the vertical rod, to the left of Breza.
The CF Montreal goalkeeper made another important save against Hernandez, this one in the 80th minute.
These stops will have finally provided three precious points to the troop of Nancy.
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