By Chris Tsakonas
It’s now six league matches without a win for New York City FC, as the Pigeons fell 1-0 at the hands of CF Montreal at Stade Saputo this afternoon. Prince Owusu scored the match-winner for Montreal in the 18th minute.
Here are three observations from New York City’s defeat.
Pigeons caught flat-footed early
From the opening whistle, New York City struggled to get the ball out of the Montreal attacking third. Although New York City controlled a good amount of the possession early, Montreal had the upper hand and created three shots on goal in the opening 10 minutes.
The best of those chances came in the seventh minute, when an Ivan Jaime header from the middle forced Matt Freese into his first big save of the match. New York City’s only early opportunity came in the 15th minute, when Nico Fernandez Mercau got off a shot from the right side of the box that was saved by Thomas Gillier.
Owusu breaks through
In the 18th minute, Montreal’s efforts paid off. Matty Longstaff gathered the ball with space on the left flank, and he delivered a dangerous cross to the feet of Owusu in the middle. Owusu was able to toe-poke the ball past Freese and into the back of the net to give Montreal the early 1-0 lead.
“What we’re struggling with at the moment is to bring the right intensity in this moment to either block the cross or defend our box,” Pascal Jansen said after the match. “Owusu is a strong striker, obviously, but I think we should be doing a better job in these moments and handling these type of situations with some more courage in order to defend the box at the right moment.”
New York City attack struggles to respond
With 72 minutes left to respond to Owusu’s goal, New York City controlled much of the possession but struggled to create consistent, high quality chances in the final third.
New York City only created one shot in the first half after conceding, and the Pigeons went itot the halftime break with 0.1 expected goals on two total shots.
“[In the first half] we were looking for shapes and patterns that we normally do really well,” Jansen said. “However, Montreal was able to keep us out outside of the box and keep a very organized defensive structure in the middle of the pitch, mainly, which requires more domination on the sides.
Despite controlling much of the play again in the second half, New York City only created three total chances in the second half. The best of those chances came in the 48th minute, when Maxi Moralez missed the outside of the left post on a breakaway chance.
The Pigeons’ comeback effort was complicated in the 78th minute, when Tayvon Gray received a second yellow card after a tackle from behind on Jaime. New York City created only one more shot after going down to 10 men as Montreal closed out the match.
Next Up
New York City FC will cross the Hudson River to take on the New York Red Bulls in the Round of 16 of the US Open Cup on Wednesday night. With a win, New York City would advance to the quarterfinals for the first time since 2022.
