New York City Football Club are back in the Bronx for their home opener against CF Montréal.
For this edition of 'The Away End' presented by Berkeley College & Rennert International, we spoke to Paul Vance, writer for Mount Royal Soccer.
Hi Paul, thanks for speaking with us. How long have you been covering CF Montréal and what has been your highlight?
I’ve been watching CFM as a season-ticket holder since 2012, and covering them since 2018. My highlight since I’ve been covering the club is probably the Canadian Championship victory in 2019. Montréal lost 0-1 at BMO Field, Toronto to tie the two-legged series 1-1 with TFC. But won the Championship on a penalty shoot-out, advancing to the Concacaf Champions League after five-year hiatus.
Montréal only narrowly missed out on the playoffs last season - what are your expectations for the team this season?
As I wrote in my mountroyalsoccer.com season preview we’ll again see the over-stated optimism and expectancy of fans who’ve seen their side finish a regular season 9th, 9th and 10th over the past three years.
There’s little to suggest improvement despite the more than useful acquisition of Alistair Johnston, the Canadian international.
Perhaps Wilfried Nancy can squeeze more from his squad and the whole can be greater than the sum of its parts. We shall see, but I expect another season of struggle, with at best a last day showdown to determine post-season qualification or not.
If you were to identify Montréal's danger-man who would that be?
There’s a few candidates, but the two up-front, Romell Quioto and Mason Toye, tend rarely to play alongside each other. It’s not been very often so far that each have been fit and/or free of suspension and therefore eligible for selection in the same game. The third candidate for the 'Danger-man’ title is American midfielder, Djordje Mihailovic. Mihailovic set a new MLS club record for assists last season with 16.
What do you think will be the most decisive factor in Saturday's matchup?
It’s hard to say where the decisive factor lies for Saturday. I’m sure NYCFC in their home opener will be expecting to have their shooting boots with them having gone 180 mins without a goal so far. That could spell trouble for Montréal whose side, due to injury and suspension, is likely to lack balance.
Wilfried Nancy is still trying to work out his best defensive three, or will he revert to four? Unless Choiniere is available he doesn’t really have the players to play his favored 3-5-2 effectively enough. And upfront he may have to rely on aging Kei Kamara with Romell Quioto suspended and misfiring Bjorn Johnsen injured.
For any fans that may be in Montréal are there any particular spots you suggest they'd check out?
For any NYCFC fans in Montréal there are various places to watch the game, but I’d suggest The Burgundy Lion on Notre-Dame Ouest, near Atwater Market. It’s a trendy place, good bar food and sets itself up as an English pub with very much a football theme running.
