In the span of eight days, CF Montréal rekindled its flame, and extinguished one, on Saturday night at Stade Saputo.
After suffering two embarrassing defeats to close out August, The Montreal team seemed dead and buried. Then, after the international break, the players rediscovered their joy and the performances followed.
The beautiful victory against Charlotte FC last Saturday was accompanied by a courageous draw against the New England Revolution on Wednesday night. Against the Fire, Laurent Courtois' men never seemed in danger of conceding a goal, except perhaps in the last five minutes of the match.
CF Montréal (8-12-10) was effective in its pressing, imaginative in attack, and exploited the last defensive line to make its opponents look bad. Josef Martinez and Caden Clark took advantage to score, but the gap could have been even bigger if the finishing had been a little better.
"Nothing changed in the words and in the training sessions," Courtois said. "Mentally, as soon as things weren't going well, we'd crumble. But when all the guys are at their level and everyone gives you at least a six out of 10, we know it can be interesting. All the players were able to perform at their level and we had a little luck."
For the second time in three games, the trio of Martinez, Clark and Bryce Duke fueled the show in attack. The three players made some quick plays that often caught the opposing defenders off guard – and sometimes themselves.
Duke and Martinez have been playing together since the start of the season, but the chemistry between the two hasn't always worked. Clark's arrival in mid-August seemed to breathe new life into the team, while energizing Duke.
"Caden is a nice surprise. Not just for his quality, but also for his level of effort," Courtois said. "He's very important for us. Maybe that helped Bryce take the same path and be more creative."
At just 21 years old, Clark was struggling to find his niche with Minnesota United FC this season before being acquired by the Bleu-blanc-noir. Since then, he has collected two goals and two assists in just five games.
"I've never had so much fun playing for a team. It's like we're not playing a professional game. I'm excited for the next games, to go into the last third and create things offensively. It's like I'm in the backyard. It's a pleasure to be around these guys," Clark said.
The offensive trio also got help from full-backs Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty and Raheem Edwards, in addition to receiving some nice passes from midfielders Nathan Saliba and Samuel Piette. Martinez was the beneficiary of a superb cross from Saliba to score his first MLS goal since July 17.
"I'm a striker and all strikers want to score goals. That's why we get our paycheck. Sometimes we have bad days, but we come back to the field and we have a chance to get three points," Martinez said.
During the evening, the Montrealers waltzed from ninth to 11th place in the Eastern Conference standings, but they got favorable results in Nashville and New Jersey to move back above the thin red line.
In the case of the Fire (7-16-8), things didn't go in the same direction. They remained in 14th place in the East, but have now slipped to five points out of a playoff spot with three games to play.
Edwards also reached the 10,000-minute plateau in his MLS career. Defender Joel Waterman, who had missed the last two games, returned to action in the second half.
CF Montréal will be back in action next Saturday when the San Jose Earthquakes, the worst team in MLS, will be at Stade Saputo.
Convincing Victory
Unlike Wednesday night's game in Foxborough, the Bleu-blanc-noir were more incisive in the first half and had a few chances to shoot.
Martinez and Saliba had their chances in the first 10 minutes, before the two teams started to play a more methodical game.
It was short-lived for CF Montréal, who pressed the accelerator again to open the scoring. Saliba made a long cross to Martinez, who had just been brought on by Arnaud Souquet before beating the vigilance of goalkeeper Chris Brady.
Thinking they had found a vein, the Montreal team tried the experiment again, with good results despite some offsides. They also got some good breakthroughs into enemy territory, but without creating any dangerous shots.
CF Montréal picked up where they left off in the first few minutes of the second half. Clark first tickled the far corner of the net in the 49th minute before Edwards returned the favor a few minutes later.
Involved in many attacks since the start of the game, Clark was rewarded in the 74th minute, a few seconds after his head coach made three substitutions. Freshly arrived on the pitch, Kwadwo Opoku served a nice pass to Clark, who took his time before lobbing the ball over Brady.
The Fire intensified the pressure at the end of the game to avoid the shutout, but goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois made three saves, including two on the goal line.
