• Matchday 19: CF Montréal vs New York City FC
• Date and Time: Saturday, June 28, 7:30 pm ET
• Venue: Stade Saputo in Montréal, QC
• Forecast: Cool, rainy, chance of thunderstorms, 75F/24C
• Watch: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
• Apple Broadcast Team: Callum Williams and Calen Carr (English), Oscar Salazaar and Jaime Macia (Spanish)
• New York City FC Radio: Glenn Crooks and Matty Lawrence (English), Roberto Abramowitz and Ariel Judas (Spanish)
• Officiating Crew: Victor Rivas (referee), Corey Rockwell and Kevin Lock (assistant referees), Mathieu Souare (fourth official), Daniel Radford (VAR), Matthew Rodman (assistant VAR)
• Kits: New York City will wear the sky-blue Excelsior Kit; Montréal will wear the blue-and-black Montréal Original Jersey.
The long wait is finally over and New York City FC is back in Major League Soccer action as they hit the road to face CF Montréal at Stade Saputo.
New York City last played 16 days ago when they convincingly beat Atlanta United FC 4-0 at Yankee Stadium. Montréal played a midweek match this week, losing 1-3 at this same Stade Saputo venue to FC Cincinnati, so rust won't be a factor for the hosts.
Lots of other challenges will be a factor for the hosts, who just sold one of their best midfielders – 21-year-old Canadian international Nathan Saliba, off to RSC Anderlecht in Belgium – and remain led by an interim coach, Marco Donadel, after the early-season sacking of Laurent Courtois, while also sitting in last place in the Eastern Conference with 11 points from 19 matches.
Both New York City and Montréal will have a few key players still missing due to the Concacaf Gold Cup, while New York City is also without its usual Head Coach with Pascal Jansen back in Europe tending to what the team is calling a "personal matter" – this match will be the first game of The Mehdi Ballouchy Era, however long it may be.
Hudson River Blue Staff
New York City vs Montréal H2H
| GP | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22 | 13 | 5 | 4 | 37 | 17 | 20 |
New York City dominates Montréal in the historic head-to-head record between the two, with their most wins (13) and largest goal differential (+20) versus any club on the planet. But Montréal has gotten the better of NYCFC in recent matchups, with two consecutive wins dating back to Decision Day 2024.
As John Baney pointed out in the Hudson River Blue Podcast this week, the last five games have all been clean sheets: Whichever team scores, wins. Montréal got one goal from Prince Owusu and won at Yankee Stadium earlier this year, after they won 2-0 on Decision Day last October. Now we wait to see if this one-sided shutout streak continues, and in which direction.
New York City Scouting Report
• Player Availability: Keaton Parks (foot) and Malachi Jones (leg) are out with injuries. In addition, New York City is without Matt Freese and Alonso Martínez, who will face each other tomorrow when the USMNT plays Costa Rica in the 2025 Concacaf Gold Cup.
• Two players return from international duty after being absent for the win over Atlanta: Mitja Ilenič (Slovenia U21s) and Aiden O'Neill (Australia) are back and ready to play.
• Aiden O'Neill's return creates some interesting choices in the midfield. Against Atlanta, Maxi Moralez remained locked in, but he was joined by Andrés Perea and Julián Fernández, with Julián in a more central role than he usually occupies. Playing away from home might nudge NYCFC in the direction of running out a more defensive-minded midfield that includes both O'Neill and Perea.
• Road matches haven't been the kindest to New York City in recent years, but Canada has usually been friendly terrain for the team. All-time in all matches played north of the border against the league's three Canadian teams, NYCFC's road record is 12W-5D-8L, with an especially sterling mark of 6W-2D-1L when playing against Montréal in Montréal.
• Can New York City's attack remain opportunistic? No team in MLS has been credited with more errors, mistakes leading directly to opponent's shots, than Montréal with 21 (though they're tied with Atlanta, fittingly enough), while goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois leads all MLS players with six errors of his own. NYCFC opened their scoring last time out thanks to a mistake from Atlanta and they'll have to be on high alert for similar handouts from Montréal.
Montréal Scouting Report
• To understand what's happening with Montréal, our Matthew Mangam spoke with Elias Grigoriadis of The Ball is Round Montréal for the latest Oppo Research. His 5 Things to know about CF Montréal include the threat of Prince Owusu, the quick turnaround, the uncertainties in midfield, and the general struggles that have kept Montréal in last place in the Eastern Conference.
Matthew Mangam
