CF Montreal vs FC Charlotte
June 25, 2022
Stade Saputo, Montreal Quebec
Keli and I are here in Montreal for my draft legal sprint distance Worlds Triathlon as well as the first ever mixed relays. I qualified for the race back in 2019 and we were supposed to go to Edmonton in 2020 but because of covid it was cancelled. Then last year in 2021 the race was moved to Bermuda, but once again cancelled just three weeks before we were going to get onto the plane. This year, covid is still sticking around but the races were on. In fact, I got covid just three weeks before we were set to travel…not the best timing for my race.
We arrived into the city on Wednesday and took the bus/metro to Old Montreal. The city has been around since the late 1600’s so there is a lot of great archetecure and our hotel was only two blocks away from the Notre Dame Cathedral. But the weather was typical of the east coast in the early summer. When we landed it was raining, and in fact it rained a lot on Thursday as well. That kind of ruined the triathlon parade of nations but even more worrisome was the fact that the swim might be cancelled because of high bacteria counts in the river. But mother nature turned on a dime and the cooler, rainy, windy 60 degree weather quickly shifted to upper 80s and humid Friday and that stuck around on Saturday for my race in the morning as well as the soccer game in the evening.
I have been to Montreal once before, but it was in the dead of winter and there was plenty of snow on the ground with temps in the 20s. When we explored the Biodome and Olympic Arena there was some rain which kept us indoors, but the night of the soccer game is was uncomfortably warm. Mix that with the sun not going down until nearly 9pm and our seats were facing that ball of gas, we knew the first half would be tough. All that said, we made our way into the stadium and rested in the shade a bit to cool down. I let Keli chill out for a bit so I could take some pictures around the stadium as well as all of the history of the team (plenty of photos and stories about the program). Montreal came into the MLS as the Impact, but after 28 years the owner decided to rebrand the team to Club de Foot Montreal or CF Montreal, to reflect the city a bit more. They also changed the team shield to a snowflake, which makes sense for the winter but not the summer months when the games were played. I don’t know if the fans truly have embraced the new name yet but there is nothing they can do. The location of the stadium is great, easy to get to via the metro and has impressive views of the 1976 Olympic Stadium just outside the gates. When you get to your seats, it’s a nice soccer specific field with few sections without good views (again, unless you are looking into the sun for 45 minutes). Kel and I took our seats at midfield just before the national anthems, and then away we went.
I haven’t really been paying attention to the MLS for about 2 years now. I really enjoy the games, and the play on the field is much improved over the past few years with a lot of solid talent coming to the states and our neighbors to the north. But because the games are not regularly on tv I have to search for them now which makes it a bit more difficult. Montreal came into the game near the top of the Eastern Conference leader board while Charlotte was in 10th out of 14 teams, so statistically the home team should win tonight. It didn’t take long for Romell Quioto to give the lead for CFM as he opened the scoring in the 6th minute sending the home crowd into a frenzy. It came from a great assist by Zachary Brault Guillard and Quioto then fired the ball from the right of the goal for the 1-0 lead. That also allowed the CFM faithful to ring their enormous goal bell which was entertaining...the smoke bombs I could do without. Charlotte was undeterred though, capitalizing off of a failed clear attempt which gave Charlotte a goal when a ball from Anton Walkes hit defender Victor Wanyama, that deflection went right to Guzman Corujo who nailed the ball into the back of the net. It turns out it was the only shot on goal for the visiting team but that is all they needed. In the second half, once again Quioto was a factor by sending a great pass over to Choiniere who took the ball all the way into the box and cranked a banana shot passed Marks for the 2-1 lead. The rest of the half if was all about ball possession for Montreal and they ended up winning that game 2-1.
Keli and I were exhausted after the game and made our ways back to the metro. But for some reason we got stuck one stop away from where we needed to go. Instead of waiting around, we walked the extra mile which was a nice way to end the night. It also allowed us to people watch because Montreal was in the middle of their holiday St. Jean Baptiste day and the whole city was out
on the town. There were several free concerts, but Keli and I decided to call it a night. Not only did we not want to be in a crowd with Covid still lingering around, but I had already obtained over 30k steps for the day and needed to get up on Sunday for our relay.
Great trip, another game knocked off the list, and I once again realized I could get away with only knowing how to say “Do you speak English” in French when I am up in Quebec. Ha!
