Orlando City flattens CF Montreal 4-1 in League Cup

ORLANDO — Montreal CF surrendered three first-half goals en route to a 4-1 rout of Orlando City SC Lions in the 2024 Leagues Cup group stage opener on Friday at Inter & Co. Stadium.

The Lions, who extended their unbeaten run to six games in all competitions, got goals from Dagur Thorhallsson (seventh minute), Facundo Torres (37th minute), Ramiro Enrique (45th minute from stoppage time) and Martin Ojeda (57th minute ).

After receiving an assist on Enrique’s goal, Facundo Torres recorded his 23rd career assist, passing Kaká for fourth on the Lions’ all-time assist list.

“Well, first of all, it’s a great night in front of our fans to score four goals against a very difficult opponent. Just seeing the team and the development we’re looking for. Keeping that momentum we’ve had in the last six games, it’s all good to see,” Lions coach Oscar Pareja said.

“We knew Montréal would come looking for us in the second half and give us some space and that’s what happened. Again, we’re good in front of goal and that’s something that makes us look good. Happy with the result, but like this competition we says we have to prepare for the next one.”

Josef Martínez scored Montreal’s fifth goal of the year in the 69th minute to prevent the goal.

“Orlando wanted this game more than we did. We have to fix some defensive shortcomings, get back into the right mindset and turn the page so we can start again against San Luis,” Montreal coach Laurent Courtois said.

“Now we’re going to prepare for the next game. The result was a disappointment tonight. I see us struggling in terms of execution and occupying space and making certain decisions. That’s what we’re trying to fix.”

CF Montreal will conclude the group stage of the tournament by hosting Atlético de San Luis of LIGA MX on Tuesday at Stade Saputo.

“I can’t speak for the other players. Sometimes our body language shows frustration when we admit to easy goals. I don’t think there is a tactical problem. We did good things with the ball. It’s not our weak point,” Montreal’s Joel Waterman said.

“However, we were too open and spread out. We need to improve our counter-attack and make ourselves harder to deal with. We left too much space for them to exploit and they took advantage of it. It could have been better tonight.”

Montreal was outshot 24-10 (10-4 on target) and had two of the game’s seven corners.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on July 26, 2024.

The Canadian Press