CF Montréal begins busy stretch with game against Union at Big O

Montreal will be forced to play five games over the next two weeks, thanks in part to its success in the Champions League.

Montréal defender Zorhan Bassong, left, and CF Montréal defender Kamal Miller head the ball against Orlando City SC last weekend. Photo by Kim Klement /USA TODAY Sports

Call it the calm before the storm.

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Following three full practice days, preceded by two actual days off, CF Montréal makes its MLS regular-season home debut Saturday afternoon against the Philadelphia Union at Olympic Stadium (4 p.m., TSN 4, TVA Sports, TSN690.ca, 91.9 Sports).

CFM is hoping to rebound from a 2-0 defeat last Sunday at Orlando City, and is attempting to avoid its first two-game losing streak to launch a season since 2018.

“The mood was a bit down, especially when we came back from Orlando,” Zorhan Bassong said on Friday. “But this week’s a new week. We have to forget this (last) game. We saw some sequences of the game — the good and the bad and… to be able to correct what we didn’t do good.

“The team’s in a good mood. We’re motivated. We forgot about that game, although we know we have a lot of games ahead of us.”

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The match against Philadelphia begins a ridiculous stretch for CF Montréal, forced to play five games over the next two weeks, thanks in part to its success in the Champions League.

After defeating Santos Laguna in the round of 16, CFM has advanced to quarter-final play and will meet Mexican side Cruz Azul Wednesday night on the road in the opening leg of the two-game aggregate. Next Saturday afternoon, CFM travels to Yankee Stadium to face New York City FC, the defending MLS champions.

It returns to Olympic Stadium for the final leg against Cruz Azul on March 16, before resuming MLS play in Atlanta on March 19. Five of the team’s first six games are on the road.

CFM manager Wilfried Nancy said this week he’s approaching matters one match at a time. His side of him appears to possess more depth than last season, when he rotated his starting lineup liberally. Nancy says keeping his players fresh will be paramount to success.

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“It’s to see the state of the players’ freshness and, after, to put in place the freshest possible team to try to bring back results,” Nancy said. “Before starting the Champions League, we suspected the further we went, the more there was going to be a big challenge.”

Of the five MLS teams competing in the Champions League, it’s likely no coincidence only New England produced a result last weekend, a draw against Portland. Seattle, Colorado, NYCFC and CFM all lost.

And New England automatically advanced to the quarterfinal round after its Haitian opponent, AS Cavaly, with drawn from the competition after failing to obtain visas required to travel to the US

It has never been an easy road combining MLS and Champions League.

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CFM will be without Honduran striker Romell Quioto, its leading scorer in 2021. He’s suspended following his second-half ejection last Sunday. But veteran French defender Rudy Camacho returns to solidify a back line that performed well, other than a 10-minute stretch following the intermission during which both goals were conceded.

“I think the coach has made changes and it’s all good for the team,” Mathieu Choinière said this week. “Everybody wants to play and everybody’s good to play. Everybody’s good, fitness-wise.

“It hurts to lose Quito. He helps the team a lot. But we have a philosophy in place. Everyone knows our system of play. No matter who replaces him, he’ll bring something good to the team. We’re not worried about that.”

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