CF Montreal missed its comeback at Saputo Stadium after a two-week absence on Saturday night, losing 1-0 to Nashville SC.
Defender Walker Zimmerman, in the 67th minute, scored the only goal of the game at the expense of goalkeeper James Pantemis, back in front of CF Montreal’s goal after a five-week inactivity.
Despite this long absence, Pantemis delivered a solid performance. The Kirkland goalkeeper faced eight shots on target, most of them quality.
At the other end of the spectrum, goaltender Joe Willis had a rather quiet evening, if we exclude moments of tension in the last 20 minutes. Only three shots from Montreal hit the target, including only one really dangerous, that of Mustafa Kizza in the 74th minute.
CF Montreal will play its next game next Wednesday night when they visit Orlando City SC, a team that has 38 points thanks, among other things, to a 7-1-4 record at home.
Next Sunday, the Montreal squad will host the Chicago Fire in a first game to be played in the afternoon at Saputo stadium this season.
Pantemis responds present
Probably knowing that Pantemis hadn’t played since the start of August, the Nashville SC players were quick to put the Montreal goalie to the test.
After eight minutes of play, the visitors already had three shots on target, and if the first and third were not too difficult to repel, the second, shot at close range from Daniel Rios, forced Pantemis to make a superb stop.
For the remainder of that first half, Wilfried Nancy’s players dominated possession, but only one of their six shots reached goalkeeper Joe Willis, a fairly harmless Djordje Mihailovic shot from afar.
In fact, the only other serious threat in this first half came from CJ Sapong with less than 10 minutes to go. Once again, Pantemis has shown itself in its most vigilant light.
Sapong tried his luck again shortly after the two clubs returned to the pitch, and once again Pantemis kept the score 0-0 with a nice left-footed save.
But less than five minutes after another unsuccessful attempt by Sapong, Zimmerman broke the deadlock by deflecting with a header, just out of Pantemis’s reach, a free kick from Hany Mukhtar.
Despite more incisive efforts after the visitors’ goal, the CF Montreal players failed to tie the score.
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