Propelled by an explosion of three consecutive goals in the first half, the New England Revolution inflicted a second consecutive defeat on CF Montreal, 4-1 Wednesday night at Saputo Stadium.
DeJuan Jones and Adam Buksa first beat James Pantemis before the 20th minute of play. Rudy Camacho extended the visitors’ lead by scoring his own side in the 30th minute.
Gustavo Bou, late in the second half, scored the other goal of the Revolution (20-4-5), which reached the plateau of 20 victories in the season for the first time in its history.
Joaquin Torres, in the first half, managed the only goal for CF Montreal (10-10-7).
This setback, combined with Atlanta United’s 1-0 victory over Inter Miami CF, pushed CF Montreal back to the eighth rung of the Eastern Conference and therefore, temporarily, out of the playoff portrait.
CF Montreal will play its next game on Saturday night, also at Saputo Stadium, against Atlanta United.
Cream on the surface
CF Montreal faced an unprecedented challenge in 2021, and it did not choose the right team to face such a situation: a three-goal decline.
The Revolution opened the scoring in the 10th minute of play when Jones took advantage of a return from a blocked shot on defense in front of Pantemis’ goal to lodge the return in a wide open net.
About seven minutes later, Buksa made it 2-0, heading in after a cross from Bou.
And as if Bruce Arena’s squad needed help, Camacho widened the gap when he deflected another attempt at Bou’s cross behind Pantemis.
Just two minutes later, Torres brought his team and fans back to life when he scored his fourth goal of the season with a quality shot.
From that moment on, we felt Wilfried Nancy’s men more vigorous in attack. Between Torres’ goal and the end of the half, CF Montreal attempted five shots at Matt Turner, who was called upon to make saves against Victor Wanyama and Romell Quioto.
After the first 45 minutes of play, the two clubs had attempted 15 shots towards the opposing net, including eight by the Montreal team. The Revolution, however, had the best with five shots on target against three.
In the second half, CF Montreal made several forays into the opposing zone and directed 11 shots towards the opposing net, but only three on target.
Then, Bou encouraged several of the spectators to leave the Saputo stadium by beating Pantemis in the 86th minute.
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