Sports Mole previews Saturday’s Major League Soccer clash between DC United and CF Montreal, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
DC United can end a four-match winless run when they welcome CF Montreal to Audi Field in MLS action on Saturday in the US capital.
The Black and Red settled for a 2-2 draw with St Louis City last Saturday, while Le CFM had a week off following their dramatic 4-3 defeat to the Chicago Fire.
Match preview
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That first away win of the season continues to elude Troy Lesesne‘s men, who are winless in eight successive regular-season affairs outside Audi Field dating back to 2023.
After scoring first but losing to Inter Miami in their previous home fixture (3-1) last week, DC failed to win an MLS contest when leading at the half for the first time since their previous home game with Montreal in 2023 (2-2 draw).
On the plus side, DC have only suffered one defeat so far this season, while their six points gained thus far are one more than they had managed at this same stage a year ago.
DC have not lost consecutive MLS fixtures in the US capitol since March-April 2023 when they followed up a 2-1 defeat to the New England Revolution with a 2-0 loss versus the Columbus Crew.
They have scored in five successive MLS home games but have conceded at least once in four of their last five regular-season contests at Audi Field.
Coming into this encounter, the Black and Red have points in three successive MLS games against Montreal, including a pair of 1-0 triumphs.
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Le CFM had a week to process exactly what went wrong in Chicago earlier this month, as their comfortable two-goal advantage evaporated in the latter stages of that match.
Up 3-1 with fewer than 10 minutes remaining, Laurent Courtois saw his side fall apart, conceding twice in stoppage time, including a long-range effort from Kellyn Acosta, which sailed over the head of Jonathan Sirois, who was fooled by the massive gust of wind.
That was the first regular season defeat suffered by Courtois as an MLS head coach, as he has already accumulated as many points away from home this season (eight) as this side had during their entire 2023 domestic campaign.
There are still two more matches left on their road trip, and with a victory on Saturday, Montreal would exceed their total for away wins in this competition from a year ago (two).
While they are playing a little more conservatively under Courtois than we saw when Hernan Losada was in charge last year, Le CFM are often finding the right stretches to attack and bring up the intensity, scoring on three of their four targeted efforts in each of their previous two games.
They have not won a domestic contest against DC United since 2022 (1-0), though they have points in four of their last five visits to Audi Field, with their last triumph in DC coming in 2022 (2-1).
DC United Major League Soccer form:
CF Montreal Major League Soccer form:
Team News
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In their draw with St Louis last week, DC were without the suspended Pedro Santos, while Russell Canouse sat out because of a sore ankle, Tyler Miller missed that game due to a shoulder injury, Garrison Tubbs did not feature because of a thigh strain and Steve Birnbaum was sidelined with a sore knee.
Matti Peltola, former Montreal defender Aaron Herrera, Kristian Fletcher and Matai Akinmboni could each be available for selection, having missed their match last week because of international duty.
After missing their second and third MLS encounters this season, Christian Benteke has started the last two games, scoring his fourth of the campaign last week, putting him one behind Lewis Morgan and Dejan Joveljic in the Golden Boot race, while Ted Ku-DiPietro netted his first of 2024.
Jules-Anthony Vilsaint did not feature for Montreal against Chicago due to a sore knee, Kwadwo Opoku sat out with an ankle injury, while Raheem Edwards will be suspended for this encounter and their big off-season signing Josef Martinez may be on the bench again, given the form of their Uruguayan striker.
The international break came at a good time if you are CF Montreal, as several regulars, including Sirois, Joel Waterman, Samuel Piette, Ariel Lassiter, Mathieu Choiniere, and George Campbell, represented their countries last week but should each be available on Saturday.
Matias Coccaro, who hails from Uruguay, has three goals in his last two games, becoming the third player in Montreal history to score two penalties in a single game last week, after Patrice Bernier (2013) and Saphir Taider (2020), while Dominik Yankov netted his first as a member of Le CFM in the loss to the Fire.
DC United possible starting lineup:
Bono; Herrera, Bartlett, McVey, Santos; Hopkins, Klich; Ku-DiPietro, Pirani, Dajome; Benteke
CF Montreal possible starting lineup:
Sirois; Corbo, Waterman, Campbell; Ruan, Choiniere, Piette, Lassiter; Yankov, Duke; Coccaro
We say: DC United 2-2 CF Montreal
Both sides have capitalised on a number of their scoring opportunities, and with the quality and form they each have in the attacking third, we expect to see the back of the net bulge a few times this weekend.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.