Victor Loturi scored from 18 yards out past Tomás Romero in goal in the 22nd minute to separate Montréal from New York City FC in a 1-0 defeat at the Stadium Saputo.
Dante Sealy found space down the right wing from a sweeping diagonal and cut in to shoot between Hannes Wolf and Birk Risa. Romero parried the shot past four NYCFC defenders into the path of an oncoming, unmarked Loturi, who calmly slotted it into the bottom right corner.
The goal was Loturi’s second of the season and clinched Montréal’s first win at home in the 2025 MLS season. The goal also meant NYCFC fall to ninth in the Eastern Conference, having played one less game than the New York Red Bulls in seventh with one point more.
The Boys in Blue were lacklustre, dominating possession with a 68% share, but not creating that many dangerous chances with it. They were missing some key personnel, as head coach Pascal Jansen was away on personal matters, meaning assistant coach and former NYCFC midfielder Mehdi Ballouchy was on the touchline.
“I think the most important thing for usis the reality of tonight, is — we showed up a little bit late to the party because our first half an hour or so is a little sluggish,” said Ballouchy. “We didn’t have the right intensity, it took half time for us to kind of get going again. The second half was much better, we had control, we were in the final third, but we just lacked the last little play, or the last pass — clever pass.”
Usual-No. 1 Matthew Freese and striker Alonso Martinez were also missing, and are about to face off with their respective national teams in the Gold Cup quarterfinals tomorrow at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, MN.
“Tomás, when Matt left, has had some good performances, made some good saves, and even tonight, he’s somebody that’s improving,” said Ballouchy. “We just talked about stepping up and he’s one of the guys that showed that he can.”
City did have a pair of early chances before the opener ,though.
Agustin Ojeda created NYCFC’s first chance on goal with eight minutes gone when his cross deflected heavily off Luca Petrasso’s face to force goalkeeper Jonathan Sirois to make an instinctive save right on the line at the near post. His initial save blocked the shot but the ball was still bobbling on the line, which NYCFC players asked for a check — but Sirois pounced on the ball before Mounsef Bakrar could get to it.
The in-form Wolf — who scored four goals in his last two matches — had a shot in the 11th minute blocked as well from a tight angle.
After the break, Montréal sat deep and defended their lead. NYCFC created more chances, with Wolf flashing a ball across the face of the goal in the 48th minute, but Bakrar was just a split-second late.
“We talked about this in the build up to the game,” said Ballouchy “We needed a give and go. We needed a third man run. We needed a clever pass for us to get something in around the box for a goal. And tonight, we lacked it.”
CFMTL almost doubled their lead in the 68th minute when Prince-Osei Owusu chipped a pass over Justin Haak’s head to substitute Jules-Anthony Vilsaint, though Romero got fingertips to make the save and keep his side in the game.
Owusu had another chance in the 90+2nd minute to end the game, but his heavy touch just allowed Romero to get his body in front of the shot and make the save.
