In search of their first MLS victory at Saputo Stadium this year, CF Montreal return to league action on Wednesday when they host FC Cincinnati.

Le CFM collected just their second league triumph the last time out, defeating the Houston Dynamo 3-1, while Cincy came away with a narrow 1-0 triumph over the New England Revolution.

Match preview

Montreal begin a three-game MLS homestand feeling much better about themselves following an impressive showing in Houston before the international break.

In that victory, they scored more goals than they had in any single league contest this year, and on Wednesday they can win consecutive games in MLS for the first time all season.

Marco Donadel’s men have points in three successive matches in this competition when scoring an opening half goal, with two of those points occurring at Saputo Stadium.

They have been particularly poor defensively at home of late though, conceding a combined 11 times in their previous three league contests in Montreal.

So far this season the Canadian side have yet to claim a single point when conceding the opening goal in an MLS affair, while dropping four points when leading at the half.

Saputo Stadium has served them well when facing Cincinnati recently, with Le CFM winning three of their previous four matches against them at home, and going unbeaten over that stretch.

After a series of uncharacteristically narrow defeats, we witnessed a more traditional Cincinnati triumph in their last match before the international window.

In their previous game they had just 34% possession against New England but looked in control for most of the match, claiming their sixth clean sheet of the regular season.

Nine of their 10 regular season victories this year have been by a single goal, with Pat Noonan’s men sitting second in the Eastern Conference standings, four points below the Philadelphia Union for first.

The Orange and Blue have suffered four defeats away from home in the competition this season, equaling their total from the 2024 domestic campaign.

Cincinnati are undefeated on the road domestically this year when leading after 45 minutes, dropping points in only one of those instances (1-1 draw at the Columbus Crew).

Their previous two visits to Canada ended with a victory for the Orange and Blue, with both of those triumphs being by just a single goal.

CF Montreal Major League Soccer form:

CF Montreal form (all competitions):

FC Cincinnati Major League Soccer form:

Team News

In their victory over the Dynamo, Montreal were missing Hennadiy Synchuk and Bryce Duke due to lower body issues, while Fabian Herbers sat out because of a sore ankle and Giacomo Vrioni is eligible to return from his red card suspension on Wednesday.

They will be without Joel Waterman (Canada), Nathan Saliba (Canada), Olger Escobar (Guatemala) and Dante Sealy (Trinidad and Tobago) who are all on international duty at the Gold Cup, while Dominik Yankov has transferred to HNK Rijeka in Croatia.

Prince Osei Owusu notched a brace in their victory over Houston as he leads the team with six goals in MLS this year, while Jalen Neal scored his first as a member of Le CFM in that match.

On the Cincinnati side, Yuya Kubo missed their match against New England with a leg injury, while Nick Hagglund continues to recover from a chest issue.

Because of the Gold Cup Miles Robinson will be out of this match as he is on international duty with the USA, though Teenage Hadebe should be available after being called up by Zimbabwe for 2026 World Cup qualifying.

Kevin Denkey put home his team-leading 11th goal of the 2025 MLS campaign the last time out, Roman Celentano collected a clean sheet in his 128th appearance for the club, surpassing Brandon Vazquez for fourth all-time with Cincy, while Obinna Nwobodo is 14 minutes away become the fifth player in club history to reach 10,000 minutes played.

CF Montreal possible starting lineup:

Sirois; Bugaj, Campbell, Neal, Petrasso; Loturi, Piette; Clark, Opoku; Owusu, Vrioni

FC Cincinnati possible starting lineup:

Celentano; Flores, Miazga, Hadebe; Yedlin, Bucha, Nwobodo, Orellano; Evander; Santos, Denkey

We say: CF Montreal 0-1 FC Cincinnati

After shutting down a surging Revolution side, the Orange and Blue should be feeling much better about their defensive game, and we do not foresee them having to deal with a lot of danger against one of the worst attacking sides this season in Montreal

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

Written by
Joel Lefevre

Previews by email