CF Montreal eliminated from playoff contention on final day

For several weeks, CF Montreal clung to a place in the playoffs thanks to a series of favourable results.

The MLS side didn’t have that same luck in its last match of his season.

After suffering a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Columbus Crew on Saturday evening, CF Montreal returned to the locker room holding on to the ninth and last playoff place in the Eastern Conference.

Charlotte FC’s victory over Inter Miami CF pushed the Montrealers down a rung and New York City FC’s triumph in Chicago helped their cause. Then everything changed in Nashville.

Excluded from the playoff picture until this moment, the New York Red Bulls won a penalty in stoppage time in the second half when Anibal Godoy committed a foul in the penalty area against Luquinhas. John Tolkin scored to put the Red Bulls ahead in the standings and eliminate CF Montreal (12-17-5).

It’s obviously a hard blow for the Montreal squad, but its record of 1-5-3 in its last nine games certainly didn’t help the cause. Head coach Hernan Losada, however, did not want to blame this bad streak to explain the exclusion of his men from the playoffs.

Sunusi Ibrahim hit the target in the opening minutes of the match to allow CF Montreal to take the lead. Cucho Hernandez, however, tied the score 10 minutes later, changing the momentum.

Darlington Nagbe added a goal to give the Crew the victory (16-9-9).

—This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews