{"id":143796,"date":"2026-07-25T18:51:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T18:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/143796\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T18:51:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T18:51:11","slug":"retooled-cf-montreal-look-for-first-win-in-6-vs-messi-less-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/143796\/","title":{"rendered":"Retooled CF Montreal look for first win in 6 vs. Messi-less Miami"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If there ever was a time to face Inter Miami, a match without Argentina\u2019s Lionel Messi and Rodrigo De Paul might be as good as it gets.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">CF Montr\u00e9al will look to shake off their five-game winless streak in MLS action on Saturday with a new face on their back line against an Inter Miami side missing Lionel Messi and Rodrigo De Paul. While omitted from the league\u2019s injury reporting, the Argentine duo and World Cup runners-up are continuing to rest following a grueling tournament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Montr\u00e9al have endured a roller-coaster of goals and defensive issues since their last win, a 2-0 result over Maxime Cr\u00e9peau\u2019s Orlando City on May 9. Despite scoring six goals in three games before the World Cup break, the run yielded two draws and one loss.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since returning, Philippe Eullaffroy\u2019s side have been blanked twice, including on Wednesday, when <a href=\"https:\/\/canadiansoccerdaily.com\/2026\/07\/23\/cf-montreals-winless-slide-continues-with-1-0-defeat-to-mls-leaders-nashville-sc\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a dubious penalty gave Sam Surridge the opportunity to secure Nashville a 1-0 win<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Inter Miami, on the other hand, counted on a Luis Su\u00e1rez brace as they came from behind twice to beat Robert Lewandowski\u2019s Chicago Fire, 3-2. CanMNT goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair was benched for backup Rocco R\u00edos Novo, but could be back in the lineup on Saturday after the 24-year-old American whiffed on a simple-looking first half clearance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sitting 13th in MLS\u2019 Eastern Conference, and perhaps, sensing some urgency, CF Montr\u00e9al made a <a href=\"https:\/\/canadiansoccerdaily.com\/2026\/07\/24\/cf-montreal-acquires-defender-brayan-ceballos-from-new-england-trades-thorhallsson-to-san-diego\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">flurry of moves on Friday<\/a>, starting with the addition of New England Revolution centre-back Brayan Ceballos for up to $850,000 in General Allocation Money. Montr\u00e9al then flipped Dagur Dan Th\u00f3rhallsson to San Diego for up to $650,000 in GAM, and added $275,000 more by trading an international roster spot to LAFC.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ceballos, 25, featured heavily for New England at the start of the season, scoring a brace in a 6-1 win against Cincinnati in March. However, a brief injury saw him dropped for five matches before drawing back in at right-back in a 2-1 win over Minnesota on May 16.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With Ceballos in the line-up, the Revs registered five wins and three losses, and overall, are 4th in the Eastern Conference with a record of eight wins, two draws and five losses. The Colombian is expected to play a much larger role than defender Tom\u00e1s Avil\u00e9s, whose unsuccessful Montr\u00e9al loan was cut short after six months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Thursday, Canadian youth international defender <a href=\"https:\/\/canadiansoccerdaily.com\/2026\/07\/23\/canada-youth-international-aleksandr-guboglo-joins-stade-reims-on-loan-from-cf-montreal-with-option-to-buy\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Aleksandr Guboglo also departed Montreal<\/a> for France, joining Ligue 2\u2019s Stade Reims on loan. He is expected to join Reims\u2019 reserve team for now, though a purchase option was also included in the deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If there ever was a time to face Inter Miami, a match without Argentina\u2019s Lionel Messi and Rodrigo&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1104,27385,3545,35649,18414,50,47099],"class_list":["post-143796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-cf-montreal","tag-cfmtl","tag-inter-miami","tag-messi","tag-miami","tag-montreal","tag-mtl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}