MONTRÉAL, QC – Red Bull New York (3-2-2, 11 pts) looks to continue their impressive April when they visit CF Montréal (1-6-0, 3 pts) Saturday afternoon. Red Bull previously fell to Montréal 3-0 at home early last month.
It’s been a tale of two very different stories the past few weeks for each of the fighters in Saturday’s match-up in the North. Since their last encounter on March 8, New York has had a stretch of really positive play, outside their tough loss to Charlotte FC.
Arguably, the month of April has been a brilliant success for New York. With nine goals in the last three matches in all competitions, New York has been progressing nicely in head coach Michael Bradley’s first season. Just in the past few days, Red Bull picked up a great draw against Inter Miami CF and a win against the Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC in the U.S. Open Cup.
For Montréal, the less said the better. Simply put, four straight losses in league play is unacceptable. With two of those losses coming against struggling sides in Orlando City SC and the Philadelphia Union, that’s beyond intolerable.
Now with Montréal sitting at the bottom of the league standings, changes had to occur. Earlier in the week, Montréal announced that their head coach, Marco Donadel, was relieved of his duties.
Considering many people were thrashing Montréal prior to their first matchup vs Red Bull this season, I’m a little hesitant to bash them again. Yes, this club possesses a USL Championship-caliber roster. But, let’s revisit what occurred on March 8.
In a 3-0 shutout loss to the visitors from Canada, Red Bull conceded a penalty kick early in the eighth minute. Montréal’s star forward Prince Owusu scored on that penalty kick, which turned into Montréal’s first goal of the 2026 season.
Then, what essentially became the main storyline of the contest, former Red Bull Wiki Carmona earned himself a brace. Carmona scored in the 44th minute and 68th minute of the match, which left a sour taste in fans’ mouths.
Bradley discussed that previous matchup in his pre-match press conference on Friday.
“It was a weird game,” Bradley said Friday. “Obviously, as we do always, we looked at it and talked about the things that needed to be better on the day. But at this point, it is long behind us. We’ve learned in a good way. We’ve improved, and we’re excited about another chance.”
Defender Robert Voloder also hopes the result will be different on Saturday.
“We definitely looked at the past game we played against Montréal,” Voloder said Friday. “Now it’s obviously also going to probably be a little bit different with a new coach. We can’t really tell if the system is going to change, we will be prepared for everything that can come to us. So, yeah, I think we are more than enough prepared for whatever way they want to play, and we’re going to come after them.”
With the way New York has been playing as of late, expect another great performance from the attack. The defense could also witness an incredible showing given that Montréal has only scored one goal in their previous two league matches.
Kickoff for Saturday’s match is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Apple TV.
