New York City FC lost their second straight game in all competitions, this time a disastrous 1-0 loss to winless CF Montreal at Yankee Stadium on Saturday night. The game’s only goal came early in the second half from Prince Owusu. Despite the starters on the field and head coach Pascal Jansen’s changes, City were kept scoreless at home for the first time in 2025.
While City rotated their squad, many of the starters were fresh and their legs showed that early on. The team’s leading scorer Alonso Martinez got their best chance of the game just 12 minutes in when a counter attack saw the Costa Rican striker beat the last defender. Unfortunately for City, Montreal’s goalkeeper was up to the task, taking Martinez to his left and stopping the effort.
From there Montreal recovered and took it to the home team. A headed effort in the 22nd minute forced Matt Freese into an emergency save. The away team continued to put on the pressure, looking the fresher of the two clubs and taking advantage of mistakes. Justin Haak in particular was stripped of the ball late in the half as the mistakes continued.
The game’s only goal came just after the halftime whistle when Owusu scored his fourth of the season from just inside the box. He dribbled in and took a blistering shot to the top corner, beating Freese and the City defense. From there NYC did their best to chase the game with offensive substitutes like Mounsef Bakrar and Hannes Wolf. It wasn’t enough as Montreal held on for their first win and handed City their second home loss of the season.
The loss drops NYC down to 10th place, as the fixture congestion only gets worse. This Wednesday the team will play DC United at Audi Field before returning home for a rematch of the Eastern Conference semi final against rivals New York Red Bulls.
STARTING XI:
New York City FC: Freese; Gray, Haak, Martins, Cavallo (73′ Bakrar), O’Neill (62′ Tanasijevic), Shore, Moralez, Fernandez (62′ Wolf), Martinez, Perea
CF Montreal: Sirois; Bugai, Waterman, Neal (80′ Pearce), Petrasso, Sealy, Saliba, Herbers, Vironi (59′ Clark), Owusu
SCORING SUMMARY:
48′ (CF Montreal) Prince Owusu (4) unassisted
DISCIPLINE:
39′ (CF Montreal) Samuel Piette – YELLOW CARD
44′ (New York City FC) Justin Haak – YELLOW CARD
photo by Jordan Bank