CF Montréal failed to capitalize on an opportunity to pick up more points against a struggling opponent.
Instead, it was Orlando City who grabbed a much-needed first win of the season, winning at home by a score of 2-1.
The Impact lined up in a 5-4-1 shape with Thomas Gillier in goal, a back five with Dagur Dan Þórhallsson on the right, Tomas Avilés, Efrain Morales and Brayan Vera as the centre backs, with Luca Petrasso on the left. Matty Longstaff and Victor Loturi made up the midfield duo, while Hennadiy Synchuk and Wiki Carmona manned the wings with Prince Owusu leading the line as the lone striker.
The game started with the hosts on the front foot, and in the 18th minute, they'd find a breakthrough. An initial Marco Pašalić shot deflected before Iván Angulo hit the post on the rebound. The ball would then find its way to Duncan McGuire, who deposited it into the open goal.
Chaos in the box to Big Dunc finishing it off 💪 pic.twitter.com/0QfhLP5Dlz
— Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) March 15, 2026
Montréal would respond soon after, though.
In the 24th minute, Carmona lifted a corner to the back post, which went over the entire Orlando defence and onto the head of Owusu, who made no mistake with the finish.
La tête puissante de Prince Owusu 🔥#CFMTL pic.twitter.com/1FjrgPZFMd
— CF Montréal (@cfmontreal) March 15, 2026
Just seven minutes later, Orlando would take the lead. A brilliant bit of play from Angulo saw him eliminate Avilés on the dribble. He played a ball in behind to McGuire, who couldn't handle it in stride, but it deflected back into Angulo's path.
He played a quick one-two with Pašalić before finding Martín Ojeda at the top of the box, who finished it cleanly into the bottom corner past Gillier.
So clean 🧼 pic.twitter.com/EyLDi33sqq
— Orlando City SC (@OrlandoCitySC) March 15, 2026
The 2-1 score would hold to half. In the second, the Impact came out looking to take more shots, but couldn't really test Javier Otero all too much.
Just around the 60-minute mark, Marco Donadel made a couple of changes, seeing Samuel Piette and Iván Jaime enter the match to try and make a difference.
Jaime, in particular, looked bright but had to settle for a few shots that ended up being blocked. Orlando also got a couple of chances in transition, using balls over the top and behind as ways to put Montréal's back line under pressure.
Gillier was forced into a couple of saves, including a big one off of Tyrese Spicer in the 75th minute.
Noah Streit and Olger Escobar entered as attacking options later in the match, but neither could really find a spark.
To their credit, Montréal pushed, and it was certainly a better showing than two weeks ago in Chicago, where they looked lifeless and lost.
But, in the end, they couldn't get really any true big chances off against Orlando, who defended their own 18-yard box well.
The Lions held on to take home their first three points of the season and gave interim head coach Martín Perelman a win in his first game at the helm.
