There's rarely a day off in MLS.

Even in the middle of an international break, league play rages on, with the stretch run of the 2026 regular season starting to hit stride.

While nearly every team will lose a handful of players off to their countries, this particular game will cause some major trouble for Montréal. With a large number of players away, plus some injuries, plus the lack of an MLS Next Pro team to recall second-teamers on short-term loans, it's practically guaranteed the Impact will be severely shorthanded on Saturday as Cincinnati comes to town.

Already sat at the bottom of the Eastern Conference, a desperate and offensively-talented Cincy team needing a win to stay afloat in the Eastern playoff race will relish an opportunity to play a squad so thin.

This matchup will be the second and final match this season between these two sides in 2026. The first was a 4-3 Cincinnati comeback win, with a late Kévin Denkey winner at TQL Stadium back in March that became one of the final games of the Marco Donadel era in Montréal.

How Montréal enter the match

Shorthanded and short on confidence is probably the best way to describe the bleu-blanc-noir these days.

Last weekend's home loss to Columbus was the fifth straight loss in league play, and Montréal has sunk to the bottom of the Eastern Conference, five points behind both the Crew and Atlanta United, in 13th and 14th place respectively.

In fact, the Impact are now just three points above Sporting Kansas City in the Wooden Spoon chase, and SKC has a game in hand.

Suffice to say, things are not going well in the league these days. It's quite clear this season will boil down to Canadian Championship or bust, but a spot in the basement of MLS is still a major disappointment.

Heavily reliant on Prince Owusu's goalscoring for the majority of the season, the Ghanaian striker's tallies have dried up in this recent downturn of form, with his last MLS goal coming in a 2-2 draw against the LA Galaxy back in August. That being said, he did have two pivotal ones against the Whitecaps in the Cup.

Outside of Owusu, there's been nobody else on this team that can consistently generate goals and assists. Younger, more promising attackers like Hennadiy Synchuk and Noah Streit have had moments of quality, but not much tangible end product. Alexis Sánchez is still searching for his first goal contribution with the club, while Wiki Carmona hasn't continued his strong form at the start of the year after returning from injury.

The lack of a consistent attacking threat helps explain why Montréal have struggled so much in the league this year. Even as some underlying numbers have been kinder, a lack of quality has been the side's downfall once again.

How Cincinnati enter the match

"Lack of quality" is one of the last phrases you'd use to describe this Cincinnati team.

Between mercurial playmaker Evander and star striker Kévin Denkey, the Garys are up there with almost any team in MLS in terms of pure firepower. That being said, they still sit just ninth in the East, fighting for their playoff lives with seven games to go in their regular season.

Also winless in five, Cincy has two losses and three draws since their last triumph back on August 19 over NYCFC. 

The big problem for Cincinnati this year has clearly been the defence and keeping the ball out of their own net. The 61 goals against in just 25 games are the second-worst tally in MLS, and the defensive problems are notable all over the pitch.

From the front, while Evander and Denkey are ridiculously talented players on the ball, their work rate off it often leaves a lot to be desired. This makes them very easy to play through in possession, as their attackers fail to put much pressure on the ball at all.

Through midfield, they've been searching for solutions all year. Their players in Pavel Bucha, Obinna Nwobodo and Samuel Gidi are all good, or have been good in the past, but chemistry and consistency have been an issue in 2026. Nwobodo, in particular, has struggled this year coming off big injuries in recent seasons.

In the back line, there have also been a ton of issues. Former MLS defender of the year Matt Miazga has really struggled since a gnarly leg injury from a couple of years ago, and he was waived a couple of weeks ago. Miles Robinson hasn't been at his best, and neither have any of the other solutions Cincy has attempted to find in their back three.

That said, while Cincinnati is porous at the back and has struggled in recent weeks, their attack is no joke. They sit third in MLS in goals for, with Evander and Denkey on 14 and 13 goals respectively. Evander also sits behind only Lionel Messi in the primary assist leaderboard, too.

Expect most FC Cincinnati games to have a lot of goals in them, both ways.

Availability

Montréal is missing an enormous number of players this weekend due to a combination of international duty and injury. So many, in fact, the team reportedly asked – which was refused – to postpone this game, as they may have as few as three players available on the bench, according to Apple TV's Vincent Destouches.

The Impact will be missing Olger Escobar, Samsy Keita, Efrain Morales, Samuel Piette, Viktor Radojević, Synchuk, Dante Sealy, Streit, Dani Pereira and Carmona due to international duty. They'll also continue to be without Brayan Vera and Bode Hidalgo due to injury.

With no reserve team to call players up, this is a massive chunk of Montréal's roster gone, and they'll legitimately be playing shorthanded this weekend.

On Cincinnati's side, there are still absences, though not nearly as severe a number. David Douděra should remain out with injury, while Robinson, Bucha, Denkey and Andrei Chirila will be gone on international duty.

Projected XIs

Both of these sides will be forced into a number of changes thanks to their absences. It appears Philippe Eullaffroy will opt for a formation change, as well, partially due to a lack of available wingers, and likely partially to match Cincinnati's formation, a tactical move a lot of managers across MLS have opted for over the years.

CF Montréal (3-4-3): Sebastian Breza; Jalen Neal, Brandan Craig, Brayan Ceballos; Luca Petrasso, Fabian Herbers, Victor Loturi, Dawid Bugaj; Alexis Sánchez, Prince Owusu, Daniel Ríos

FC Cincinnati (3-4-1-2): Roman Celentano; Teenage Hadebe, Nick Hagglund, Samuel Gidi; Kenji Mboma Dem, Obinna Nwobodo, Gerardo Valenzuela, Ender Echenique; Evander; Ayoub Jabbari, Tom Barlow

Game information and how to watch

📆 Saturday, September 26
⏰ 7:30 pm ET / 4:30 pm PT
📺 Apple TV / TSN / RDS
🧑‍⚖️ Ismail Elfath
🏟 Stade Saputo, Montréal, Canada