It’s officially the start of a new era for CF Montréal.

After last week’s disappointing home opener loss against the Philadelphia Union led to the dismissal of head coach Marco Donadel, the Impact are back at it at Stade Saputo this week for their first match under new interim boss Philippe Eullaffroy.

It just so happens that the only team they managed to beat this season are in town, as Red Bull New York arrive looking to get revenge for the 3-0 Montréal win at Sports Illustrated Stadium in matchday three.

Last time out

It seemed, just maybe, at the time of that 3-0 win, that the Bleu-blanc-noir’s season could be steadied. They came out and hit the possession-heavy, high-pressing Red Bulls with a 5-4-1, man-to-man marking defensive system, while punishing them on the counter with balls over the top.

Prince Owusu scored the opener from the spot, while Wiki Carmona scored a brace to seal the victory.

It was hardly pretty, but it was effective that night. Unfortunately for them, it ended up standing as the only Montréal win under Donadel in 2026, as teams quickly learned how to adapt to this system and punish the Impact right back.

How CF Montréal enter the game

It should really be looked at as a fresh slate. Eullaffroy has stated that he will be changing some things tactically, including removing the man-to-man marking system. It’s yet to be seen exactly how he’ll line the team up, but it should look different tactically than the majority of the Donadel era.

From there, it will be interesting to see which players get more love under the new manager. There are many spots to improve for this team, so there are definitely possibilities for different players to see the pitch.

Montréal has conceded two or more goals in every single one of their six losses this season, with the clean sheet against RBNY being the only time they did not ship multiple goals.

Their 19 goals against rank them second-last in MLS this season, with only the disastrous Orlando City back end performing worse on the year. In terms of expected goals against, they rank slightly higher with 12.3 xG conceded through seven games, but still sit in the bottom third of the league.

Their eight goals and 8.10 expected goals line up pretty evenly, both also sitting in the bottom 10 across MLS. It’s pretty easy to see why this team has struggled, and why the new interim manager should have plenty of freedom and ability to experiment, starting with this match on Saturday.

How Red Bull New York enter the match

It’s been an up-and-down start to life under head coach Michael Bradley for New York, with his team putting in both excellent and disastrous performances through seven weeks of action.

It was a positive result last week in Miami, where their young stars helped them battle back from down 2-1 against the defending champions and rescued a draw at Nu Stadium.

They’re led by Swedish international Emil Forsberg, while youngsters like Julian Hall, Adri Mehmeti and Ronald Donkor really drive the bus forward with this project.

With the group being so young – multiple teenagers start basically every game – you can see how the team is inconsistent in their performances.

They are certainly learning on the fly, and the Montréal game earlier this season was probably a good example of taking a perceived weaker opponent lightly, an error they’ll look to rectify this weekend on the road.

While they currently sit seventh in a tight Eastern Conference, they’re just two points off of second spot. Their stats show some serious variance, sitting third in the league in expected goals with 13.4, but third-bottom in expected goals against with 13.9.

They’ve also scored just 11 goals, which is undershooting their xG by a bit. A large portion of this is struggles from the wingers in finishing chances, as they’ve relied on Hall to do nearly half of their goal scoring so far. The winger group of Cade Cowell, Jorge Ruvalcaba and Mohammed Sofo have contributed to just two goals total.

This does show the story of a young, inconsistent group, where they’re able to create chances but still struggle with balls in behind and dealing with transitional moments, as well as being able to kill games off with elite finishing.

Availability

Montréal’s training sessions this week, as well as Eullaffroy’s comments, suggest both Carmona and Hennadiy Synchuk are questionable as they’re dealing with some knocks. Brayan Vera has been dealing with an injury of his own, but trained with the group on Thursday, so he should be good to go this weekend.

Meanwhile, Bode Hidalgo and Sunusi Ibrahim will likely miss this one through injury.

For New York, Justin Che is still recovering from a hamstring injury that he shouldn’t be back from yet, while Cameron Harper is questionable as he returns to play from a long-term knee injury.

Projected XIs

It’s difficult to gauge what a new manager will do with his team, but due to injury, there will be some changes Eullaffroy is forced to make in his debut. With RBNY rotating a portion of the squad for their midweek U.S. Open Cup fixture, they should be at full-strength this weekend, barring their injuries.

CF Montréal (4-2-3-1): Thomas Gillier; Dawid Bugaj, Efrain Morales, Brayan Vera, Luca Petrasso; Matty Longstaff, Victor Loturi; Dagur Dan Thórhalsson, Olger Escobar, Iván Jaime; Prince Owusu

Red Bull New York (4-3-3): Ethan Horvath; Jahkeele Marshall-Rutty, Dylan Nealis, Robert Voloder, Matthew Dos Santos; Ronald Donkor, Adri Mehmeti, Emil Forsberg; Cade Cowell, Julian Hall, Jorge Ruvalcaba

Game information and how to watch

📆 Saturday, April 18, 2026
⏰ 2:30 pm ET / 11:30 am PT
📺 Apple TV
🧑‍⚖️ Sergii Demianchuk
🏟 Stade Saputo, Montreal, Canada