The Round of 32 rolls on Friday night in Chester, Pennsylvania when Philadelphia Union hosts CF Montréal in an Eastern Conference fight for Leagues Cup life at Subaru Park.
Philadelphia earned their spot in the knockout round by winning a challenging East 4 group over Charlotte FC and Cruz Azul on four points. Following a third-place Leagues Cup finish and resulting Concacaf Champions Cup berth last season, Union will hope replicating group supremacy can propel them to another strong tournament. For Montéal, advancing from the group stage as the second-place finisher in group East 2 is already an improvement on last season’s group stage exit but that does not mean they are satisfied.
For any team sitting outside of the playoff picture in their league table, Leagues Cup provides an opportunity not only to find form but also to get rewarded, as Union knows well. Of course, the two teams also know each other well from battling in the MLS Eastern Conference.
In two matches against one another thus far this season, a whopping ten goals have been scored. Philadelphia — a team that wishes to play in a more controlled fashion — may not enjoy matchups of goals galore but CFMTL is content (and fans love it). Despite conceding the second-most goals in the conference this season, Montréal is stubborn in their style of play under first-year head coach Laurent Courtois.
“It’s a Montréal team that takes a lot of risk building out of the back. I think we’re familiar with that.,” analyzed longtime Union head coach Jim Curtin. “They play in a lot of high-scoring games. That’s not what we want to have happen in our building but we want to try to win the ball as high up the field as possible. They play very brave. Whether they’re winning, whether they’re losing, they play the same way.”
The different styles explain why the Union has a +3 goal differential compared to Montréal’s -15 GD through 25 league matches but regardless of the difference in style, their results remain identical as the pair are level in the MLS table on 27 points with a 6-10-9 (W-L-D) record.
There is not much to separate them in league play but a knockout round match can do that quickly. Before they return to jostle for an MLS playoff spot, Philadelphia and Montréal will meet at Subaru Park on Friday night to battle for a spot in the last 16 of Leagues Cup.
