Montreal MD5 review

[TooDear]

Montreal United vs Cairo City 6-2 

Hello guys, gals and non-binary pals of the SSL. As always I'm Predrag Dobrić and I'm here to provide a review of Montreal's games. Today I'll be covering matchday 5 of the minor league. I've accepted the fact that I simply will not be able to cover all the games but I will still review as many as I can until the season officially ends, then I'll start covering the draft as well as any potential changes before the friendly games start.

Obviously Montreal were the heavy favorites going into this match and the final result showed that but let's not get into spoilers right away. Cairo were and still are in their rebuild while Montreal were hitting their peak. Additionally, with all the momentum Montreal had, many pundits knew what was going to happen in this match.

Cairo developed their unique "airplane" formation for this season. In goal was Canders II while the two center-backs were ULTIMUS and Slothinson. The DM tasked with dropping back was Snezhevna while the WBs were Narvaez Jr. and Herrera. The midfield trio were Slakteris, Delo and Sinclair. The striker was Shturm while Kenderlin operated as a Shadow Striker.

First Half:

2nd minute
Yup, we start that early. Unfortunately I really don't have much to describe here. The action, if you could even call it that, started with a free kick from Muuno. He simply passed it to Clarke, Clarke pushed it up the side, a bit of passing happened between Montreal players as they tried to find the best opening. Eventually Clarke found a cross and Aleksandr completely unmarked headed it in. Clean, professional, unbothered, these are the words I'd use to describe the goal. Like straight out of practice. 1-0 Montreal.

20th minute
We had to wait a bit to get our second highlight. After solid possession, Xavier found Dina on the right as usual. Dina made the run across half the field. Slakteris almost got a foot in to stop the cross but couldn't do much. Slothinson was able to get to the ball first and he tried to kick it away. Unfortunately he just passed it to Power who tapped it into the net. 2-0 Montreal. A bit of a robbery for Dina though.

25th minute
Don't pretend like you didn't know how bad this game was going to be. Just a few minutes later Dina got the assists. Millwall found Dina, Dina then made the run and cross. Predrag dragged ULTIMUS with him and Power tapped it in again. 3-0 Montreal, this is only going to get worse.

35th minute
Once again the action would start from a side rather than the center, this time the left. Mizukana would pass to Clarke. Clarke tried to play in Power but he was too heavily marked so Power passed it to Maeddisen. Tom then passed it to Dina who smashed it in outside the box for 4-0. This whole time mind you, Cairo has had some chances, but none of them managed to do anything. Well at least not yet, things get better (kind of) for Cairo later.

37th minute
So when I said things would get better for Cairo, I didn't mean this. They would still have to suffer a lot to get there. literally 2 minutes later Montreal would score again. A poor long ball by Canders would end in Montreal possession. Montreal had already proven at this point just how good they were in transition. Dina would find Millwall, Millwall would find Aleksandr and Aleksandr would find the back of the net...again...for 5-0...dear god make it stop.

45+3 minute
Montreal decided they wanted to give Cairo as much mercy as farms give to male chicks (DO NOT LOOK THAT UP UNLESS YOU HATE YOURSELF). Montreal would build up from the back, Xavier finding Millwall, Millwall finding Dina and Dina would once again find a cross but it would actually be kicked away by the Cairo defense, only for it to immediately end up in Montreal possession again. They would try the left this time with Mizukana finding Clarke and Clarke finding the space to set up Predrag for a tap in. 6-0, it's Brazil vs Germany all over again.

Second Half:

No substitutions would be made

68th minute
Montreal score a 7th! Into their own net that is. Finally comes the break Cairo needed to save some dignity. It was looking like the Jakarta-Istanbul match from the Academy. It started with a throw in by Herrera to Kenderlin. Kenderlin would send possession back to the defense to find another pocket. ULTIMUS would send it to Snezhevna who would then find Sinclair. Kenderlin was already making the run as his plan was successful. Kenderlin would pass to Herrera, who would pass to Sinclair and he would smash the ball. Xavier would unfortunately find himself in a bad position as the ball would perfectly deflect off of him and beyond Muuno's grasp. 6-1, DIGNITY RESTORED.

85th minute
An another one for Cairo. This time a full well played action with no cheeky deflection. To be completely fair, Cairo had many fantastic chances but they just couldn't finish any of them. The difference in stats wasn't that big when we take a look at the final numbers, but the score tells a different story. But back to the goal. After defending from a Montreal attack, Cairo would stabilize and look for chances in the middle. A few one two passes from Narvez and Slothinson would cause the Montreal line to move to far up. Narvez would find a brilliant long ball over their heads for Delo to run into. Delo would keep calm and trick Muuno into diving too early, then he simply passed it into the net. 6-2 final score.

Player of the match: Dina Skovgaard.
A goal and an assist (really should have been 2). And plenty of other chances created and key passes made. Fantastic performance from the star wing back.

Match to forget: Malachi Shturm
You have to score those man. As the lone striker your team needs to you either rush past the defensive lines or hold up play for your wingers. Shturm could do neither this game.

We come to the end of this very brutal MD5 review. The game was a story of 2 halves, if Cairo were just a bit better at scoring chances, they might have even equalized this insane game. But Montreal showed that they are just as good in defense as they are in attack.

This article was written by Predrag Dobrić and sponsored by Montreal United.

[Hero19]

An exemplary analysis of a great game.

Media Grade 4/5