Montreal MD4 review

[TooDear]

Athenai F.C. vs Montreal United 2-4

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 4 of the minor league. Though the season is over and we know the final results, I will still be covering the games. Hopefully I'll be able to do all of them but I have 14 more to go and at my pace that seems unlikely. Regardless, let's get into this.

Though Montreal were considered favorites heading into this match, Athenai had taken points off them before. Additionally, Montreal has sometimes struggled to break down defensive sides like Athenai, preferring to go blow for blow with aggressive attacking teams like Paris, NSU, Kaapstad and so on. With that being said, Monteral had just gone through a gauntlet of Paris, Krung Thep and NSU. Not to insult Athenai, but most would agree that these three teams are currently better and Montreal was able to beat all of them. As the game got started, all odds were on Montrel to win.

Athenai started their game in a 4-2-3-1. Their team was set up as following: Keeper Satoshi, Center-backs Lorenzo and Schweinsteiger, Full-backs Criminal and Morgenstern, Defensive-midfielders Rivers and Pappapoulos, Wingers Santori and Steele, Attacking-midfielder Kunicki and Striker Panda. On the bench were Still and Kloulechad.

Montreal on the other hand started in a 4-3-3, a formation rarely used in the SSL. They were set up in the following way: Keeper Muuno, Center-backs King and Mizukana, Full-backs Clarke and D.Skovgaard, Defensive-midfielder Millwall, Central-midfielders Maeddisen and A.Skovgaard, Wingers Power and Takahashi while the Striker was Sinclair. On the bench were Dobrić and Xavier.

First Half:

10th minute
Montreal started the game off strong and it showed. Sinclair passed the ball to Takahashi who saw an open and overlapping Dina. An easy pass was followed with lots of open space for Dina to stretch the defense. A great run followed by a better cross. Sinclair would get on top of it to smash it into the net with a vintage finish. The goal looked like it came directly from 80s. 1-0 to Montreal.

13th minute
Not even three full minutes later Montreal would have a free kick. King would take it and simply pass it centrally. The ball would pass around several Montreal players until space in Athenai defense was found. Aleksandr would find Takahashi but he would be brought down by Criminal before he could get a pass or shot. That wasn't an issue as Dina was already running behind him and got on the ball to cross it centrally again, and of course Sinclair would already be there to bag the 2nd of the game. 2-0 Montreal.

31st minute
Montreal would have their already 7th corner of the game. Dina would deliver it long, unusually to their normal strategy of near post corners. The ball would find Maeddisen who would simply lay it off to Sinclair who was outside the box. Sinclair would smash it toward the goal but the ball would hit Kunicki. Unfortunately for Athenai the ball would deflect into their own net, scoring a very unwanted own goal for Kunicki. 3-0 Montreal.

42nd minute
Athenai would finally catch a break by the end of the first half. A good series of passes would find Steele inside the box. Steele would think fast and pass it back to Morgenstern before the Montreal defense could swarm him. Morgenstern would smash it towards the goal and Muuno would make a heroic save. Unfortunately for Montreal, a touch of good luck and some well planned positioning would mean that Santori would be exactly in the angle the ball would deflect towards. Leaving him with an easy tap in toward an empty goal. 3-1 now, one back for Athenai.

Second Half:

No substitutions would be made

74th minute
Despite Montreal creating many chances in the 2nd half, none could materialize a goal. In fact, it would take all the way for the latter part of the game for a first major highlight to happen and it wouldn't be for Montreal. Santori would easily get pass Mizukana on the left. Then he'd pass it to Kunicki who'd make up for his own goal by first touch passing to Panda. Panda had taken the Montreal defense by surprise with the sheer speed of Athenai's counter attack and he would be unmarked. Smashing the ball into the back of the net and leaving King and Muuno helpless as they watched the ball fly pass them. 3-2 game on for Athenai.

91st minute
As a wise man once said, "Techniques are useless in face of overwhelming strength." I don't know why I brought it up as it has nothing to do with this match. What has to do with this game is this final highlight. Clarke would have a long throw on the left side. A quick toss to Power followed by a pass back would find Clarke running into a more central position with the ball. What would follow would be a chance for Athenai actually as Montreal would be dispossessed. Santori would end up passing to Kunicki who'd look to finish their redemption, unfortunately Millwall was on the job. He'd stop the attack and pass it back to Muuno, Muuno would then pass it to King, King back to Clarke with whom this whole action started. Clarke would find Power again and Power would find Aleksandr. He'd then pass it to Sinclair who found himself in the box, only for him to be brought down by Schweinsteiger and a penalty to be given. Given that he was on a hattrick, the team would happily give the ball to Sinclair. He would confidently step up and shoot it past Satoshi who couldn't get to it in time. 4-2 for Montreal.

Player of the match: Dina Skovgaard.
You would be forgiven for thinking that Sinclair would get this award, alas such is the format of written reviews that I can't realistically get into every highlight. To but it simply, Dina had 2 assists and 5 clear cut chances where the lead could have been increased. The reasons Dina's G/A participation wasn't higher was simply bad luck. Otherwise this game could have easily been 6 or even 7 to 2.

Match to forget: Valentin Morgenstern
No specific moment can be shows as a clear large mistake, he simply had a poor game overall. Wasn't an asset to his team in any part of the game and definitely was not the reason Montreal didn't score more.

This wraps up my review of MD4, as I said, I'll try to get them all done even though it's unlikely. I found that focusing on just matches for my team was a lot more fun and it game me a greater opportunity to focus on individual detail when it came to goals rather than doing the whole matchday like I did before. Granted with the 2 new teams coming, that's basically impossible to do on a regular basis. Till I write again, bye bye!

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

[Hero19]

Great analysis of the game.

Media Grade 3/5