McGlynns Journey #7 - Five Star Montreal

[Definia]

  McGlynns Journey #7 - Five Star Montreal 

Previously we looked at the first 5 matchdays of the season and how Barry had been looking at it as such a positive learning experience, managing to finally play some competitive games alongside his brothers and also learning from the veterans of the team. It taken until Matchday 5 for Montreal to finally put positive performances in to a big positive result where they ran out 3-1 winners against Cairo. Who knew that seeing them pick up such a win would kickstart a 5 star run of results for Montreal as they then managed to string together 5 wins in a row that has catapulted them into a star bound trajectory that could possibly see them in a playoff promotion match come the end of the season. Barry couldn't allow himself to get to far ahead but it makes you ponder the possibilities and think... well why not? We have the means and the capabilities, can we not just dare to dream? Imagine the stories that could be told of him and his brothers drafting straight into a team that had such a number of seasons of heartbreak and meandering around the bottom half of Division 2 to then hitting the heights of Division 1.... here he was getting ahead of himself. At this point there are still 4 games to go and at this point it has been proven that anything could happen and never take form for granted. Let's take a look back at the 5 star form of Montreal United.

Matchday 6 came and Montreal were pitched up against league leaders Rova Mpanjaka who had went undefeated so far bagging 5 wins from their first 5 matches so it was going to be a huge task for Montreal. 6 Points only from their first 5 games and they literally just picked up their first win against Cairo in the last matchday they played. However it was not a down and out foregone conclusion since Montreal had actually went unbeaten in their last 3 games, just it's been 2 draws a win. All signs show that they are close to unlocking that winning formula and just have to keep pushing forward and gaining momentum in their form. And after just 30 minutes into the game, Barry McGlynn had the ball at his feet carrying it forward into the Rova penalty box when he was tackled by Cue Jr and the loose ball luckily managed to land straight at Vincent Hayes feet and he hit a first time low shot into the bottom corner of the net and Montreal found themselves up 1-0, this is exactly what they've been hoping to push towards. Competing against any team they face, and here they were leading against the league leaders! It was short lived however as 4 minutes later Cue Jr looked to make up for their mistake and burst forward to the by line and played a short pass into the 6 yard box and Rocket scored to bring Rova back on even terms. Now in the 75th minute, Camelot Darugius had the ball outside the left side of the box, made a high cross to the back post and Wang Zhihao, the HT substitute, headed the ball into the back of the net after beating Schwarte in the air and Montreal after all their hard work found themselves back in the lead 2-1!. Montreal then survived a scare in the 94th minute, a goal by Jack Pow was judged to be offside and his fantastic top corner finish was chopped off allowing Montreal to pick up the win against Rova and their 2nd win on the bounce! A brilliant team performance from Montreal!

Matchday 7 was up next and Montreal were now facing AF Masques Sacres for the 2nd time of the season, drawing 2-2 the first time round on the opening game of the season. Barry saw this as a great opportunity for them to extend their winning form and push themselves even further up the table, a win today against Maques would see them leapfrog their opponents in the league table into 3rd position and sit a single point behind Cairo in 2nd, and that was exactly the target for the game today. It never taken them long either to get themselves off the mark, in the 12th Minute Haye found himself down the byline towards the Masques goal, played a squared pass to McGlynn and then Haye moved slightly more inside the box towards the penalty spot, received the ball back from McGlynn then he hit a low shot with his left foot and ball hit the back of the net and it was 1-0! Barry was buzzing to have played such a perfect one-two pass with his strike partner to set him up for yet another goal. Then just the 5 minutes later, Darugius with the throw in to Munro who passed back to Darugius and he made a high cross the middle of the 6 yard box and McGlynn this time rose up above the defender to header the ball home and all of a sudden Montreal were up 2-0 away from home in 17 minutes against Masques Sacres and the fans and players were in dreamland! Now if you thought that was a crazy few minutes, simply 3 minute later Masques managed to score one back from Brightscales and now it was 2-1 and Masques had managed to find a crack in the road to bring themselves back into this tie. Then again, in the 40th minute, Masques scored a near post header to bring themselves all level at 2-2 for HT and Montreal were in free-fall, they needed to tighten up at the back. I think the gameplan  for the entire game went out the window when they managed to find themselves up by 2 early in the game, so they will need HT to come so they can compose themselves and get their feet back into this match. After 79 minutes a nice bit of teamplay by Montreal allowed them to do just exactly that, they were up 3-2 after a nice through ball from Darugius to Munro meant he was free and could pick out a nice squared pass across the 6 yard box to Vincent Haye who tapped the ball in for his 2nd of the game and the score was now 3-2 with Montreal looking to close out the game. Then 5 minutes later again, McAllister with a corner that was headered back out to Munro then played it back to McAllister who had entered the penalty box from the side and he slotted the ball into the back of the net past the keepers bottom left side. McAllister picked up his first goal of the season after being assisted by his brother Reece Munro!. The game had ended 4-2 and Montreal made a real stamp on the league here by picking up their 3rd win in a row and 5 games unbeaten, pushing themselves into 3rd place, only 1 point behind 2nd placed Cairo and their next 2 games up were against the two bottom placed teams in the division so they gave themselves the perfect opportunity to push on and force their way into 2nd place and possibly even contend with Rova for first.

In Matchday 8 this matchup against Athenai was spoiled to be a good game on paper where Montreal were looking to be on hot form against the lowly bottom of the league, however the match itself was anything but exciting. Montreal had taken another early lead in the 16th minute as Darugius had won the ball just outside his own 18 yard box then played a quick counter pass over the top of the defence, a 40 yard pass that saw Vincent Haye one-on-one with the goalkeeper from 35 yards out. He carried the ball forward and to the right slightly to give himself a better angle against the on-rushing goalkeeper and he chipped the ball past him and they were up 1-0 against Athenai. The rest of the game proved to be quite uneventful with both teams very wasteful of their opportunities. Montreal had 10 shots but only 2 of them troubled the goalkeeper and one was the goal. Athenai just as wasteful had 12 shots and only 3 on target. However, Montreal wouldn't be caring how uneventful it was, as a 1-0 win meant another 3 points... it meant they had now stretched their winning run to 4 and unbeaten run to 6. It also meant that after 8 games, they were sitting in 2nd place with 15 points, 4 behind league leaders Rova and a comfortable 3 points ahead of Cairo in 3rd. they have now put themselves in a very good position for their next match against Seoul FC as they look to solidify their 2nd place position.

Matchday 9 against Seoul FC was going to prove to be one of the most important games of the season so far for Montreal as they would look to keep up the pace with Rova and also do all they can to move farther ahead of 3rd place. Again it would not take long for Montreal to strike as they scored their first again in the 6th minute of the game. A long diagonal ball to Munro on the left side of the box and he squared it again to Haye in the middle who tapped it in from 6 yards. A move that Munro and Haye are beginning to love doing this season as they continue to build a powerful relationship on the park. in the 13th minute this time the roles were reversed, Munro played a long ground pass forward for Haye at the left side of the box, he then cut it right back to Munro who continued on the run he made carrying the ball to the 6 yard box and then he hit it with his left foot and the ball hit the back of the net for the scoreline to double to 2-0 and again Montreal found themselves up 2-0 in the first 20 minutes of a match. Hopefully they keep their composure and not throw it away this time and make it hard for themselves. The game was quite quiet until the 62nd minute when Seouls Shevchenko dispossessed McAllister down the right and then carried the ball forward and played a high cross to the backpost where Van Huntelrooy was waiting and headed the ball home bringing the score to 2-1 and Montreal were going to need to stay focused to see this game out for the remaining 30 minutes. There was no better way to see out the game than to increase their lead by 2 goals when McAllister had the ball in the middle of the park and made a beautiful defence splitting pass through the center of the park to Haye who was now one-on-one with Twinkletoes in the Seoul net, and there was only to be one outcome. The ball hit the back of the net and the score now read 3-1, 20 minutes left to play and Montreal were going to have to look to their game management to finish this game with no more hiccups. And just exactly that, the game finished 3-1 and Montreal now had hit a 5 star run of results... 5 wins on the bounce 7 games undefeated and 4 points clear in 2nd place ahead of 3rd.


Dreamland.... that's where Barry felt he was. He didn't expect this from his debut season in the SSL, they have hit the ground running and the performances just keep coming and coming. But now, of all times, was not the time to start to get complacent. 6 games left in the season and their next 3 were against Cairo, Rova and Masques. These 3 game would look to be the pivotal point of the season for Montreal, Barry had high hopes of picking up at least 2 points from the 3 games, he would be happy with 2 draws of 3 games, but wouldn't scoff at 1 win out of 3 either. He just wanted to keep getting the points on the board, that's all they could do. Let's see how it goes...