Dramatic stoppage-time goals from Chinonzo Ofor and Romel Quioto gave Montreal its first points of the Major League Soccer season in a 3-2 victory over the Philadelphia Union on Saturday night at Olympic Stadium.
Montreal’s (1-3-0) home opener led to Kyoto and O’Fore getting another home run, while Michael Uhre homered for Philadelphia (2-2-0).
Montreal pressing was successful early on and they won the ball up the pitch several times. Less than two minutes into the offensive pressure, Laci Lappalainen caught Mathieu Choinier and his ball was blocked by a handball. It was up to Kyoto to convert the penalty and did so by smashing the ball into the top left corner.
Following the goal, Philadelphia began to push further up the field in search of an equalizer. Montreal spent much of the first half on defense, enjoying two more golden chances through Mason Toye and Quioto.
As the first half drew to a close, the Union began asking questions of Montreal keeper Jonathan Sirois with shots from all angles. The youngster turned them all away, much to the delight of the crowd and held the lead until half-time.
However, Philadelphia would strike back as soon as Montreal started scoring. A pass from Daniel Gasdag at the top of the Montreal penalty area found Uhre, who made no mistake and fired the ball into the bottom left corner.
As Montreal began to reassert itself, it was the squad’s turn to suffer on the counter-attack. Gazdag once again picked out Urhay, playing him across goal to give Philadelphia the lead on the hour mark.
Montreal was allowed to return to the game after Joel Waterman was given his second yellow card for a late challenge on Julian Carranza.
This was the spark Montreal needed as Offor initially conceded but was later called offside by VAR, and Offor equalized only for the goal to be disallowed after a second VAR consultation.
With the Montreal crowd in raptures, the home side pushed for a winner, and they got it when Kyoto Mathieu Chounier’s cross turned in a dramatic winner at the end.
Philadelphia returns to host Orlando City SC on March 25 and uses the week to recover before traveling to Montreal BC and taking on the Vancouver Whitecaps on April 1.